31 Days of Halloween: The Underground: Nightbreed: Clive Barker’s Unappreciated Masterpiece

 Nightbreed - Clive Barker - 1990

 

★★★★★-“Everything is true. God’s an Astronaut. Oz is Over the Rainbow, Midian is where the monsters live... And you came to die.” Day 4 of the Nightmare on Film Street  31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge. Down in the Underground night. Not sure what that means really so I took it literally and used it as an excuse to revisit this old, favorite, Nightbreed, featuring one of the most outrageously cute Boston terrier ever.
 
I adore this movie. Written, directed, and adapted by Clive Barker from his 1988 novella Cabal. My favorite Barker movie, by far, though it is generally less appreciated than Candyman and Hellraiser, which are also classics. I mean, I LOVE Hellraiser, but this holds a special place, seeing it at a time I was devouring horror flicks, circa 1993, when I was in 5^th grade. It was my X-Men, though it literally is not the same film I saw way back when. 
 
It's a bummer we never got sequels as Barker envisioned the project as a “Star Wars for monsters,” but studio interference led to the heavily recut theatrical version, which was meh. Was more of your traditional slasher, causing it to sort of bomb at the box office which meant no further world-building. But I still revisited it every few years, catching every iteration ever released to home media. The Directors Cut is the way too go, by the by. 
 

Getting this version is sort of lost media miracle. Back in 2009 missing footage was rediscovered (the studio knew it existed but didn’t give a shit), leading to the creation of “The Cabal Cut.” Mark Miller, Barker’s producing partner, ended up tracking down two VHS workprints with nearly an hour of additional footage that wasn’t in the theatrical version.
 
I missed this cut when it was making the horror festival rounds, showing originally at HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis. I lived in North Carolina at the time. I tried to make it up for the premier, but I was too broke in 2010. Then, after I moved back to Indiana, it was shown at "Mad Monster Party" in North Carolina in 2012. I was a sportswriter at that time and was still too poor to do shit. 

However, the extended 159-minute cut renewed fan interest, leading to the so-called “Occupy Midian” movement, a phrase coined by Anne Bobby, who plays the female lead, Lori Winston, who is the protagonist Aaron Boone’s girlfriend in the film. In 2013 Shout! Factory released a Cabal Cut that was a little different than what was shown at the horror cons. 

 
The 2013 release sparked enough interest that Shout! Factory tracked down the original film elements in the Warner archives in 2014. This became yet another version deemed “The Director's Cut.” The Blu-ray added an addition 20 minutes to the theatrical run time which featured 40 minutes of footage. The whole process was overseen by Barker himself, marking the culmination of efforts to restore the film to its original, intended form. This is now the definitive cut. It is fucking amazing.
 

Gist of the film is Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer), falls under the care of serial killer Dr. Decker (played by David Cronenberg), who manipulates Boone into believing he's a murderer. Drugged with LSD, Boone attempts to surrender to authorities but ends up escaping and taking refuge in the underground world of Midian, home to monstrous peoples known as “Nightbreed.”
 
Casting is perfect 1990s nostalgia, like the casting of Doug Bradley, who will always be Pinhead to Barker fans. Craig Sheffer plays lead Aaron Boone. He was quarterback Joe Kane in the greatest football movie of all-time, The Program. He has had a steady career, but never achieved A-list status, which is a shame as he steals the show in everything he is in. Also, quick sidenote, Sheffer was in a relationship with all-time beauty Gabrielle Anwar, she was Fiona on the USA series Burn Notice, which is great. They have a daughter together, Willow Anwar, who does some acting herself. They are now divorced, but they are close enough that Sheffer serves as the godfather to Anwar's children from her later marriage, which you like to see. 


Anne Bobby shares significant screen time. She is great and unexpectedly pops up from time to time. She was in the infamous television show Cop Rock which was a pretty heavy police procedural with musical and dance numbers thrown in. I remembered it fondly and then revisited a few years ago and found it utterly unwatchable. She was also in the Todd Solondz film Happiness, a real pick-me-up that featured a lot of rape and pedophilia that earned itself an NC-17 rating. Saw that in high school and really didn’t like it. 
 
Canadian director David Cronenberg is absolutely stellar as the villain. His performance is next level, and damn he looks cool in that mask. It is fan-fucking-tastic. The scene we first see him wearing it, when he kills this middle-aged couple and then climbs the stair toward a crying little boy is some brutal, disturbing shit, especially considering that the violence against the child is implied. 

Obviously I love this movie. If I text or message with you, I've probably sent you the ridiculous clip above where the guy pulls off his own scalp. Bananas and perfect. Great quick representation of the film as a whole.