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.

The Re-Animator (1985)

We can defeat death with the 80’s horror flick, The Re-Animator by horror director Stuart Gordon is a MUST see film for fans of shock horror and dark humor. Based roughly and well adapted by H.P.Lovecraft’s novella “Herbert West–Reanimator." Going beyond what usual horror brings to its audience from the mid-80’s genre, being not so memorable to becoming nostalgic with The Re-Animator opening theme song to over-the-top gore and splatter mixed with humor. The movie re-animates itself decade after decade and still upholds as a classic cult horror film for any fanatic of the horror genre. The movie sees no boundaries and hits you in all the right places. Hailing from the University of Zürich of medicine, Professor Herbert West (Jeffery Combs) has come back to the US to perform more outrageous acts of re-animating corpses into living dead creatures. Professor West, at a new university is secretly conducting experiments with corpses to bring back to life. With some help of his new acquaintance Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and his girlfriend Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton), they attempt new features in the research of death. Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) is their professor and they disagree on how long the brain stays alive. Professor West believes a brain can stay alive after death more than the six to twelve minutes as previously thought.  Soon, Professor West moves in with another student professor to conduct his odd experiments of re-animation with his green “Re-Agent” chemical. This H.P Lovecraft movie adaptation is one of the best and must be seen! The Re-Animator (1985) is available for purchase as of September 4, 2012 in Blu-ray or DVD and available for rental on Amazon Prime.