I love Jeffrey Combs. I came to know him first from his recurring role as Weyoun on 'Star Trek: Deep Space 9,' and since then I've been delighted to see anything that I can in which he stars. He's a fantastic actor, and the folks he shares the screen with, including in 'Castle Freak,' are themselves fine performers.
His name is what drew me to watch this. I'm genuinely unsure if it was worth my time.
I find myself a bit surprised to glance at reviews and see 'Castle Freak' praised for being scary, creepy, disturbing--I didn't think it was any of these things. "Tight storyline?" I'm not convinced that the script wasn't stolen from the set of a soap opera and adapted into a horror film. I mean, it's a narrative that's put together well, but at almost every turn, if you remove the horror elements, you could well be watching daytime television.
Putting that aside, I still have a hard time forming an opinion on this movie, because I'm so distracted by the overload of tropes it employs. Animal death. Alcoholic father. Ableist parents doing what they think is best, but never listening to their daughter. The "freak" is above all simply a person who has endured a lifetime of great cruelty. Exploitation of women in the film. Incompetent cops (ACAB). Redemption through self-sacrifice.
Excise the tropes, refine the soap opera script, and there's very little left. The cast and acting is great. The gore and effects are okay, if a bit excessive at points. But that's about it.
Am I too jaded to enjoy horror movies?
I'm giving 'Castle Freak' 5 stars out of 10 because IMDb won't let me slap down a big ol' question mark instead. I didn't NOT like it, but the narrative elements are all so banal at best, hackneyed at worst, that the casts' performances can only just keep the film afloat.
His name is what drew me to watch this. I'm genuinely unsure if it was worth my time.
I find myself a bit surprised to glance at reviews and see 'Castle Freak' praised for being scary, creepy, disturbing--I didn't think it was any of these things. "Tight storyline?" I'm not convinced that the script wasn't stolen from the set of a soap opera and adapted into a horror film. I mean, it's a narrative that's put together well, but at almost every turn, if you remove the horror elements, you could well be watching daytime television.
Putting that aside, I still have a hard time forming an opinion on this movie, because I'm so distracted by the overload of tropes it employs. Animal death. Alcoholic father. Ableist parents doing what they think is best, but never listening to their daughter. The "freak" is above all simply a person who has endured a lifetime of great cruelty. Exploitation of women in the film. Incompetent cops (ACAB). Redemption through self-sacrifice.
Excise the tropes, refine the soap opera script, and there's very little left. The cast and acting is great. The gore and effects are okay, if a bit excessive at points. But that's about it.
Am I too jaded to enjoy horror movies?
I'm giving 'Castle Freak' 5 stars out of 10 because IMDb won't let me slap down a big ol' question mark instead. I didn't NOT like it, but the narrative elements are all so banal at best, hackneyed at worst, that the casts' performances can only just keep the film afloat.