Despite the tenuous connection to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Outsider,” Castle Freak plays like a typical creature feature.

Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton play an estranged couple who inherit an Italian estate. Of course, they’re unaware of the deformed relation imprisoned in the basement. Soon the beast is out and claiming victims. And, of course, suspicion falls on Combs’s character.

You’ve seen this story before, but Combs and Crampton do a great job, and director Stuart Gordon delivers gruesome effects despite the minimal budget.