- Directed by Stuart Gordon
- Written by Stuart Gordon, H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli
- Stars Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jonathan Fuller
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7a0100v14c
- Buy it: https://amzn.to/3EWGAcT
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s loosely based on a Lovecraft short story, different enough to be interesting. The cast does a nice job with it, and the setting is great in a real castle. It’s decently made and moves well, with oodles of practical gore effects. We’d call it quite good.
Spoilery Synopsis
An old woman cuts up her unappetizing food. She then crosses the courtyard to the big castle and walks down to the dungeon. She opens the cell door and whips the screaming creature inside. After, she slides the plate of food inside and walks away. The whipping took a lot out of her, and she staggered back to the house, where she dies from an apparent heart attack. Credits roll.
John Reilly, Susan, and Rebecca drive to the castle the family just inherited. It’s seven hundred years old and has the rats to prove it. Mr. Giannetti is the local man who shows them around; he will be in charge of liquidating the assets and selling the place. Agnese is the housekeeper, and she seems eager for them to sell and go away.
John and Susan are having some marital issues. Rebecca, the daughter, is blind and can hear them arguing. We get a flashback to a drunken John causing a traffic accident that blinded Rebecca and killed their son, JJ. Susan hasn’t forgiven him for it.
That night, John wakes up to hear wailing from the basement and thinks it might be JJ. He finds a huge wine cellar, and he cuts his hand on a broken bottle. Agnese talks about the Duchess’s son, Georgio, who died when he was five years old. The Duchess fired all the servants and didn’t leave the castle for the next 42 years. Everyone says the old Duchess was crazy, and they say that even today you can hear Giorgio crying at night.
In the morning, John and Rebecca go through the rooms to do an inventory. They find a nursery. He also finds a big bloody whip under the bed. Rebecca finds the Duchess’s old cat and follows it downstairs to the cell where the creature lives. The creature eats the cat, but being blind she doesn’t see anything. She thinks there’s someone else in the castle, but her parents don’t believe her.
Meanwhile, downstairs the creature breaks free. It smashes a mirror, and everyone hears that. That night, the creature comes into Rebecca’s bedroom and gives her a good scare. John finally starts to search and soon finds the dungeon where the creature had been locked up. He also finds some tombs with a photo of little Giorgio, who looks just like his dead JJ.
John tells Susan about the photo, but it’s gone when he shows her. This results in an argument about him killing their son. Soon after, John starts drinking again. He goes to the bar in town and brings a hooker home with him to raid their wine cellar. The creature watches as they make out, and he likes it. As the prostitute tries to find her way out, the creature follows her and has his way with her as well.
In the morning, the policeman comes to the door, looking for the girl, who was last seen with John. Meanwhile, the girl awakens, chained up in the dungeon with the creature. She tries to flirt with him, but he doesn’t have a tongue or penis.
John talks to the lawyer, Giannetti, who gets a call from Agnese; she’s found the hooker’s handbag. It doesn’t look good for John. Giannetti wants to raise his fee in order to make it all go away. Giannett explains that John’s father and the Duchess got together back in the day; if Giorgio had lived, they would be brothers.
Back at the castle, Agnese finds the missing Sylvana, dead, half alive and partly chewed up. The monster then beats the old housekeeper to death.
After hearing about John and the hooker, Susan packs the car to leave town. They are stopped by the police on the way out; they aren’t allowed to leave. By the time they all track down John, he’s opened up Giorgio’s tomb and found it empty. John has it all figured out, but by this point, no one believes him. Suddenly, they find the two women’s bodies in the next room, and that goes really badly for John. The policeman was dating the hooker and the lawyer was the housekeeper’s sister.
They take John away and leave to officers to watch Susan and the castle overnight. One of the policemen soon dies, and then so does the other a few minutes later. Giorgio sneaks in and helps Rebecca undress, and then he grabs her and carries her off. Susan grabs a knife and follows them.
In town, John knocks out the cop and breaks loose.
The creature, Giorgio, soon figures out that Rebecca can’t see him and takes off his mask; he is a mess. He starts biting her just as Susan comes in. “Take me!” she shouts as she starts to undress. The creature goes for her now, and she stabs him in the back. The two women run upstairs as Giorgio screams and chases them with the whip.
They all make it up to the roof, in the rain, as John catches up with all of them. He gets up on the loose tiles and lures Giorgio to follow him. They fight, but John doesn’t finish him off. Giorgio goes berserk with his chain and John is out. No- John grabs the chain, connects it to his own wrist then jumps off the roof, killing them both.
Brian’s Commentary
This one is loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft story “The Outsider.” Very loosely based.
The creature effects are very good, the plot moves along pretty quickly, although it’s nothing especially innovative. It’s a fine example of mid-90’s Full Moon Horror.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was kind of surprised how much I enjoyed this one. Though I should have known with Jeffrey Combs in it, it would be good. It’s a fine specimen of 90s horror, with gore and effects better than I expected. I’d recommend giving this one a watch if you haven’t seen it.
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