Castle Freak (1995)

Castle Freak is an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation from the short story “The Outsider”, directed by Stuart Gordon  and released by Full Moon Entertainment. The plot involves a family who inherits a 12^th century mansion in Spain. John Reily (Jeffery Combs), Susan Riley (Barbara Crampton), and Rebecca Reily (Jessica Dollarhide), as their blind daughter, move into the 12^th century mansion. The family is still recovering from a drunken driving accident that killed their son and left the daughter blind. John is a recovering alcoholic and is attempting to win back his families trust. While John combats his own demons, there is something living in the basement. This basement creature is a maniac and eats humans if it isn’t chained to the wall. Strange noises occur throughout the house and the Reily family believes that it’s just the old mansion. The creature becomes loose and wreaks havoc on the mansion murdering guests and leaving John as the prime suspect. John later finds out that the creature in the basement is his brother. His mother locked him in the basement due to her embarrassment of his disfigurement and that his father was not her husband’s. The film is an excellent adaptation to the short story and keeps you in your seat the entire time. It has become one of my favorite films from Full Moon Entertainment. Castle Freak was released recently by Full Moon Entertainment on DVD or BluRay, as well as a UK version on BluRay or DVD by 88 Films. It can be purchased through Amazon on either format and is a must own for any horror fan.

Intruder (1989)

Intruder is a horror film directed by an associate of Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and co-written by Lawrence Bender. This film aside from being excellent also has a cameo appearance by Bruce Campbell (Officer Howard), long time B movie master actor along with Ted Raimi (Produce Joe) and Sam Raimi (Randy). Intruder centers on a supermarket closing and its staff will be out of a job the next morning. The staff of the supermarket stays late as shop closes to repacking the stock for a new location. As the staff start to disappear during the night, Jennifer Ross (Elizabeth Cox) begins to think everyone has just packed up and left for their new jobs as she ends up the last person not aware that a maniac is meticulously killing everyone. The story involves the manager Dan Hicks (Bill Roberts) who had a major meltdown because his partner sold the store, and now he’s gone psycho. Dan murders each supermarket staff worker by decapitation, meat hooking, crushing and stabbing. The entire time Jennifer thinks it’s her obsessive boyfriend Craig Peterson (David Byrns) stalking her.  Craig however was trying to warn her of the danger and gets stabbed by Jennifer as she thinks she found the killer. Dan almost got away with everything while talking to the police Craig wounded attacks Dan with his own meat clever. Intruder is a well produced slasher film and well worth the addition to your horror or thriller collection. Originally Intruder was released by Empire Pictures before the company was dissolved by the famous B movie director and producer, Charles Band of Full Moon Entertainment. Intruder is available for purchase on DVD by Full Moon Entertainment or on a BluRay/DVD Combo pack released by Synapse Films.

Lurking Fear (1994)

Produced by Charles Band of Full Moon Entertainment, Lurking Fear is an adaptation film loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story and directed by C. Courtney Joyner. Lurking Fear stars John Martense (Blake Adams), as an ex-con, who has just been released from jail. He returns home to meet a family friend, a mortician, Knaggs (Vincent Shiavelli) to help decipher a map that holds the location of his deceased father’s money from a robbery heist. The map leads John to a graveyard with an abandoned church where he is confronted by Cathryn (Ashley Laurence) who is seeking revenge for her sister’s murder. Cathryn is accompanied by a local doctor Dr. Haggis (Jeffrey Combs) who finds a woman in the abandoned church about to give birth. They are quickly joined by a gang of criminals who was with John’s father during the robbery, looking to retrieve their share of the money. The story takes many twists as they become hostage by the gang of criminals. Unknowingly, the abandon church holds a dark secret.  A group of humanoid creatures lurk below the churches holy grounds and cemetery. They must fight the creatures together, while still looking for John father’s money. With more than two situations ongoing, it’s a fun thrilled action horror. John falls into a pit in the church and discovers what lurks below is connected to a grave in the cemetery and an even darker part to relatives. The creatures are guarding a treasure beneath the catacombs of the church. Released recently by Wizard Video on DVD on Amazon or from Full Moon Direct, Lurking Fear is a must own and see for any fan of Full Moon Entertainment’s or any fan for a well made adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft.

Witchouse (1999)

Witchouse written by Charles Band and directed by David DeCoteau by Full Moon Entertainment, is a great fright fest taking place in Dunwich, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (Ashley KcKinney) invites a unique group of individuals to her secluded mansion for a strange evening and an eventful party. The party individuals include Jack (Matt Raftery), Jennifer (Monica Serene Garnich), Tony (Dave Oren Ward, R.I.P), Brad (Ryan Scott Greene) Maria (Marissa Tait) Scott (Dane Northcutt) Bob (Jason Faunt) and Margaret (Kimberly Pullis). Elizabeth is a descendent of an evil witch Lilith LaFey (Ariauna Albright) who was burned at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials, in which this gathering is held for in retribution of they’re ancestors. Fast forward 300 years to the present time, Elizabeth resurrects her malevolent ancestor during a pagan ceremony to conduct murderous deeds against her party guests as retribution. This same group of party guests happens to be descendants of the towns’ people who burned Lilith at the stake centuries ago. As each party guest has flashbacks of that fatal night, they see the past and what their ancestors did to Lilith. One by one they are killed by Lilith under Elizabeth’s control. This is a campy horror witch themed film done well and unforgettable, with reminisces of another similar classic, Night of the Demons. Witchouse is well written and produced. It’s not one to miss, and definitely one to own. Get your copy today directly from Full Moon Entertainment, Streaming or on DVD from Amazon.