Nightbreed (1990)

Tagline: ‘At last the night has a hero’

UK Running Time: 102 Minutes

Film Quality: 4/5

Gore Content: 3.5/5

Entertainment Value: 4.5/5

Originality: 4.5/5

Introduction

From the imagination of Clive Barker, the English author followed up his highly acclaimed ‘Hellraiser’ with a hugely ambitious adaptation of another of his shorter novels, ‘Cabal’. To say the film has a chequered history is a bit like saying Donald Trump is a bit of a character…its release was delayed, it was recut by studio Morgan Creek against Barker’s wishes, marketed as a slasher film despite its complex plot and ambiguous ‘monsters’ and was a highly expensive, almighty flop. More on its past later but, as cult films go, the history of this film is almost as colourful and interesting as the film itself.

In a nutshell

Boone (Craig Sheffer) has mental health problems and is convinced by his psychiatrist Decker (an incredibly creepy turn by the superb David Cronenberg) that he is in fact a deranged serial killer. They are both aware of Midian, a mythical place “where the monsters go”, and where The Breed reside, Boone seems destined to join them, Decker to destroy them. Therein starts a battle where the line between what is monstrous or evil and what is human or good becomes blurred.

What’s good about it?

Where to start! The sheer scope of Barker’s ambition is astounding. Anyone who has read any of his books will know that he has a startling imagination and it runs riot during a two hour monster-fest that features some of the most incredible looking creatures ever to appear on screen. All of the effects are analogue, all of the make-up is ‘real’ and the effects team do their utmost to bring as many of Barker’s nightmares to life as possible – Peloquin (left) in particular is a character who gave me nightmares way before I saw the film. For the most part they succeed tremendously and, though some of the effects have dated over the years, at the time it was groundbreaking stuff.

Staying with the production side of things, the score by Danny Elfman, who frequents some of the dark and magical worlds imagined by Tim Burton, is right up there with his best work and lends the film the kind of epic feel that Barker was clearly aiming for. The very first thing you see, following the Morgan Creek logo, is some of the incredible monsters, glimpsed through the giant, sweeping lettering of ‘Nightbreed’ accompanied by a grandiose orchestral, choral piece from Elfman suggesting the promise of some kind of Grand Guignol epic. It then tones down to softer, magical, ambient tones against the backdrop of a prophetic tapestry hinting at the dream-like mythology to come.

And what a great mythology it is. Barker has always been fascinated not just by what lies within but what lies just outside. In ‘Hellraiser’ the Cenobites are just the solving a puzzle away, in ‘Candyman’ our antihero can be with us with the gentle utterance of just five words, here they’re literally on the map, on our doorstep. The idea that monsters live amongst us isn’t new but Barker is more interested in giving the monsters a history, personality and motive, a desire to be left alone which manifests itself as a shared goal that lies beyond the torment of mankind which is what separates this from his previous cinematic outings.

What about the bad?

Paradoxically, given my praise of Barker’s imagination and vision, some aspects of his direction lets the film down. It is a bit of a mess of a film that works despite itself. There’s almost a ‘let’s throw enough sugar in the mix and it’ll turn out sweet’ approach to the film that it can come across as overwhelming. It has the feel of a project that ran away from him a bit, although it has to be said that he did a terrific job of making it as entertaining as it is, you sometimes just wish he could have reigned himself in a bit.

Also, there are perhaps TOO many monsters. I wanted to know more about some of them…Lylesberg, Baphomet, the Berserkers get too little screen time and it would have been great to have fleshed them out a little bit. The same goes for some of the human characters who too often come across as stereotypes, the only reason for them being there in the first place to give The Breed a purpose to act the way they do. Eigerman the militant police chief, the insane priest Ashberry – they deliver some good lines but character-wise they’re not very interesting, one dimensional and the colourful Breed don’t need dull characters to make them look interesting!

Any themes?

A couple of very common Barker themes come through loud and clear. The humans are frequently more monstrous than the monsters, murdering, burning villages to the ground, plotting, double-crossing. Also, it is the monstrous actions of the humans that cause The Breed to fulfil their role as monsters and destroy the human characters. Our sympathies lie with The Breed, no doubt about that, and it’s a theme that runs throughout Barker’s work, none more so than in ‘Nightbreed’.

One of The Breed puts it perfectly when she says we envy them…when we dream we can fly, we can breathe underwater, do fantastical things and the Breed are able to do all of that. We can’t understand why they can do that and we fear what we can’t understand…what we fear we destroy.

Release History

This is where it gets REALLY interesting! Few films have as complicated a release as ‘Nightbreed’. Barker’s original cut was more than 150 minutes but Fox asked for close to an hour to be removed. It was eventually cut to 120 minutes (this version was released on VHS in some territories), and then cut further to 102 minutes, the version released in the UK.

This version bore little resemblance to Barker’s original version and was marketed in trailers as a slasher film despite being the antithesis of the sub-genre. The excised footage was considered lost, Barker gave the film up as a bad experience and that was that…we were left with a highly entertaining glimpse of what could have been.

Fast forward more than 20 years and the ‘lost’ footage was found. This footage was edited together with the theatrical cut and various VHS versions to produce what became known as ‘The Cabal Cut’…close to three hours in length it was a mess, due to reshoots some characters died twice, it was an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ edit for the purpose of finding out which elements could be saved and which would remain as deleted scenes. Barker was then able to supervise a ‘Final Cut’ (in the truest sense of the word in this case) which ran for 122 minutes and contained around 40 minutes of new and alternate scenes. The result is a film that makes more sense and gives a lot more depth to the relationship between Boone and his love, Lori, but, bizarrely, doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a hugely entertaining mess…just a mess that more closely represents Barker’s original vision.

The Final Cut still doesn’t have a UK release.

Cultural Impact

The film would certainly be much more marketable now…the theme of monsters as the good guys has really taken off in big budget movies such as the ‘X-Men’ series, Guillermo del Toro’s films and kids films such as the Dragons movies.

There were a fair few movie tie ins including a video game, a book showcasing the outstanding special effects called ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’, the theatrical script was released as part of a ‘making of’ book and Danny Elfman’s soundtrack was recently re-released as a limited edition vinyl. There are also at least two highly successful comic book adaptations in the 90s and more recently in 2015. 

The mythology of Midian has taken on a life of its own in a similar was to Lovecracft’s Cthulhu mythos with a few spin off books and a fan-scribed collection of short stories called ‘Midian Unmade’. The Cabal Cut came about as a result of a massive petition signed by thousands that became known as ‘Occupy Midian’. Of serious interest if it comes to fruition was talk of a TV series in 2014. This hasn’t come to pass yet but Morgan Creek recently sold the rights to most its back catalogue but, intriguingly kept the rights to the ‘Nightbreed’ TV series…watch this space!

Final Thoughts

‘Nightbreed’ is a film that demands to be seen. It’s a flawed masterpiece that is a fine attempt at making an epic horror movie but isn’t really as complex as it appears during viewing. That is probably why it was an almighty flop at the time, there was no demand for this type of film in the late 80s, horror films were on the slide so it’s no surprise it has achieved cult status with its release history and tales of lost footage just adding to that. If you don’t like horror films then this film won’t convert you but if you do and you haven’t seen ‘Nightbreed’ then you really might get a kick out of it.

Memorable Quotes

Decker: “Everyone has a secret face”

Peloquin: “It’s all true…God’s an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow…and Midian is where the monsters live.”

Decker: “Are you saying he’s dead?”

Eigerman: “Not lying down dead my friend, walking around in my fucking cell dead…”

Peloquin: “He’s natural and that means he’s meat…meat for the beast.”

Leroy: “There goes the neighbourhood…..”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Hellboy 2: The Golden Army’, ‘Hellraiser’, ‘Lord of Illusions’, ‘Dust Devil’