John Reilly(Jeffrey Combs)has inherited a huge castle from a duchess who, everyday regular, would go into a certain prison chamber to whip and bloody her son. This abuse derives from what her American soldier husband did to her, leaving the duchess for her sister. This adulterous couple bore John who is carrying some personal demons that torment him so. John, who was an alcoholic, was responsible for a car wreck which killed his son and left his daughter with damaged, blinded eyes. His wife, Susan(Barbara Crampton)hates him, but has traveled(with their daughter Rebecca portrayed by Jessica Dollarhide)with him to the castle. I'm guessing that Susan has remained married to John for the sake of their daughter who would be crushed by a divorce. But, what John doesn't understand is that the brutalized man is still down in the prison tomb and now resembles a monster. He is able to free a hand from a shackle when he breaks off his thumb(Ouch!)and remove the door that has closed him in for decades. Able to roam free, the monster(Jonathan Fuller, under a latex suit and heavy make-up)takes a liking to Rebecca, but remains hidden in the 150-room castle often watching the others from behind furniture, sheets, etc. The monster has a massive gash on his mouth and chin which may've resulted to a severe gash from the whip his mother often bludgeoned him with. John really wants to make his marriage work again, but Susan's suffering is too overwhelming for any form of forgiveness..he was driving drunk and because of that their son is dead and daughter blind. When John finds his marriage at the peak of disaster with Susan pretty much stating she wished he had dies in that wreck instead of coming away without a scratch, he heads for the bar and finds a prostitute only eager to take his cash. Drunk and sneaking the prostitute in the castle unbeknown est to his wife and daughter, John realizes after a little graphic foreplay that he is making a mistake and stops. The prostitute, however, doesn't make it out of the castle..the castle freak wants to have a little foreplay. When his advancements are turned away in horror at his grotesqueness, the freak will eat..her! John was the last to see her alive and will face possible murder charges which only grow worse when the freak kills the cook/maid(Elisabeth Kaza)as well.
Really well made horror item during Stuart Gordon's tenure with Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures. Good, creepy setting for the freak to run rampant. One might feel some sympathy for this freak because the only reason he is acting so monstrous is because of decades of torture and abuse. The idea of having that created freak opposite a tormented Jeffrey Combs(..playing the most normal character I can think of to date)dealing with guilt over the trauma he has caused his family gives this a lot of serious clout. One thing missing from this creature feature often seen in most of Stuart Gordon's work is the humorous bits. This is a very serious picture and there's just not much room for laughter. These characters are dying inside..one's a freak on the inside(Combs), the other is on the outside(Fuller). The photography, music, performances are all first-rate..everyone did a commendable job. Despite Gordon's various ways of clothing the freak in darkness, at times he just looks like a man in latex. Still, Gordon does frame him in some gruesome, freakish ways such as blood dripping off his snarling teeth when his face rushes at the screen. But, most of the time Gordon tries keeping as much of the monster hidden as possible(at one point during the film, the freak robes himself with a sheet he stole off of a chair).
Really well made horror item during Stuart Gordon's tenure with Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures. Good, creepy setting for the freak to run rampant. One might feel some sympathy for this freak because the only reason he is acting so monstrous is because of decades of torture and abuse. The idea of having that created freak opposite a tormented Jeffrey Combs(..playing the most normal character I can think of to date)dealing with guilt over the trauma he has caused his family gives this a lot of serious clout. One thing missing from this creature feature often seen in most of Stuart Gordon's work is the humorous bits. This is a very serious picture and there's just not much room for laughter. These characters are dying inside..one's a freak on the inside(Combs), the other is on the outside(Fuller). The photography, music, performances are all first-rate..everyone did a commendable job. Despite Gordon's various ways of clothing the freak in darkness, at times he just looks like a man in latex. Still, Gordon does frame him in some gruesome, freakish ways such as blood dripping off his snarling teeth when his face rushes at the screen. But, most of the time Gordon tries keeping as much of the monster hidden as possible(at one point during the film, the freak robes himself with a sheet he stole off of a chair).