Cabal

Various cuts of Nightbreed have surfaced since its original theatrical release, one as many as 155 minutes long. I watched the 120 minute directors cut released by Shout! Factory in 2014. Based on Clive Barker's 1988 novella, Cabal, Nightbreed is an elaborate and indulgent fantasy-horror with heavy handed themes of love, intolerance, incitement, abuse of power, manipulation, and monstrosity. Although the film's richly colorful cinematography, elaborate makeup, and conceptual elements are strong, its convoluted storyline, mediocre acting, and over the top writing and aesthetic transform what could have been a compelling fairy-tale-esque parable into an exercise in gory, campy excess.

This feels like a movie I should be very much into. I love sympathetic monsters and creatures, and strange unique fantasy lore, but this movie just falls flat for me. I've seen it twice now. I gave It a second chance with the Director's Cut, but I came away feeling the same.

I did really enjoy seeing David Cronenberg acting, and I imagine everyone on set had fun, but there's really nothing to come back to in this movie. It feels like they had written a premise, and a first act, and then just winged it for the rest of the film.

There's a decent mystery being built up in that first act, and I'm intrigued, hoping to venture further into this strange culture of Midian, but it seems that there is no actual depth to it. They're just monsters.They sit around in dusty underground lairs waiting for 'normals' to come around and shake things up, and when they do they go "boogie boogie boo" and dance in their faces.

Boone is a man plagued by secrets and nightmares. His situation is greatly worsened when his therapist reveals his darkest deeds. With his girlfriend in tow and the therapist hot on his heels will Boone be able to find this town of monsters in his dreams and what will happen when he finds it and they find him. I've always enjoyed this film since its' release. It is a good solid monster flick with some gore and a little mythology to boot. The creature effects are even to this day some of the darkest and twisted ever seen. The directing and look of the film are solid. Translating Clive Barker's imagination is probably very hard…even by Barker himself. The acting of the leads is very good and Cronenberg (a director in his own right) is sedate and creepy. If Hopkins wasn't available to play Hannibal the cannibal I would have chose him. The main detractor is the way the studio hacked up the original cut. And poor marketing didn't help either. Please release a director's cut someone. 7/10

I always think of Clive Barker as the 20th century version of H.P. Lovecraft with added humour. This is a good monster flick, that at times is absurd, but fun. Craig Sheffer is okay in the lead, but I particularly enjoyed David Cronenberg's understated portrayal of the doctor. There's a bit of gore, but nothing remotely scary. Good movie to pass the time.

Its been along time since I seen the original, but the directors cut seemed a vastly superior movie. The version I recently saw, as there are several out there, had a 2 hrs long running time.

Undeniably, Hellraiser was Clive Barkers best movie by far. Nightbreed has far larger sets and much more ambitious effects, as the cast is much larger. For the best part it succeeds, and is an impressive creature feature/ fantasy horror. Hellraiser just had a better, more personal, darker story to tell in my opinion. It was a hallmark in the evolution of horror in the 1980s. It was one of those movies which really touched a nerve.

Comparisons a side, this is very decent genre entry.