Movies

'Castle Freak' Remake Coming From Full Moon And Fangoria

castle freak remake
By Chris Evangelista/

Castle Freak, a somewhat obscure 1990s horror film from Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon, will live again. A Castle Freak remake is in the works from Full Moon and Fangoria, and the cast is now in place to start shooting next month. The new Castle Freak will once again focus on a hideous creature lurking within the bowels of a castle, but this new version will add even more Lovecraftian elements to the proceedings.

Back in the '90s, producer Charles Band had a poster made up for a then non-existent movie called Castle Freak. Stuart Gordon, director of the H.P. Lovecraft inspired Re-Animator, was intrigued with the title, at which point Band handed him the project and told him he could do whatever he wanted with it – as long as it had both a castle and a freak in it.

Gordon's solution was to very loosely adapt the H.P. Lovecraft short story The Outsider into a horror film reuniting Re-Animator stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. And yes, it had a castle and a freak in it. And now, it's getting a remake. Full Moon, the folks behind the original, and the horror afficiandos at Fangoria are producing the new Castle Freak, which will star (per Bloody Disgusting) Clair Catherine, Jake Horowitz (The Vast of Night), Chris Galust (Give Me Liberty), Kika Magalhães (The Eyes of My Mother), Emily Sweet (Syn), Elisha Pratt (True Detective), and Omar Brunson.

The new Castle Freak "follows recently-blinded Rebecca, her boyfriend John, and their friends as they travel to Albania to manage Rebecca's sudden inheritance of a castle from her long-lost-mother. Once there, they learn that Rebecca's family harbored dark secrets with potentially cosmic implications. As mysterious happenings and horrific murders begin to occur, Rebecca must unravel her family's own mysterious history before she too falls prey to... the Castle Freak."

This premise is a bit of a twist on the original film, which followed a man and wife and their blind teenage daughter as they moved into a 12th-century castle. The mention of "cosmic implications" in remake synopsis indicates heavier Lovecraftian themes will be used in the remake than the original, which is intriguing.

Tate Steinsiek is directing the movie from a script by Kathy Charles, while legendary horror composer Fabio Frizzi is handling the music. Dallas Sonnier and Amanda Presmyk are producing for Fangoria, along with Charles Band, Justin Martell & Matt Manjourides, and Barbara Crampton, star of the original film.

Castle Freak begins production next month.

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