Nightbreed Theatrical Cut: a Short Review

Director: Clive Barker

Starring: Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, and David Cronenberg

Original Release Date: February 16th 1990

If you are well versed in the insane genre that is horror I’m sure you’ve heard the name Clive Barker. The man is an author, painter and sometimes director. He has given us one of the most iconic horror franchises such as Hellraiser and Candyman and has created one of the most memorable and iconic faces in horror, Pinhead and the Cenobites.

I’ll admit I’m not a big Barker fan. It’s not that I don’t like him, I’ve only seen  few movies on his work and read only half of one of his books ( Mister B. Gone). I’ll admit that the first two Hellraiser films are amazing horror movies (sequels not that much) and Midnight Meat train was a huge surprise, but what I didn’t know was that Clive Barker directed a movie back in the 90’s. A movie based on one of his novels that was supposed to be the beginning of a supposed franchise. The studio unfortunately had their way with the final cut and what audiences got was a jumbled mess that shouldn’t have even been thrown into theatres, I’m talking about the now cult classic Nightbreed. Two versions of the movie currently exist to own, the theatrical cut and the Directors Cut which hit shelves last October. I’m going to review both films, and since this is my first foray into Barker’s strange film and I was pretty excited.

Nightbreed tells us the unfortunate story of Aaron Boone, a young man living in Calgary who is convinced by his psychiatrist Dr. Decker that he is responsible but a string of murders in the area. Unfortunately for Boone the real murderer is Decker himself, who's trying to pin his killings on his susceptible patient. The police eventually catch up to Boone and the results are not that pretty as Boone is gunned down. Boone awakens in the mysterious world of Midian a world that monsters call home.

Nightbreed has the makings of a strong movie, the creature designs are amazing and highly original and the soundtrack by Danny Elfman is amazing. Clive Barker really didn’t have any luck when it came to this movie, apparently most of the vision that he had intended to show audiences were destroyed by studio interference. This is such a shame because I can see an amazing movie underneath Nightbreed’s skin, it wants to rip out of the screen and roar loud and proudly, instead the movie hardly makes any sense at all.

I understand this had become a huge cult hit but the movie is a muddled incoherent mess. I understand there’s the main conflict between Boone and Decker, but the movie likes to throw in some plot points that seem to have mattered in the original cut of the film but for whatever reason were all trimmed down. I’ve heard that Clive Barker was forced to cut many scenes out in order for the studio to produce it. It always makes me sad to see a studio not fully trust their directors, some of the most infamous cases are David Lynch’s Dune and David Finchers directorial debut, Alien 3. I found that many scenes seem to just flow in a very strange way, it seemed that there was some soul missing from the movie. I couldn’t tell you any other characters name other than Boone and Decker, even the highly creative monsters seem to muddle together by the end of the movie. Also, who was the priest? I assume this character was used to set up a sequel but the way the movie handles his character hardly warrant’s anything. Plot threads also start up at their own convenience, like the scene near the very end of the movie where one of the Nightbreed talk about some prophecy. This is something that’s never mentioned in the movie at all, and by this point there was about 10 minutes left in the movie.

Craig Sheffer is pretty dull as Boone. Sure the David Boreanaz lookalike has a good hero look but I literally did not care for his character. I understand there was some connection between Boone and his forgettable girlfriend but the movie doesn’t give you any reason to give a crap about the two nor their plight. It’s not a good sign when you care very little for the protagonist of a movie, now I’ve talked about disliking characters like Iron man, but at least he’s funny. Boone is a highly unwatchable hero who risk’s an entire race’s existence over some doe eyed girl.

Decker is the only interesting character in this movie and is perhaps the most iconic. I have a strong feeling that the design for Decker was a huge inspiration for Scarecrow in Batman Begins. I think what makes Decker so awesome is that he’s played by one of my favourite directors, David Cronenberg. I know directors sometime play roles in movies but  usually its a small cameo type role. Cronenberg is the chief villain of the movie and he’s fantastic. Sure some of his lines are kind of stiff but it makes his “button eye” murder scenes all the more chilling. However I don’t understand how he says he’s been destined to kill the Nightbreed, I’m just going to chalk that up to being another misstep in the editing process.

Danny Elfman’s score is pretty awesome, back in the 80’s and 90’s he was everywhere. I think some of his best work actually came out of the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s his Beetlejuice and Batman theme’s are awesome and the score in Nightbreed is a major highpoint. It adds the dark fantasy feel that the movie strives for and adds tension in all the right scenes.

There’s a lot to love in Nightbreed but there is more to hate. The theatrical cut seems to be incoherent with hardly any good character development at all, I can’t see how this movie is so highly acclaimed by horror fans. The monster makeup and Decker himself save this movie from itself, I just hope the Directors Cut is just as good.

I give the theatrical cut of Nightbreed a

6/10