Nightbreed (1990)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Clive Barker

Writers (WGA):

Clive Barker (novel)
Clive Barker (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 February 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

Lori thought she knew everything about her boyfriend... Lori was wrong!

Plot:

A community of mutant outcasts of varying types and abilities attempts to escape the attentions of a...

Plot Keywords:

Mutant | Redneck | Serial Killer | Vigilante | Exploding Body

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Craig Sheffer	...	Aaron Boone / Cabal
Anne Bobby	...	Lori Desinger
David Cronenberg	...	Dr. Philip K. Decker
Charles Haid	...	Captain Eigerman
Hugh Quarshie	...	Detective Joyce
Hugh Ross	...	Narcisse
Doug Bradley	...	Dirk Lylesberg
Catherine Chevalier	...	Rachel
Malcolm Smith	...	Ashberry
Bob Sessions	...	Pettine
Oliver Parker	...	Peloquin
Debora Weston	...	Sheryl Ann
Nicholas Vince	...	Kinski
Simon Bamford	...	Ohnaka
Kim Robertson	...	Babette

Also Known As:

Clive Barker's Nightbreed (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1992) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2007) | Netherlands:16 | Australia:M | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Morgan Creek Productions

Trivia:

Some of the Nightbreed-inspired merchandise included a 25-issue Nightbreed comic book series, a Nightbreed game for the home computer, and books such as "The Nightbreed Chronicles".

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the Pathologist is removing the rifle bullets from Aaron Boone's corpse in the morgue, they are clearly brand new and have not been fired into anything. The bullets would be "mushroomed" if they had hit a person.

Quotes:

Boone: Look we can make it out... but we need fighters
Lylesberg: We're not warriors
Boone: What about the beserkers?
Lylesberg: Madness, they're uncontrollable
Boone: Better yet... let them out. We are the tribes of the moon... you said so
Lylesberg: [Reminiscing] The tribes of the moon
[pauses then reluctantly]
Lylesberg: I'll release them

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Clive Barker: Raising Hell (2004) (V)

Not a horror movie: A monster movie, with affection.

What's fun about Barker's Nightbreed is that it's the story of a human on a rampage, a deadly threat to monsters everywhere. In this one, the monsters (the night breed of the title) are the "good" guys. It shares its sense of celebrating the different, the twisted, and the dark with the first Addams Family movie, and much of Tim Burton's work. It also has the goriness that one expects from a piece by Barker.

Especially fun is the performance by Cronenberg as the truly evil human doctor who is bent on destroying the Nightbreed. As happens in most classic monster movies, the villagers surround the monsters' castle with torches and pitchforks. Only this time, the modern setting replaces the castle with an old mausoleum and the rustic "weapons" with guns and bombs. 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. But it's pure fun, it looks great, and remains light without mocking itself. Worth a look!