Nightbreed is one example where advancements in special effects would now make Cabal, the book it is based on, easier to realize on screen and could finally do that story full justice. Also, probably for reasons of pacing, and to reach a wider audience, this movie censors and omits scenes from Cabal, that book it is based on. Not only has the movie been edited to sometimes omit the most intense scenes, but sometimes the story is just basically changed for reasons unclear. I wont knock Barker's screenplay or directing for this, but I will say that a lot could be done to remake this title and have it be really different than this version of the story. Maybe it could even develop into a series if we are lucky. There are so many aspects that could be changed that a remake could still end up feeling as definitive or more definitive than this version.

Nightbreed, boiled down to its essence is a horror-fantasy about a group of monsters and mutants who take refuge under an isolated cemetery. There they are threatened by a mass murderer (David Cronenberg) who wants to see them all destroyed. There's a love story of course but its promptly overshadowed by the garish monster effects.Now by no means is Nightbreed a conventionally good film. While the makeup, set-designs and effects are very good, the mood and the overall story pushes a lot of boundaries and makes for some intriguing social commentary. We are meant to feel sympathy for the nightbreed despite their outward appearance and seemingly satanic customs. Indeed the quasi-religious imagery and constant gross-out horror makes the finished product indigestible to mainstream audiences.The subtext itself is even more subversive when you consider the homosexual undercurrents. Homosexuality as a theme is cloaked under the auspice of uncontrollable bloodlust. Therefore the monsters themselves are metaphors seen as perverse and evil when in reality they are only trying to chisel out a living on the out-skits of society.Now its not quite clear but it seems the nightbreed have a psychic link to those with violent fantasies like the lead Boone (Craig Sheffer) and later Ashberry (Malcolm Smith). Those who cannot be nightbreed such as Boone's lover (Ann Bobby) and the old man at the service station have no violent tendencies whatsoever, despite their desire to join the nightbreed i.e. to not be sexually repressed.The relationship shared by Cronenberg's character Decker and Boone is the most intriguing contextually speaking. They are meant to show unrealized sexual tension and self-loathing on the part of Decker who is also Boone's psychiatrist. While Boone becomes aware of his bloodlust by fighting on behalf of the nightbreed i.e. constructive political violence, Decker cloaks his under a mask lying to himself and the world. Only when his mask is on can he indulge in his most unsavory fantasies.I could be grasping at straws here. After all such themes could be a guise for xenophobia, racism or any social fear of the "other". And while those are arguments to be made its worthwhile to note that Clive Barker came out during the early nineties and his novels and short stories almost always have strong sexual themes. Nightbreed could then be considered almost as a coming out party.Ultimately I'd recommend this film, not only for its challenging social commentary and audacious set and makeup design but also because so many horror films nowadays lack such ambitions. And even if those ambitions aren't cranked up to eleven as they should be you have to admit Nightbreed is a gay ol' time.

Clive Barker is one of my favorite authors because of how he mixes both horror and fantasy and really creates an elaborate world or mythos to them. Out of a lot of the live action adaptations of his work, this one believe it or not is my favorite one and it's also one of my favorite films of all time.I really like the story which is a wild but cool idea, in a way the story is kinda an "X-Men" tale only instead of mutants endangered by racism and prejudice it's monsters (ok, it's kinda the same difference). I like how these monsters are not portrayed as mindless, two dimensional brutes but actually as living people. We see that these are a species that have always lived amongst us in secret and aren't looking for trouble but unfortunately trouble found them.The music is excellent as it's by one of my favorite composers Danny Elfman whom in the 90's was really on a hot streak at that time, I love the theme which is one of my favorite themes of all time. The make up work is just fantastic, this is probably the finest practical make up work I've ever seen in any movie and a prime example showing that old fashioned is still the best way to go. The Nightbreed are all colorful and unique they all have different features about them. I even like the underground world Midan they've constructed, from all the passages and everything and the culture that exists it really made me wish to know more about it.There is even some action mainly the final battle at the end which is one of my favorite battles of all time. It's not exactly wall to wall but that's because it's kinda realistic as we are betting on the monsters to survive and overcome the supremacists that are trying to destroy them. I like how each of the monsters beat their opponents in unique ways, one favorite kill of mine is a I dare say a sexy female Nightbreed woman (forgot her name sorry) whom is kinda a humanoid porcupine as she produces quills which then stab one of the supremacists in multiple places, I thought that was cool.The characters are really solid if not the deepest. Arron Boone/Cabal (Craig Sheffer) is a decent/solid protagonist, his character is sympathetic because he's on the run from a crime he didn't commit but worst of all has no memory of his origins. Once he discovers them he it makes him struggle all the more as he is finding balance with both his human and monster identity.Dr. Philip K. Decker played surprising well by David Cronenberg whom is one of my favorite movie directors and turns out to be a capable actor; I can't help but wonder what this film could of been if he directed it. Anyway he's a solid antagonist as he is a psycho that is highly intelligent and uses that as his guise for his insanity, which makes sense with most serial killers. He's really creepy he's armed with giant knives and has that really creepy mask almost as creepy as the Michael Myers mask. But also we see he want to hunt and kill the Nightbreed not out of racial prejudice but out of jealousy and envy because this is a human monster that desires to be a monster which I'll admit is something different.It's true there is a lot of them and we don't know them in great depth but each of them have a particular personality which gives you a good feel for them and even makes them all the more sympathetic. Which is part of why I love this film because usually in a horror film we are sympathetic toward the human protagonist that is being hunted and chased by the monster. Here it's the other way around as we see it's the monsters that are being hunted and chased.I really like how this film deals with the issue of racism and prejudice. We see that the real monsters are the supremacists that hunt them which makes sense because Supremisists are the greatest human monsters in history from the Nazis to the Ku Klux Klan whose sole desire is to wipe out any living creature that is different by their false and corrupt standards; pretty much putting up more tombstones for humanity and their own conscious.Overall, this is a great horror film that any fan of Clive Barker and horror should check out. Real monsters aren't always hidden in the dark but are in plan sight where you least see them.Rating: 4 stars

In 2011 I saw The Theatrical Cut of Nightbreed. I thought it was rushed, confused and incoherent but really captivating. It's a visual fest with marvelous sets and creatures. Despite all the studio meddling, it's still Clive Barker. The film stirred my imagination. I wanted more and I did some serious research, reading upon on the film to find out what went wrong. I eventually read the novella, CABAL (which the movie is based on) as well as the comic book adaptation and two drafts of the script... so I could see Clive Barker's original vision for the film. In 2012 I even got see The Cabal Cut, a composite cut of VHS workprint footage and the Warner Bros. DVD.In 2014, Clive Barker's The Director's Cut was released. What do I think of it? Well, it's certainly superior to the Theatrical Cut in every way. The film now has better pacing and a proper story. A love story, in fact. The relationship between the two main characters are fleshed out. The original ending (which makes more sense than the ending for the Theatrical Cut) has been restored. However, it's far from perfect. There is still significant footage (most of which I saw in The Cabal Cut) that wasn't restored restored for this cut. But it's also kinda difficult to meet my expectations and fully please me since I had already formed the uncut, extended cut of Nightbreed in my head long before I had seen The Director's Cut. But this is the version I will revisit in the future. It is closer to Clive Barker's original vision...As a horror fan, one of the things I love about Nightbreed is the serial killer-slasher vs. supernatural creatures aspect of the film. It's two sub-genres within horror colliding on screen. That's never been done before (or since.) It's like if Hannibal Lecter met Dracula. Clive Barker loves the monsters movies of the 1930s... Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks and Island of Lost Souls... Nightbreed is an homage to those classic movies. But Barker has said that he HATES the slasher films that dominated the 1980s. So, why is there a slasher character in this story? Well, Dr. Decker is the main villain of the story and obviously suppose to represent the slasher genre (that had dried up by 1989). It's interesting how Barker depicts the character of Dr. Decker. Barker doesn't glamorize him. He is the complete antithesis to such horror icons like the tragic sympathetic Jason and the darkly comical Freddy. People root for these characters. However, you cannot root for Decker... he is a vile, manipulative and horrible human being who enjoys slaughtering children, not dumb horny teenagers. The opening murder scene in Nightbreed is scarier than anything in Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street. At the end of the film, *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* Boone triumphs over and kills Dr. Decker.*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*This is Clive Barker saying "Goodbye vapid juvenile slashers of the 80s, now let's bring back the imaginative monster genre for the 90s."However, the studio hated everything about the film, with the expectation of Dr. Decker. They thought there was franchise potential with this slasher character, because of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, and forced Clive Barker to recut and reshoot Nightbreed; trimming down the monsters, the main love story and adding in new sequences resolving around Dr. Decker to make him a larger character for future sequels. Barker did the best he could to make it all feel organic to the film he had made. But so much of Nightbreed ended up on the cutting room floor and the focus of the story shifted onto the slasher character; it wasn't Clive Barker's vision anymore. Nightbreed bombed at the box office and seemingly made no impact on the genre. The early 90s was a dead zone for horror. In 1996 Hollywood made the smug self-aware slasher film Scream which, instead of Nighbreed, became THE horror film of the 90s. It celebrated slasher films and sadly regenerated the sub- genre...But Nightbreed isn't really a horror film. It's dark, romantic fantasy film with elements of horror and action. It's a unique, ambitious, multilayered allegory for intolerance. It draws parallels to racism, homophobia and the Holocaust. Nightbreed is about the celebrating the dark and weird, and I find that really wonderful, being an outcast myself. It's one of my favorite films...