Review of Nightbreed (1990) by Phil H — 27 Sep 2012

There is something special buried somewhere within this messy narrative disaster of a cult curio, purportedly three hours long in it's original rough form, Nightbreed was taken from it's director, non other than horror visionary Clive Barker, and butchered down to a mere 100 mins.

Apparently the footage is lost on film but exists only on studio vhs copy (Which was integrated into "the cabal cut", a very ramshackle assembling of all the lost footage that could be found, and apparently the closest to the vision Barker originally envisioned, which currently can only be viewed at particular festival screenings) you can really feel the stuff thats missing, the film jumps from one event to another with no real lead in to certain scenes or plot points, it's choppy, jarring and visibly unfinished.

It sometimes feels like a very extended trailer for a bigger film, you never get a chance to know the characters and are never eased into the story at all, there is literally no room to breath in the films heavily abridged story, but it's still a fascinating botch job, unique and weird as hell, possessing of a dark dream logic which gives it a stylised fantasy vibe, and it's brilliantly made and imaginative, literally filled with cool monsters and awesome make up effects, prosthetics and animatronic creations that especially get to run amuck in the films insane, explosive final.

A very interesting and cool cult flick.