Video Scripts: Puppet Master, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Castle Freak (1995)

Cody shares a few more videos he wrote for JoBlo and Arrow in the Head.

I have been writing news articles and film reviews for ArrowintheHead.com for several years, and for the last couple years I have also been writing scripts for videos that are released through the site's YouTube channel JoBlo Horror Originals. Recently I started writing video scripts for the JoBlo Originals YouTube channel as well. I have previously shared the videos I wrote that covered 

- Frailty, Dead Calm, and Shocker 

- 100 Feet, Freddy vs. Jason, and Pin 

- Night Fare, Poltergeist III, and Hardware 

- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, and It's Alive

- Dark City, Mute Witness, and The Wraith

- Army of Darkness, Cannibal Holocaust, and Basket Case 

- Halloween timeline, The Pit, and Body Parts

- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and The Thing (2011)

- The Monster Squad, Trick or Treat, and Maximum Overdrive

- A Fish Called Wanda, Night of the Creeps, and Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI

- Race with the Devil, Speed, and Romancing the Stone

- Maniac Cop 3, WarGames, and Night of the Living Dead (1990)

- The Rock, Witchboard, and Friday the 13th Part 2

- Intruder, Saving Private Ryan, and Big Trouble in Little China

- The First Power, Psycho (1960), and Hot Fuzz

- Cat People (1982), Bride of Re-Animator, and Con Air

- Moulin Rouge (2001), The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985), and The Stuff

- Children of the Corn (1984), Bone Tomahawk, and Fight Club

- The Departed, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, and Ginger Snaps

- Silver Bullet, Last Action Hero, and Children of Men

- FleshEater, Christmas Vacation, and Lethal Weapon

- The Thing (1982), Monkey Shines, and Friday the 13th (1980)

- P2, Lethal Weapon 2, and Frozen (2010)

- Lethal Weapon 3, The Blob (1988), and Lethal Weapon 4

- The Fast and the Furious, Dance of the Dead, and The Rage: Carrie 2

Three more videos that I have written the scripts for can be seen below, one for the JoBlo Originals channel and two for JoBlo Horror Originals.

For the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series, I wrote about the first Full Moon production, director David Schmoeller's 1989 classic Puppet Master:

Puppet Master script: 

Counting all sequels, prequels, spin-offs, crossovers, and even a Fangoria reboot, there are over a dozen entries in the Puppet Master franchise. Which can make the idea of diving into it rather intimidating. Especially since some of the films don’t have a stellar reputation. But while the series has ups and downs, there are some great entries. And its legion of living puppets – which can be villains or heroes, depending on who’s pulling their strings – are characters you have to see in action. So we’re urging you to give at least some of these films a chance. Starting with the very first Puppet Master… which may be The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Charles Band founded his production and distribution company Empire International Pictures in 1983. That company brought the world several classics – like Trancers, Re-Animator, and Robot Jox – but had a sadly short run before collapsing due to financial issues. Band lost Empire to the bank, but he didn’t let that slow him down. He quickly put together a new company, Full Moon (which has been known as Full Moon Entertainment, Full Moon Studios, Full Moon Productions, Full Moon Pictures, and Full Moon Features over the years). And since his Empire releases had proven to be more successful on home video than in theatres, he decided to cut theatres out of the equation. Full Moon would be a direct-to-video company… and he managed to secure a video distribution deal with a major studio. Paramount Pictures.

Empire had launched with a movie called The Dungeonmaster. An anthology film inspired by the likes of Tron and Dungeons and Dragons. Band really liked the title of that movie, and wanted to get Full Moon started with another film that had Master in its name. And that’s what led him to the basic concept of Puppet Master. Band has demonstrated a strong fondness for tiny terrors over the course of his career, producing many films about killer dolls and small monsters. Two popular examples are Ghoulies and Troll. So it makes a lot of sense that he chose to launch Full Moon with a killer puppet movie. Once he had the title Puppet Master in mind, he commissioned a poster that featured some potential puppet designs. Then he presented the title and poster art to writer and special effects artist Kenneth J. Hall, hiring him to flesh the idea out into a screenplay.

Hall’s script centered on a coven of witches and warlocks who learn that a long-lost associate of theirs has died. So they steal his coffin, take it to an abandoned hotel, and torment his girlfriend in an effort to find out what he has been up to. And they find out when his army of killer puppets starts knocking them off one-by-one. With a script in place, Band got in contact with director David Schmoeller, who he had previously worked with on the films Tourist Trap, Crawlspace, and Catacombs. Schmoeller agreed to direct Puppet Master under the condition that he be able to rewrite the script. Which he did on every project he directed.

The deal was made and Schmoeller reworked the story, using the pen name Joseph G. Collodi. The coven of witches became a group of people who all have some sort of psychic power. They were gathered together by a man named Neil Gallagher, who discovered that ancient Egyptians had found a way to give life to inanimate figures. The method was kept secret, revealed to only a select few over the centuries. Through their psychic abilities, they were able to find out that the last person who knew the secret was a puppet master. Andre Toulon. Who killed himself at the Bodega Bay Inn back in 1939 to keep the secret from falling into the hands of the Nazis. The group of psychics drifted apart while Gallagher continued trying to unearth the secret of life Toulon took to his grave. Years later, they all start having visions of Gallagher. So they convene at the Bodega Bay Inn to find that Gallagher has died. Leaving behind a young widow, who owns the old inn. The psychics settle in to try to figure out what Gallagher has been doing, and what he has learned about Toulon since they last spoke. Soon it becomes obvious that Gallagher did indeed learn how to bring inanimate figures to life. And he has set five living puppets loose in the inn. Puppets that have been ordered to kill his psychic friends. And yes, Gallagher’s knowledge of how to bring inanimate objects to life has also ensured that he will have eternal life himself. He’s not really dead after all.

To bring his version of the story to the screen, Schmoeller assembled a cast that includes Jimmie F. Skaggs as the villainous Neil Gallagher. Paul Le Mat as Alex Whitaker, who dreams of things to come. Irene Miracle as fortuneteller Dana Hadley. Matt Roe as Frank Forrester, who can pick up on people’s thoughts and dreams. Kathryn O’Reilly as Frank’s partner Carissa Stamford, who can tell you the history of any object she touches. Especially if it has a sexual history. Robin Frates as Gallagher’s widow Megan. And Mews Small as ill-fated housekeeper Theresa. Genre icon Barbara Crampton also makes a quick cameo as a customer at Dana’s carnival fortuneteller booth.

Puppet master Andre Toulon only appears in the film’s opening sequence, where he interacts with his puppets before committing suicide. Band was able to fill this role with Oscar nominee William Hickey, who earned his nomination for Prizzi’s Honor just a few years earlier. It took Hickey one day to complete his work on Puppet Master. In fact, he was only on set for a total of six hours.

When it was announced that Band would be producing a film called Puppet Master, some questioned if the idea was too similar to another movie he had made. The Empire production Dolls, directed by Re-Animator’s Stuart Gordon. Band told Fangoria magazine, “They are similar in the sense that they are about small, inanimate objects coming to life, but the stories are extremely different. I wanted to do a picture that did two things that Dolls didn’t. One, I wanted to have dolls, in this case puppets, that were actually villainous, dolls that were created by a twisted mind, dolls that you won’t be able to see anywhere else. Secondly, Puppet Master was inspired by an episode of the Karen Black TV movie Trilogy of Terror, where a Zuni fetish doll terrorizes her. It made quite an impression on me and on many other people who saw it. I wanted to capture a bit of that relentless terror. Dolls was a different kind of movie and didn’t delve into that. Puppet Master will.”

The special effects artist tasked with creating the puppets and bringing them to life was David Allen. Allen worked on many Charles Band productions, as well as movies like The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Willow, and Ghostbusters II. He earned an Oscar nomination for his work on Young Sherlock Holmes. Stop-motion animation was a specialty of his, which allowed Puppet Master to show off some incredible moments of the puppets moving on their own.

Some of the puppets featured on the concept poster and in Hall’s script didn’t make it into the film. While most of the excised puppets would turn up in sequels, the first movie features five killer puppets. They are Tunneler, who was designed to resemble fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The observant Jester, whose face spins to show different expressions. Leech Woman, who somehow kills her victims by simply regurgitating leeches onto them. The burly, small-headed Pinhead. Who Fangoria seemed to think would be the star of the show. And the puppet who did become the most popular of the bunch, Blade. Who has a knife for one hand and a hook for the other. Blade’s face was designed to look like a skull, but Schmoeller requested that he also resemble someone he had worked with before. The famously difficult actor Klaus Kinski, who had caused Schmoeller a lot of grief when they were making Crawlspace together.

Allen and his crew did mind-blowing work with the puppets. Which was necessary, since the puppets were the selling point. And when Puppet Master reached video store shelves on October 12, 1989, the movie-renting public showed they were very interested in seeing these little killers in action. The film was a huge success, selling out its first release. Band has said he made millions of dollars from Puppet Master. And while positive reviews would become increasingly rare as the franchise went on, this one got some solid write-ups. Including one from the legendary Joe Bob Briggs, who gave Puppet Master four stars. The highest number of stars you can get from Joe Bob. He said it was one of the best movies of 1989.

Band’s ambitious dream for Full Moon was that it would become the Marvel Comics of the ‘90s. And he would be the company’s Stan Lee figure. As he described in his memoir Confessions of a Puppetmaster, “Full Moon would be more than a studio. More than a brand. We’d be a universe unto itself: a vast, creepy, sci-fi-and-horror universe of interlocking franchises. Fans could either dip in for occasional stories or immerse themselves in the world. Crossovers. Multiple sequels. A video magazine at the end of each VHS tape, where I could talk to fans and let them look behind the scenes.” Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was established, Band was using Marvel as his inspiration for the Full Moon Universe. And he has been able to keep that universe going well beyond the ‘90s. The budgets are lower and the home video market has changed drastically. But Full Moon endures, and it’s all built on the foundation of the successful release of Puppet Master.

The film has an off-kilter atmosphere, with the score composed by Richard Band perfectly matching its strangeness. The music in this has become iconic for Full Moon fans. The actors do well with the material they had to work with. But you won’t find many viewers who think Puppet Master has great characters. These aren’t people you get to know a whole lot about. And you certainly don’t come to care about them. Most of them aren’t very likeable. Frank is a sleaze, Carissa’s usually lost in her sexual visions. Dana is quirky and kind of fun, especially when she’s hanging out with her stuffed dog Leroy. Alex is a bland hero, but somehow so bland that it comes off as charming. The housekeeper Theresa is only around to be weirded out and then murdered. Neil Gallagher’s widow Megan barely registers as a character. And Gallagher himself is a total creep. Jimmie F. Skaggs doesn’t have a lot of screen time as the villain, but it’s enough time to make you hate his character.

But of course, what we’re really here to see are the puppets. And the movie doesn’t disappoint when it’s time to show them off. It does spend a while building up the mystery of what’s going on at the inn. The psychics not being able to figure out what Gallagher has been up to. But we know the puppets are present. Stalking the halls. Ready to kill. And once they start attacking, the movie is a fun ride of violence and oddness.

The puppets David Allen and his crew created are incredibly cool. They don’t speak, and yet the puppeteers were able to give them personality anyway. They each have their own special abilities. With his burly arms, Pinhead has the strength to carry weapons like fireplace pokers. And packs enough of a punch to daze a person. Tunneler has a spinning drill on his head. It’s clear to see why Blade became a genre icon, with his sharp limbs and skull-faced Kinski looks. Jester has never killed anyone in the entire franchise, but he’s important to have around. His expressions convey emotions for the whole group. It’s Leech Woman who’s the least popular of the puppets. Her ability to kill people just by puking leeches onto them never made much sense. And it’s really gross. This is a puppet that actually made more sense in the original script. The book Puppet Master Complete by Nat Brehmer revealed that Leech Woman didn’t puke leeches in Kenneth J. Hall’s draft of the script. Instead, she used a metal forked tongue to drain the blood from her victims. And since she was described as having a clear glass body, we would have been able to see her filling up with blood. But she was reworked into a leech puker. And turned out to be so unpopular, it was ordered that she be killed off in Puppet Master II. But that didn’t stop her from returning in more movies down the line.

The best scenes in Puppet Master are the ones that let us watch the puppets do their thing. Violently removing human characters from the film. As the story nears its conclusion and the details of Gallagher’s schemes are revealed, we also learn something important about the puppets. These are not evil beings. Their actions depend entirely on the puppet master they’re serving. As we see in the opening sequence with William Hickey, Andre Toulon was a kind old man. The puppets were good when they were under his control. But then Neil Gallagher became the puppet master and ordered them to kill his former associates. The puppets can be made to do bad things, but they don’t appreciate being fooled. When they realize Gallagher doesn’t care about them, they turn against their new puppet master. And Gallagher gets his comeuppance.

Puppet Master is a fun, creepy, well-paced film that introduces an awesome group of little killers. We get to watch them rack up a body count, and then it all wraps up in under ninety minutes. A perfect running time for this particular movie, but it also leaves you wanting to see more. Thirty years and multiple Puppet Master movies later, Full Moon fans still haven’t seen enough of these puppets. So seek out a copy of the first film and give it a chance. Meet Andre Toulon’s puppets… and you might want to continue hanging out with them through all of the follow-ups.

For the non-horror Revisited series, I continued my journey through the Fast and Furious franchise with a look at director John Singleton's 2 Fast 2 Furious: 

2 Fast 2 Furious script: 

No Vin Diesel? No problem. Paul Walker goes on a solo adventure in the first sequel to The Fast and the Furious. Miami sunshine, neon nights, a dangerous drug runner, Eva Mendes, and two new characters who would have prominent roles in future sequels: all of these elements collide in a follow-up that has the unforgettable title 2 Fast 2 Furious. And it’s time for it to be Revisited.

SET-UP: The Fast and the Furious was released in June of 2001. Made on a budget of thirty-eight million dollars, the street racing action movie earned more than two hundred and six million dollars at the global box office. Its home studio Universal wanted to cash in on that success as quickly as possible, aiming to get a sequel ready to reach theatres in June of 2003. But there was an obstacle to overcome. Vin Diesel – who played racer and DVD player thief Dominic Toretto in the first movie – was against the idea of a sequel. He thought The Fast and the Furious should be left as a standalone classic. That didn’t stop the studio from trying to include Diesel in their sequel plans, though. While he and The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen went off to make the spy movie xXx, Universal and producer Neal H. Moritz commissioned multiple scripts for the Furious follow-up. Gary Scott Thompson, who co-wrote the first film, and newcomers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were tasked with coming up with two ideas: one that would involve Dominic Toretto, and one that would focus solely on Brian O’Conner, the undercover cop, played by Paul Walker, who befriended Dom in the first movie.

xXx was released in August of 2002 and the Fast and Furious sequel was going to film that fall. Diesel and Cohen both could have come back. But Diesel stood firm on his decision not to make the movie. The actor has said that he turned down the project because he didn’t like the script. He was quoted as saying, “I guess I’m of the old mind-set that sequels should be more a continuation of a story than a rehash of a story.” But Walker heard a different reason. He told the New York Times, “They just couldn’t make the deal with Vin. It was my understanding he wanted to come back but wanted half the studio.” Rumor has it that Universal offered Diesel, who had just received a ten million dollar payday for xXx, twenty to twenty-five million to play Dom again. Much more than the two-point-five million he got the first time. But when Diesel asked for even more, they chose to let him walk away. It didn’t look like he needed The Fast and the Furious anyway. He was working on building a franchise around his Riddick character from Pitch Black and xXx was intended to be a major franchise as well. The future was bright, even without Dominic Toretto in it. So Diesel moved on – and since he wasn’t coming back, Cohen also opted out.

Moving ahead with the Brian O’Conner script, Universal and Moritz quickly found Diesel and Cohen’s replacements. Singer-slash-model Tyrese Gibson had recently gotten positive attention for his performance in the coming-of-age film Baby Boy. Which was written and directed by John Singleton, whose previous credits included Boyz n the Hood and the Shaft reboot. The project then known as The Fast and the Furious 2 would reunite them. Singleton was hired to direct the film, with Tyrese signed on to co-star.

Thompson, Brandt, and Haas crafted a story that turned Brian O’Conner from an undercover Los Angeles lawman into a fugitive from the law. Since Brian let Dom go at the end of the first film, he’s now facing an arrest warrant for obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting a criminal. When we catch up with him in the sequel, he has left L.A. behind and now lives in a houseboat behind an auto shop in Miami. Earning money by competing in complex street races organized by the owner of the auto shop. These aren’t the straightforward quarter mile races Brian and Dom competed in. One of these races might go around corners, through neighborhoods, and over a raised drawbridge. After we see Brian compete in and win a race, the law catches up with him. Customs Agent Markham, played by James Remar, and FBI Agent Bilkins, Thom Barry reprising his role from the first movie, have a deal for him. They’re looking to bust drug runner Carter Verone, played by Cole Hauser. The problem is, they have never been able to catch Verone and his ill-gotten money in the same place at the same time. Customs has placed an undercover agent inside Verone’s compound: Monica Fuentes, played by Eva Mendes. Since Verone and Monica have clearly gotten intimate during the year she has spent undercover, there’s some worry that she has fallen under his spell. Sort of like Brian got too emotionally involved with Dom. But the audience is given little reason to ever doubt her. She warms up to Brian very quickly. Monica handles travel and logistics for Verone, and he’s looking for drivers who will be able to transport some money for him soon. Markham and Bilkins tell Brian his criminal record will be wiped out if he infiltrates Verone’s organization as one of those drivers. He agrees – but won’t do the job with the inexperienced agent they wanted to pair him with. He’ll choose his own partner.

That’s when Tyrese enters the picture as Brian’s childhood friend Roman Pearce. Who was recently released from prison, having been busted for car theft. Roman is not a fan of the authorities and is none too happy that his pal Brian became a cop. But while he and Brian do some fighting and bickering, Roman agrees to do this Verone job with him. Because it will wipe out his criminal record as well.

So, aside from Walker as Brian and Barry as Bilkins, we have an entirely new cast of characters in this sequel. Everyone Brian and Dom hung out with in the first movie was left behind. That was a decision that didn’t sit too well with Jordana Brewster, who played Dom’s sister and Brian’s love interest Mia in the previous film. But it’s the direction Universal chose to go in. The only other character they considered bringing back was street racer Edwin, played by rapper Ja Rule in the first film. In the screenplay written by Brandt and Haas, Edwin was supposed to be the auto shop owner and race organizer Brian hangs out with. The character, who had just been a cameo role previously, was supposed to be a prominent player in this sequel. Ja Rule was paid fifteen grand for his appearance in The Fast and the Furious. For this one, his pay would have increased to five hundred thousand. But a deal couldn’t be made, and Singleton felt ignored when he met with him. Ultimately, Ja Rule decided to follow Vin Diesel’s lead and turn down the offer. He told MTV, “Me and Vin talked after he turned it down. He hollered at me ’cause they still wanted me to do the film and they bumped up my role as a starring role and everything. And you know, we talked about it. I just felt it wasn’t the best move for me as far as what I want to do in Hollywood right now. I’m really trying to do this acting thing very seriously. And you know, sometimes every move is not the right move.” Besides, at the time he seemed to think he would be joining Diesel in the Riddick franchise. That didn’t happen, and for The Fast and the Furious 2 the Edwin character was replaced by a new character. Tej Parker, played by rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges. Ludacris was excited to take part in the film – and the deal worked out very well for him, as Tej would be brought back for most of the future sequels.

Further building up the supporting cast, Singleton chose Devon Aoki to play street racer Suki. Like Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez in the first movie, Aoki didn’t have a driver’s license when she was cast in this film, even though it would require her to do some driving. Mark Boone Junior makes a memorable appearance as a crooked cop who’s associated with Verone. Mo Gallini and Roberto Sanchez are Verone’s henchmen Enrique and Roberto. MC Jin plays Tej’s mechanic Jimmy. And John Cenatiempo and Eric Etebari play a pair of drivers Brian and Roman score classic muscle cars from.

REVIEW: Even with Shaft on his resumé, a Fast and Furious sequel was an unexpected choice for Singleton to direct. And he said he took the job exactly because it was something people wouldn’t expect from him. He was down for the challenge of making the first PG-13 movie of his career. And of making a movie that would be cool enough and fun enough for the audience that it could lead to more sequels. He was really just out to have a good time making this one. As he said on his audio commentary, “If you could get paid to be in Florida and hang out with Paul Walker and Tyrese and Eva Mendes, wouldn’t you do it?” He created a fun atmosphere on the set, swimming and fishing between camera set-ups, encouraging the actors to improv. In an effort to make the movie feel spontaneous, they would change up dialogue at a moment’s notice and rewrite it on the fly. While doing this, they kept one objective in mind: Singleton wanted to have something that would make the audience chuckle in every scene.

The fun everyone was having while working on the movie is still felt in the finished film. 2 Fast 2 Furious is just a fast-paced blast. It has a lot more action than its predecessor, with the bare minimum of plot carrying us from car race sequence to car chase sequence. There are plenty of vehicular smash-ups and displays of old school stuntwork. When Brian and Roman are speeding down the highway, racing other drivers or being chased by the police, it brings to mind the classic car movie days. It all builds up to a car ramping stunt that’s reminiscent of The Dukes of Hazzard. And, following Cohen’s work on the first film, when there’s a street race Singleton allows the film to become quite stylized. When figuring out the look and style of the movie, he drew inspiration from an interesting mixture of sources: Japanese anime, the Speed Racer cartoon, the Gran Turismo video game, Westerns, and Top Gun. He knew he was trying to appeal to a new generation of movie-goers here. He needed to make something that would be enjoyable for viewers who grew up on music videos, animation, and video games.

Singleton and cinematographer Matthew F. Leonetti delivered a film that is quite pleasant to look at while it speeds along. Many daylight scenes take place in lovely, sun-soaked locations. Often filled with vibrant colors. Night scenes go heavy on the colorful lighting and neon. They even had a technical consultant on set who was considered an expert in shooting neon on film to make sure they had the best looking neon around.

When we’re not being dazzled by the visuals and the action, we also get to enjoy the hilarious bromance between Brian and Roman. They start out on shaky ground. They even wrestle around in the dirt during their first scene together. But by the end of the film they’ve fully come around to being great friends again. And there’s no way to talk about 2 Fast 2 Furious without addressing this: you know that Quentin Tarantino monologue about the homoeroticism of Top Gun? Well, this movie ranks up there with Top Gun as one of the most unintentionally homoerotic action movies ever made. Eva Mendes’s character Monica is meant to be Brian’s love interest of sorts. There’s at least enough chemistry there to get Verone jealous. But there’s a lot more heat in Brian and Roman’s interactions than in Brian’s scenes with Monica. There are moments when Brian and Roman are bickering, getting in each other’s faces, where it wouldn’t have been surprising to see them start making out. JoBlo.com’s Jason Adams has described 2 Fast 2 Furious as a homoerotic epic, and that’s one of the most entertaining things about it.

While we watch him exchange dialogue with others and make his way through intense situations, Brian seems cooler than he did in the previous movie. Singleton certainly thought Walker was cool, comparing him to Steve McQueen. This is even in the movie, where people refer to Brian by the name of McQueen’s most popular character: Bullitt.

The movie also has what may be the most legitimately threatening villain of the entire franchise. There’s a darkness to Cole Hauser’s Carter Verone. Who lives in a mansion that was once actually owned by Sylvester Stallone. In a movie that’s light-hearted most of the time, Verone is dangerous. The scene that best demonstrates what Verone is capable of is when he tortures the detective played by Mark Boone Junior. He places a rat on the man’s stomach, then puts a metal bucket over the rat and starts heating it with a blowtorch. The idea being that when the rat gets too hot, it will start gnawing into the man’s gut to escape the heat. Apparently this is a real torture tactic the writers were told about by a Green Beret. It makes for an effective scene, and a memorably dark moment in the franchise.

LEGACY/NOW: In January of 2003, the website for the sequel to The Fast and the Furious went live. And that’s when the world found out it was going to have one of the most ridiculous titles ever. And therefore one of the best titles ever. 2 Fast 2 Furious was going to hit the big screen that June, just like Universal had always wanted.

As you would expect from a movie with two in the title twice, the budget for this one was doubled, boosting it up to seventy-six million. And when it reached theatres, it made slightly more than the previous movie did at the box office. Domestically, it fell short of The Fast and the Furious. The first movie had earned just over one hundred and forty-four million, but this one topped out at one hundred and twenty-seven. It was the international numbers that greatly improved. The first movie couldn’t quite crack sixty-two million. 2 Fast 2 Furious made over one hundred and nine million internationally. Bringing its total to two hundred and thirty-six million, about thirty million more than its predecessor.

Universal had another hit. 2 Fast 2 Furious had the fourth highest June opening weekend in history. It was the fifteenth highest grossing film of the year in the United States and sixteenth worldwide. The critical response was largely negative, but the CinemaScore from audiences gave it an A minus. When it was time for the film to reach home video, the DVD was packed with special features, including a six minute short film. The Turbo Charged Prelude, directed by music video helmer Philip Atwell from a script by future The Voice producer Keith Dinielli. This short tells the story of Brian’s journey from L.A. to Miami without dialogue. Showing him avoiding cops, competing in street races, and catching a ride from Minka Kelly.

2 Fast 2 Furious had proven that only Paul Walker was needed to make a successful Fast and Furious movie. It looked like this was the direction the franchise was going to take from now on, and Walker was totally on board to come back for more solo sequels. But Universal took an unexpected swerve on the way to the third movie. There would be no Walker in that one. We would be introduced to a whole new set of characters. Most of them teenagers, drifting their cars through Tokyo. The only connection to the previous films would be through a last minute cameo… But that’s a story to be told in the next episode of Revisited.

And for the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series, I returned to Full Moon territory to write about director Stuart Gordon's 1995 H.P. Lovecraft-inspired film Castle Freak: 

Castle Freak script:

Stuart Gordon directed some of the best, most popular H.P. Lovecraft adaptations ever made, starting with the 1985 classic Re-Animator. A decade after making that movie, he returned to Lovecraft to tell a much darker, even nastier story. The story of a hideous man who has lived an awful life of confinement and torture. And when he escapes, a bloodbath ensues. It’s the story of a man known as the Castle Freak – and it’s The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Stuart Gordon and producer Charles Band established their working relationship during the filming of Re-Animator. The project benefited from the production facilities of Band’s company Empire Pictures, and Empire was the distributor. There are some who argue that Band didn’t have any impact on how the film turned out. He was just responsible for releasing it. But Re-Animator wouldn’t have been exactly what it was if not for his influence. One week into filming, he had the cinematographer fired and replaced by one of his frequent collaborators. Band also picked the artists that provided the memorable special effects. His brother Richard provided the film with its Psycho-esque score. And it has been said that their father Albert made notes on the editing process as an hour of subplots were whittled out of the running time. If it weren’t for the Bands, Re-Animator would have looked and sounded very different.

Re-Animator was a success for Empire, and Gordon was clearly appreciative of Charles Band’s contributions. They kept working together. At Empire, they made From Beyond – which was another Lovecraft movie – Dolls, and Robot Jox. When Band started another company, Full Moon, Gordon’s The Pit and the Pendulum was among their earliest productions. Band often comes up with titles and has poster art made to match that title. Then he tasks writers and directors with making a movie to go along with it. While visiting Band’s office one day, Gordon noticed a poster with the title Castle Freak on it. The artwork showed a woman whipping a deformed man who was chained to a wall. Gordon asked Band what the story behind that poster was and Band simply replied, “Well, there’s a castle and there’s a freak.” There wasn’t a writer attached to the project yet, so if Gordon was interested, he could make Castle Freak himself. (And you can watch it HERE.) He could tell whatever story he wanted to, just as long as it had a castle and a freak in it. Gordon jumped at the opportunity.

To craft a story to go with the title Castle Freak, Gordon teamed up with Dennis Paoli. Who had written Re-Animator, From Beyond, and The Pit and the Pendulum. They decided to turn to Lovecraft source material again, drawing inspiration from a story called The Outsider. That one is very short and simple, told from the perspective of a man who has been trapped in a castle for as long as he can remember. Finally escaping, he comes across a party… and the people there flee from him in terror. He realizes why when he spots his own monstrous appearance in a mirror. So that gives the set-up of a hideous man escaping from imprisonment in a castle. People being frightened of him when they see him. And a scene where he sees himself in a mirror. Everything else in the script came from the minds of Gordon and Paoli. And, according to Fangoria magazine, some of the story was also based on a real incident that took place in Europe.

The film centers on an American family, the Reillys. John, his wife Susan, and their teenage daughter Rebecca. John unexpectedly inherits a castle in Italy from a Duchess he didn’t know he was related to. So he takes his wife and daughter to check the place out while making plans to sell it. Soon they come to suspect that there’s someone in the castle with them, other than the housekeeper. The viewer knows for sure that there is, because we saw the Duchess whipping a man she has chained up in a cell in the castle. Far from the other living spaces. She dropped dead from the exertion of this particular whipping session. That man, the Castle Freak, has been locked in his cell without food since she died. He’s hungry… and he’s lonely.

We’ll eventually come to find out that the Castle Freak is the Duchess’s son Giorgio. Her husband abandoned the family when Giorgio was a child, going off to America with the Duchess’s sister. The Duchess told the world that Giorgio died soon after. But she actually locked him in a cell. Whipping, mutilating, and torturing him for the heartbreak and humiliation his father had caused her. Giorgio has been chained up in that cell for over forty years. But when the Reillys move in, he escapes from his shackles by breaking and gnawing off his thumb. His life would have been a lot better if he had thought to do that forty years ago. But hindsight is twenty-twenty. Emerging from his cell, he takes an obsessive interest in Rebecca. Of course, she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Which is a very good thing, since the Castle Freak happens to be her uncle. Yes, John is the son of the Duchess’s sister and her ex-husband. He was completely unaware of his parents’ sordid history. And definitely didn’t know he had a half-brother chained up in a castle in Italy.

Giorgio brings plenty of horror with him when he escapes from his cell. He does some terrible things. But the scenes of the Reillys interacting aren’t very pleasant either. That’s because John is a recovering alcoholic. Not long ago, he was driving under the influence with his children in the car: Rebecca and her younger brother J.J. And when the car crashed, Rebecca was blinded and J.J. was killed. Susan can’t forgive John for what happened. She clearly can’t stand being around him anymore… but she also hasn’t taken the step of leaving him. And Rebecca doesn’t want her to. She knows her father is struggling. He needs their help. But all John and Susan seem to do is have intense arguments.

It’s a story that allows for strong dramatic scenes and repulsive scenes of gore. The makings of a solid horror movie. Gordon cast his Re-Animator and From Beyond stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton as John and Susan. Relative newcomer Jessica Dollarhide was cast as Rebecca. Her biggest role – and to date, the last screen acting role she has ever had. Helen Stirling makes a brief appearance as the Duchess. Elisabeth Kaza is the housekeeper who knows the family history. Massimo Sarchielli is her lawyer brother. Luca Zingaretti plays a local police officer. Raffaella Offidani plays a prostitute who has a disturbing run-in with Giorgio. And as the Castle Freak himself, Gordon cast Jonathan Fuller, who he had known since his theater days, before he started directing films.

To play Giorgio, Fuller had to spend six hours in the makeup chair for every day he filmed. John Vulich and his Optic Nerve effects team put full body appliances on Fuller to turn him into his tortured character… And while he had to endure that, he wasn’t the only cast member who had an uncomfortable time. Castle Freak has a very different tone and style than Gordon’s previous Lovecraft adaptations. It’s darker, nastier. That difference was definitely felt by Combs and Crampton. They had said that “More Is Not Enough” was Gordon’s motto on the earlier films. He always wanted more blood and more slime, for things to go further over-the-top. But for this one, he wanted it to be more down-to-earth. There was sort of a documentary feel to his approach. He wanted realistic performances and relationships.

As Crampton told Fangoria magazine, “Castle Freak preys on human weaknesses in a crude, realistic way.” During the Video Zone making of documentary, Combs said, “Sometimes when there is humor to be had in scripts, Stuart has a way of keeping the set kind of light. Joking, laying back and making everybody feel real comfortable. That wasn’t really the case on this film. It was much more serious.” Combs seemed to be especially tormented by the mindset of the character he was playing. He couldn’t settle down and have a good time on set. He told Fangoria, “I can never really release myself from the terrible things my character feels guilty about.”

Shot on a budget of five hundred thousand dollars, Castle Freak was filmed in Italy during the summer of 1994. At a castle that Charles Band actually owned at the time. A castle that served as a filming location for several of his productions, including Gordon’s own The Pit and the Pendulum. Despite Castle Freak’s discomforting subject matter, filming went rather smoothly. Even though the last day was a twenty-two hour scramble to vacate the castle before a large group of Band’s family and friends moved in for a visit. The real trouble arose in post-production, as that’s when Full Moon’s distribution deal with Paramount Pictures fell apart.

Paramount was deeply involved with the workings of Full Moon during the years of their deal, which started in 1989. Ten to twenty people had a say in every decision. Band had to meet with marketing, PR, and distribution people multiple times a month. But he had gone into production on Castle Freak without telling Paramount about it. He had promised Gordon final cut and that the movie could be unrated like Re-Animator. Gordon was hoping for a theatrical run… although even Combs doubted that the movie would be accepted by many, if any, theatres. But the road to get Castle Freak into the world was bumpier than even Band expected. Viacom had merged with Blockbuster and purchased Paramount for ten billion dollars. The executives Band worked with were replaced. And the new regime at Paramount wasn’t interested in Full Moon. The company was behind on film deliveries, there were money problems, and what the hell was Castle Freak? Band and Paramount parted ways, with Band getting to keep the Full Moon name and Castle Freak. Which still needed to complete post-production. Since Full Moon was running into financial issues, the American actors hadn’t been paid the over-time they were due. Fuller revealed in the pages of Fangoria that those actors refused to come in and do additional dialogue recording unless they received their back pay. Months went by with the actors and Full Moon at a standoff. Then the dialogue recording was finally done when Gordon got the actors to agree to a payment plan. Fuller also heard that another producer on the film still owed the Italian cast members between fifty and seventy-five percent of their pay. Hopefully that money was handed out once Castle Freak was released straight-to-video in November of 1995. Gordon did get his unrated cut, and there’s an R-rated cut that’s about 54 seconds shorter.

Castle Freak wasn’t as well-received as Re-Animator and From Beyond were… But it was never going to be. A movie this gross and troubling couldn’t be embraced by a wide audience. It did gather the cult following that it strongly deserved. And when movie host Joe Bob Briggs got a new show on Shudder in 2018, Castle Freak was among the first movies shown on The Last Drive-In. With special guest Barbara Crampton stopping by to talk about it.

Before going into production on Castle Freak, Gordon showed the cast and crew the 1963 film The Haunting. An example of the sort of dark, creepy atmosphere he wanted to capture for their movie. They were successful at that – and there are times when Castle Freak plays like a haunted house movie. Locals believe the castle is haunted by the spirit of Giorgio, who they were told died when he was five. John connects with that idea… and when he sees a picture of young Giorgio, he breaks down. Because he looks just like the son he lost, J.J. That plays into the strongest element of the film: the performances of the cast members and the dramatic story Gordon and Paoli wrote for the characters. This film has more emotional depth than you would ever expect from something called Castle Freak, and the actors did an incredible job of bringing their high-strung characters to life.

The twist to this haunted house movie is, of course, that Giorgio is still alive. Roaming the castle. And he’s very dangerous. As the characters walk around the castle’s dark rooms and hallways, we’re not afraid something supernatural is going to happen. We’re worried the Freak is going to come lunging out of the shadows and brutalize them. And yet we also feel sympathy for the Freak, because it’s not his fault that he’s this way. The real monster in this situation is the Duchess.

Giorgio’s mother even went so far as to castrate him during his decades of torture. Which is an important thing to keep in mind when we see him get his mangled hands on a female. After watching John get frisky with a prostitute he brought back to the castle, the Freak captures the woman. He tries to copy what he saw John do with her. But he can’t have sex, and he doesn’t understand that you’re not supposed to actually bite someone’s nipple off. There’s a famous moment when we see the Freak with his face buried between the prostitute’s legs… And if you don’t understand what he’s doing there, Joe Bob explained it well on the Castle Freak episode of The Last Drive-In.

Castle Freak is a movie that disturbs and disgusts in equal measure. It’s not a movie to put on when you’re looking for feel-good entertainment. But if you don’t mind wading through depression and gore for 90 minutes, it’s well worth checking out. It’s one of the strongest films on Gordon’s impressive résumé… and it’s a great showcase for the skills of its cast.

Gordon thought he had lucked into a franchise with this one. He thought there could be Castle Freak sequels, that Giorgio could join Freddy and Jason as a genre icon. That wasn’t to be. While Gordon would go on to tell more Lovecraft stories – Dagon and Dreams in the Witch-House – he never did make a Castle Freak 2. But the Freak did eventually come back, in a way. In 2020, Crampton returned to the concept to produce a remake of Castle Freak. Or, as she described it, a reimagining, as that film took a very different approach to the material and dug deeper into Lovecraftian mythology. Given that she chose to go back to Castle Freak after so many years, it’s clear that the story really stuck with her. And if you watch it, it will get under your skin and stick with you, too.

More video scripts have been written, so another batch of videos will be shared here on Life Between Frames eventually. In the meantime, keep an eye on JoBlo Horror Originals and JoBlo Originals!