Review of Nightbreed (1990) by Allan C — 07 Mar 2015

Something of a flawed masterpiece. The original release of this film was taken out of writer/director barker's hands,b ut this time he was given free reign to make his cut of the film and it's much better for it.

The story of Boone, Craig Sheffer, having dreams of a place inhabited by monsters, and fearing that he himself is a murderous monster, discovers the place of his dreams under a remote graveyard. The monsters though are the persecuted and misunderstood good guys and the humans are the violent and hateful bad guys.

This is probably the first time I've seen this done, though I'm sure you could argue that Frankenstein's monster was really the most human of all, but this film precedes things like "Hellboy" or others of it's ilk where the monsters are the good guys.

David Cronenberg plays the worst of the human bad guys, playing Boone's psychiatrist who's also a serial killer who's convinced Boone he's the one committing the murders. Anne Bobby, who I will forever remember for her role in the campy TV cop musical "Cop Rock," plays Boone's girlfriend.

Danny Elfman provided a memorable score for the film. I hadn't seen this film in years and honestly could not remember which scenes in the film were new, though I suspect they were scenes providing more background and atmosphere in the underground monster kingdom, Midian.

Overall, this film isn't perfect, but it offers a rich story, well developed characters and some very original ideas (which you'd expect nothing less from Clive Barker).