Castle Freak is a 1995 American direct-to-video horror film directed by Stuart Gordon. The film stars Jeffrey Combs who portrays John Reilly, an American recovering alcoholic who inherits an Italian castle when a distant relative passes away. John travels to Italy with his estranged wife Susan (Barbara Crampton) and blind daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide). The three plan to stay at the castle, but unbeknownst to them, a freakish monster locked away in the basement of the castle is about to escape and commit a series of murders. The police place John as the prime suspect, leading him to confront his alcoholism, fight the demon and prove himself innocent.
Castle Freak went into production in 1994 after Gordon noticed art for the film in producer Charles Band‘s office. Gordon agreed to develop the film on Band’s condition that the film take place in a castle, contain a freak, and would be shot on a very low budget. Gordon obliged as he would be able to cast who he wanted in the film and would get final cut. The script was loosely inspired by the short story The Outsider by H. P. Lovecraft and has some elements of another short story The Rats in the Walls of the same author. The film was shot in 1994 in a castle owned by Band in Italy, where Gordon had previously shot The Pit and the Pendulum. The film was shot during a period when Full Moon Pictures was having financial issues and was released to little press on home video in November 1995.