It happens often. A movie comes out, it gets misinterpreted and then flops at the box office. Only time and scrutiny remain to give it the elevation or derision it deserves.Nightbreedis one such movie.Horrormaster Clive Barker had grand dreams forNightbreedbut fell victim to studio obfuscation. What could have been his next big horror hit, following the wildly popularHellraiser, ended up being a commercial and critical flop. Just over twenty years later, it has never received the true mainstream respect it deserves, only screened in horror circles and fan festivals.Nightbreedsits with certainty as one of the best cinematic creations of Clive Barker’s career. Perhaps the upcomingSyFyseries will rejuvenate its reputation in the eyes of movie fans?
Nightbreedcame to theaters in 1990. It starred largely unknown actors, except for fellow horror director and everpopular David Cronenberg. The score was notably done by a busy Danny Elfman, who rushed in afterfinishingBatman(1989)and then out again to doDick Tracy(also 1990) for Warren Beaty.It flopped hard at the box office, earning $16 million on a budget of $11 million. The reviews were no better.
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The plot follows Aaron Boone, who visits a psychotherapist (Cronenberg) because he has vivid dreams of a mysterious magical city named Midian. The psychotherapist, as it turns out, is a serial killer named Button Face who uses drugs and therapy to convince Boone that he committed all the murders and that he must turn himself in. Before Boone does so, he is whisked into the underworld. Midian is a city of monsters, but they are not evil. In fact, the major theme of the movie is how the humans are the monsters and the monsters are the heroes.Nightbreedcontrasts the monsters, who are grotesque and disfigured but who are innocent, kind, and wholesome, with the authorities (being the police, the militia, and a zealot priest) as cruel, violent xenophobic maniacs.
The Star Wars of Horror
Clive Barker had large ambitionsforNightbreed.He wanted to create a world of monsters, fully realized and totally believable. He based the movie on a novella he wrote a couple of years before the film production. He designed the movie to be the first of a trilogy, where at the end, the main character becomes the leader of the Breed and must take them to a new homeland. He wanted to make theStar Warsof horror movies.
Nightbreedis full of interesting and various types of monsters. To name a few, there is a crescent moon-faced guy named Kinski, an obsidian skinned, two-horned devil looking guy named Lude, a relatively normal looking guy who can take the skin off his own face named Narcisse, a hedgehog skinned lady named Shuna Sassi, a guy with snakes living in his stomach named Leroy, and a whole bunch of others with all shapes of bodies.
Set Up for Failure
Barker would learn that the head of the marketing company never finished watching the movie and instead made whatever commercials they felt out of his movie. Worse, theydid not screen it for criticsnor let it go to a national theatrical release. It limped into theaters, was kicked around for a short time, and booted out with paltry returns.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
All the studio interference in the world could not lessen the gem that isNightbreed. For all that was cut out, the movie that remained became acult classic to the horror fanswho did see it. It celebrated the outcasts, the subculture, the pariahs and demonized the dominant white-American-macho-male mass culture of the time. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky also interpreted as the first gay horror movie.
Most horror movies have the clean-cut, white, male (sometimes female) protagonist overcome the vicious monster, whereas inNightbreedthose who would normally be cast as heroes are persecuting innocent monsters. The monsters have families, follow their own religion and moral code, and work together in a rich underground society. They accept others who are different, rather than attacking them or forcing them to change into something they are not, like the society above ground.Nightbreedis an inversion of the horror genre, and apoignant commentary on society.
Clive Barker’s horror portfolio is poised for an imminent resurgence. There is aHellraiserremake in production, as well as a completedCandymanrebootwaiting for the pandemic to liftso it can safely hit theaters. It has already been delayed three times. Additionally, the SyFy network is developing a TV series with theNightbreedproperty. Thedirector ofGodzilla: King of the Monstersis attached.
