Nightbreed

Plot synopsis:
A young man named Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) is plagued by dreams of a city called Midian, a place where monsters can go to be forgiven and accepted. As a means of coping with these recurring nightmares and at the request of his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby), Boone is seeing psychotherapist Dr. Phillip K. Decker (David Cronenberg), who convinces Boone that he has committed a series of gruesome murders. In reality, Decker is a serial killer who dons a grotesque mask and has been murdering several families, all whom he sees as disgusting "breeders". Decker attempts to pin the blame for his killing spree on Boone. He gives Boone a bottle of lithium (actually LSD) and twenty four hours to turn himself in. Boone wanders the streets in a hallucinogenic haze. He is hit by a truck and taken to a hospital.In the hospital, Boone overhears the drug-addled cries of Narcisse (Hugh Ross), who is waiting for the monsters to take him to Midian. Narcisse, led to believe Boone is a messenger from Midian sent to test him, tells Boone the way, before tearing the skin from his face with a pair of razors, in order to show his "true face". Boone escapes the hospital and makes his way to Midian, an entire city standing under a massive graveyard. Boone encounters two supernatural creatures named Kinski (Nicholas Vince) and Peloquin (Oliver Parker) who inhabit the city. Kinski says they should take him below but Peloquin states that whereas they are "Nightbreed", Boone is a "natural" and thinks he should die. Boone pleas that he is a murderer and hence belongs with the monsters, but Peloquin says he can smell innocence and confirms that Boone is innocent. Peloquin bites Boone on the shoulder intending to devour him, but Boone manages to escape and leaves the graveyard, only to run into an entire squad of police officers as Decker tries to get Boone to surrender. Boone is then gunned down by the police. At the morgue, Boone comes back to life due to Peloquin's bite becoming a Nightbreed. He makes his way back to Midian where Narcisse has also returned to. Boone is schooled in the laws of Midian and is inducted into Midian's society by Dirk Lylesburg (Doug Bradley), the leader of the Nightbreed. Boone is then made to touch the blood of Baphomet (the deity of Midian).Lori, seeking to understand why Boone left her, resolves to investigate Midian for herself. She befriends a woman named Sheryl Anne (Debora Weston) and drives out to the cemetery. She wanders into the cemetery, leaving Sheryl Anne waiting at the car. She finds a dying creature out in the sunlight and at the pleading request of a Nightbreed woman named Rachel (Catherine Chevalier), picks it up and takes it into the shadows, where it transforms into a little girl who happens to be Rachel's daughter Babette. Lori asks after Boone, only to be rebuffed by Lylesburg, who assures her that Boone is now Nightbreed, and hence no longer part of her world. Lori tries to make her way into Midian but is scared off by Peloquin. As she leaves the cemetery, she is greeted by the sight of Sheryl Anne's dead body and her kille, who reveals himself as Decker. He tries to kill Lori in an attempt to bring Boone out of hiding. Decker chases Lori back into the cemetery where he knocks Lori unconscious. Before he can kill her however, Boone makes his presence known. Decker stabs him only to learn that Boone cannot be killed due to him having been transformed into a Nightbreed. Decker manages to escape and Boone takes Lori into Midian, where she regains consciousness deep inside the city. Lori is told of the history of Midian by Rachel: the monsters of lore were peaceful beings, hunted to near extinction by frightened and superstitious humans. Boone and Lori are then banished from Midian by Lylesburg. Meanwhile, Decker interrogates a local mechanic who once wanted to join the Nightbreed and learns how they can die. He then murders the residents of the hotel where Boone and Lori are staying. Boone finds the murder scene. Unable to control his thirst for blood, Boone begins to drink. The police find him and take him into custody. At Decker's urging, the local police and militia led by Police Captain Eigerman (Charles Haid) form up a small army to attack Midian. They release a drunken priest named Ashberry (Malcolm Smith) to serve them as God's servant in the battle. Lori, Rachel, and Narcisse race to the jail to release Boone. Lori shows Boone that she loves him even as a "monster". The four head back to Midian where Boone convinces the scared Nightbreed to fight back.During the battle, Ashberry is horrified to learn that there are women and children among the Nightbreed and tries to stop the attack, but is roughly beaten down by Eigerman. Ashberry then finds the statue of Baphomet. He drops his cross and Bible and moves forward to swear allegiance, but is splashed and severely burned by the blood of Baphomet and transformed. The Nightbreed manages to fight back, but Boone learns from Lylesburg that Baphomet is going to destroy all of Midian. He tells Lylesburg to release the Berserkers, a monstrous, feral breed that were imprisoned due to their sheer insanity. Lylesburg attempts to open the cages but is killed leaving Boone to release them. The Beserkers attack the humans furiously, turning the tide of the battle as the humans flee in fear. Boone and Decker then face each other in the burning wreckage of Midian. The two fight and Boone kills him. Boone then goes to Baphomet (Bernard Henry), who says that he has caused the end of Midian, but also that this was foretold. Baphomet charges Boone with finding a new home for the Nightbreed and renames him Cabal. Boone makes his way out of Midian with Lori. The remaining Nightbreed meet in an old barn. Boone says his goodbyes to Narcisse promising that he will not forget the Nightbreed and that he will find a place where they will all be safe.Meanwhile in the ruins of Midian, Ashberry stands in front of Decker's corpse and states that he wants to exact vengeance on Baphomet and the Breed. He takes some of the blood of Baphomet and pushes it into Decker's wound. Decker suddenly springs back to life with a scream as Ashberry chants "Hallelujah" over and over again.Alternate endingIn an alternate ending (as used by The Cabal Cut of the movie), the Nightbreed await Boone in a barn whilst Boone says his goodbyes to Lori as he must venture the world to find a new home for them, but he promises to return to her. Lori, fearing she will be elderly when the time comes whilst Boone will retain his youth, stabs herself and dies. Boone is forced into resurrecting her into another Nightbreed. At first the revival doesn't seem to work, but it is eventually successful.Elsewhere, Captain Eigerman wanders the underground remains where he stumbles upon the transformed Ashberry who desires revenge. Eigerman shares this desire, but Ashberry rejects him and kills Eigerman and begins his hunt for the Nightbreed.

Tags: comedy, suspenseful, gothic, murder, paranormal, cult, violence, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, psychedelic, humor, romantic, revenge

Review:
Even though it might seem a bit cynical to say so, the movie is just intricate enough to deflect those that need standard Hollywood plot hooks, and layered, so that if you expect to be fed, you will see a normal monster flick with lots of monsters and a disjointed plot.Those who need a linear, specific and untangled plot line will hate this movie, because the story lies, like in the novella, partially between the lines, or in this case, partially off screen, in comments and the imagination.Another possible hang-up is the ending, of which I can say, without spoiling it, that it is not entirely good and not entirely bad.
It is, in fact, not very defined at all, which I know sends some people into raging tantrums about that they didn't get to know what happened, but to me, and to many others, I'm sure, just adds another dimension to the story - the dimension of speculation, and, in addition, the point that great disruption has a tendency to cause ripples that extend quite far.There is definitely moral here, but of a rather different kind than the standard Hollywood in-your-face-at-the-end-of-the-movie sort of display.
And this time the sympathy you felt when you saw Frankenstein's monster burned in the windmill is the very center of the movie.This isn't a masterpiece, and even Barker has done more interesting, and certainly more chilling, work.
The Nightbreed (based on the better titled "Cabal" novella) look terrific, the acting is excellent and David Chroneburg makes for a truly creepy and terrific antagonist.The plot focus's on Aaron Boone, who has recurring nightmares about a society of monsters living under a cemetery.
Don't ask me why I love this movie so much...Maybe it came at a time in my life I desperately wanted to fit in, maybe it is the amazing monster effects, maybe because I enjoyed the novel "Cabal", but It's probably because I LOVE Clive Barker.
It can be interpreted as: a story about how love conquers the supernatural (a la Dead Again), a Silence-of-the-lambs-like psychodrama about a serial killer; a dreamy horror flick reminiscent of Nightmare on Elm Street and especially Little Monsters;  a Gilliam-inspired fantasy (the teeming underworld city is strongly reminiscent of Brazil and the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness in Time Bandits, while other parts are reminiscent of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen); a symbolic tale of racial tolerance; and on and on.
It is a mark of Barker's screenwriting talent (so often evident in his other films if you can look beneath the shlock) that all the characters, even monsters seen only briefly, ring true in some strange way.
"Nightbreed" is a must see for horror fans, or for fans of monster movie make-up.Boone (Craig Sheffer) has been having dreams of a town called Midian full of mutant creatures.
Even the acting is good, with the biggest surprise being director David Cronenberg giving a great, menacing performance as the man, who for one reason or another, wants to see Boone dead.
Clive Barker's lost classic "Nightbreed" has had new life breathed into it after finally receiving a proper director's cut some twenty five years later— while the theatrical cut is still a fine film, the director's cut is far more cohesive in terms of content.
In Midian, he uncovers an underground city beneath the cemetery that houses a plethora of misfit monsters.A potent blend of fantasy and horror (as Clive Barker is oft noted for), "Nightbreed" is a deserved cult classic that has withstood the test of time in spite of its marginal shortcomings.
The creatures are appropriately grotesque yet still human enough that they stand relatable, and the painstaking amount of work that went into the prosthetics and effects department in general is impressive to say the least.Thematically, "Nightbreed" is unusual in that it, as Barker proclaims, shows the monsters as sympathetic characters; it refuses to uphold any sense of the status quo.
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.
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).
A Fantasy cult horror film from 1990 from Clive Barker creator of 'Candyman' and 'Hellraiser' and tonight's movie is 'Nightbreed' A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of monsters are hiding from humanity.One of Clive's films I never really got the chance to see Nightbreed is a part slasher part supernatural part monster movie and it works on all ends its creepy and cool and very fun to watch.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Note: this review and rating applies to the directors' cut recently released on DVD and Blu-ray by Scream Factory.Clive Barkers' adaptation of his own story Cabal is one that actually could be described as epic in this incarnation.
Most horror films i've seen are all quite fake, but because Nightbreed was so incredibly sophisticated and geniously directed with superb acting, especially by Craig sheffer (Aaron Boone) amazing special effects, great lighting and fantastic dialogue, I found this film to have a sense of depth and maturity with no silly fake horror parody, whatsoever, that many other horror films have.
It was really a treat to see the quality of work.It wasn't particularly horrible, as the worst creature was actually a human serial killer.I just saw Craig Sheffer in Shadow of Doubt the other day and he did a good job in this film also.
And according to what Clive Barker has given us certain members of human kind, in this Craig Sheffer are born with the potential to become part of that world.Psychiatrist David Cronenberg at first looking like the mild mannered professional has taken unto himself a fanatical mission to rid the world of the Nightbreed.
But it's plain to see that if humans left them alone, the Nightbreed in turn not bother with them.Your sympathies are definitely with the Nightbreed especially after seeing a fanatic like Cronenberg and redneck police chief Charles Haid in action.Clive Barker's been an out gay man for some time now and some have suggested to me that the Nightbreed is a metaphor for gay people.
I can see where that would come in, especially since there are a whole lot of people who don't even think of gays as anything human because they're taught that way.Granted Nightbreed is pretty bloody with a lot of gratuitous violence, but it also does make you think and I do like the way Clive Barker does turn traditional theology on its head and makes Craig Sheffer a kind of messiah for the Nightbreed creatures..
But Dr. Decker has evil plans to destroy Midian but first...He goes after Boone's girlfriend (Anne Bobby) to draw him out.Written and Directed by Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Lord of Illusions) made an intriguing but flawed yet Intelligent and Complex horror film.
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.
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.
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.
After a lot of hard work and searching the Warner Brothers vaults (the footage had been thought to have been lost), the folks at Shout Factory were able to find the original camera negatives, and with Barker's help added nearly twenty minutes of footage to the theatrical cut thus finally offering fans a brand new look at Nightbreed: The Director's Cut the way Clive Barker had always intended.I've been a fan since I caught the film on video back in the early 1990s.
It's "more is less" plot features a psychopathic psychiatrist (unusually played by David Cronenberg, who has never directed a film as bad this one he appears in), a quasi-fascist police force and a bizarre "community" of undead monsters, all apparently living in the Cascade mountains.
That is interesting enough, but then we have the other plot: Boone is also suspected of being a masked serial killer who has amassed more than fifteen victims.Clive Barker wrote this story (as "Cabal") and directed the film.
Soon Boone is shot dead due to the doctor's lying but his body and soul are then transferred to Midian, a place where monsters are the good guys.NIGHTBREED was the first movie I ever watched in a theater by myself.
I experienced Nightbreed for the first time on television a year ago and i was pleasantly surprised with the results.Clive Barker is said to have revitalised horror with Hellraiser but this is a film that effectively stalled his cinema career somewhat.
The movie is a true punch in the sensitive people's stomach, a frightening thriller that narrates the story of a young man who, tormented by strange nightmares in which he finds strange creatures who try to take him for a lost city,asks the help of a psychiatrist who will be revealed crazier than his patients.In "Nightbreed", such as in "Hellbound: Hellraiser 2", the focus of the story always rotates around mental diseases, deformed creatures and complex intrigues.Barker achieves in directing the film with effectiveness, in spite of seeming to lose the control of his story in the end, in when "Nightbreed" turns into a special effects show that don't contribute to the intrigue.
The film will satisfy the people who like interesting and perverse movies,following the tradition of Clive Barker's works!even without the beautiful and talented English actress Clare Higgins' presence (who was the protagonist in "Hellraiser" and "Hellbound: Hellraiser 2", and who passes all the force of a woman capable to hold a man and to kill him with details filled with cruelty), this film is very good, and a great option for those who want to get tested!
This movie -and so many others-epitomizes what the horror genre became in the eighties:in the wake of "the exorcist" -which was not that much a great movie anyway-,it was more and more gore and make-up ,special effects galore;in parallel,the screenplays became thin,mean,and reached absolute mediocrity."Nightbreed" is a complete disaster,in spite of the presence of director Cronenberg cast as a shrink(?)As for the story,it might recall some kind of Orpheus in reverse (it's the girlfriend who's searching in hell)or maybe a revamped "night of the living dead" .The special effects are so omnipresent that you are not afraid a single minute ,which crowns it,all the same.Even Ed Wood's "plan 9 outer space"( which also took place in a graveyard )showed more imagination,and was more enjoyable,were it only for its couldn't care less directing ,and at least you could laugh.Here you cannot..
Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" (based on Barker's novel "Cabal") is a disappointing horror film-especially in comparison to legendary "Hellraiser"(1987).First of all there is not enough suspense or gore to satisfy horror fans.The sets are incredibly fake as are some of the monsters.However the cast is fine and David Cronenberg steals the show as a Dr.Phillip K.Decker.Check it out if you have enough time to kill...My rating:5 out of 10..
As a scary horror movie, it never quite delivers, but if you're a Barker fan then this is still one of his better efforts, although he does retread a lot of the same ground as his other films.
Barker was forced to cut a lot of scenes to get this released and it would be interesting to see how gruesome his original vision was.Nightbreed is not a great movie, but in visual terms, Barker delivers an enjoyable, yet often overlooked horror movie, which although not as good as Hellraiser, is still deserving of a wider audience.5/10..
I gave It a second chance with the Director's Cut, but I came away feeling the same.I did really enjoy seeing David Cronenberg acting, and I imagine everyone on set had fun, but there's really nothing to come back to in this movie.
Title: Nightbreed (1990) Director: Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Lord of Illusions) Cast: Craig Schaffer, Anne Bobby, David Cronenberg Review: Clive Barker, one of the masters of modern dark-fantasy horror wrote a novel in the 80s called "Cabal".
When he finds out that the city does in fact exist, he goes on a quest to find it and become a part of the "Nightbreed".When I watch this movie I see that it was an ambitious film that was cut short by two things: budget being number one.
This sort of took away from my complete enjoyment of the film because the film deals with lots of gore, blood and murderous killer creatures, yet at the same time the movie emanates this child like innocence and aura that just doesn't mesh well with all the bloody surroundings.And then there's Barkers direction, which shows promise, but doesn't fully come through this time around.
It feels like a movie that wanted (and could have been) a whole lot more, but is instead thwarted by horrible acting and unexplained plot holes (Whatever happened to Baphomet?) and a meager budget that didn't allow it to be what it should have been.Story wise many things didn't make sense to me and came off as goofy as hell.
Though I do enjoy some of its cool monsters and make up effects and I simply adored David Cronenbergs performance in the film as a murderous psychopath, the movie has a lot of things that get in the way.
"Nightbreed" isn't as great as other Clive Barker work.**SPOILERS**Aaron Boone, (Craig Sheffer) is plagued by nightmares of him killing people, and his psychiatrist, Dr. Phillip Decker, (David Cronenberg) tries to treat him.
So how do we learn from a movie like Clive Barker's Nightbreed?
The new Director's Cut really is a MUCH much better movie than the theatrical cut was as it gives more character development, stuff you never seen, more history on Midians and all that with different ending.Recommended if you like monster movies, fantasy and horror.
The movie is lacking, but it can be looked at this way: even the things that the studio allowed clive barker to do in the film were cut dramatically, and the movie is approximately 10000 times better if you READ THE BOOK FIRST.
Plagued by weird dreams of a mythical place called Midian, Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) is drawn into a nightmarish world of monsters and madmen, with adoring girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby) in tow.I first saw Clive Barker's Nightbreed in 1990 and couldn't believe that it was from the same man who gave us the excellent Hellraiser: the film was a total mess.
However, this lack of a deeper storyline, was more than made up for with lots of interesting make-up effects on the numerous members of the tribe.There was some good acting performances put on by an equally good cast, which includes the likes of Craig Sheffer and Doug Bradley."Nightbreed" is sort of a surreal mixture of horror and grotesque imagination from writer and director Clive Barker.
His girlfriend Lori Winston tracks down Boone but she is followed by Decker who turns out to be the real monster.Clive Barker is not quite good enough to direct this.
here's the story : Clive Barker brings the underground world of Midian and the Night Breed to life in the movie version of his book Cabal.
what i liked about the movie : the director of hellraiser = clive barker, the gore and the monsters offcourse.
Therefore, this movie is really a classic!If you enjoy watching this movie, then i would like to recommend another movie for Clive barker and horror movie's fans....HELLRAISER 2!