Shudder Sunday: Nightbreed

Director: Clive Barker

Year: 1990

Genre: Fantasy/Slasher

Summary: A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of monsters are hiding from humanity.

4/5 Pineapples

Review:

Let it be known that I am a HUGE fan of Clive Barker's Hellraiser. I remember when I first saw it, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Barker has a way of creating universes unlike any other in the horror genre. There's something so original about his creatures and his plot-lines that, although other-worldly, are not the least bit "cheesy" or cliche. Hellraiser was a breath of fresh air for me as a horror enthusiast. I'd never consumed something that wasn't simply and easily defined as a: Slasher, Possession, Home Invasion film...etc. But, Hellraiser was a genre of it's own, unexplored by me and undefinable to me. I believe it remains a genre of it's own today, and it still stands the test of time. When I watch Hellraiser today, it doesn't feel like I'm watching an older film. The sFX, the screenplay, the cinematography... it was all so ahead of it's time. Watching other films released in the 80's/90's may have one believing that sFX and other resources were limited back then - but when watching a Barker film, you'd never know it. Needless to say, when I realized Clive Barker directed more than just the Hellraiser series - and was also an author AND an artist - I was thrilled. That being said, I was also scared. I was scared of sitting down and watching Barker's follow-up film, Nightbreed, and being disappointed. What if it wasn't as good as Hellraiser? I was terrified of losing the admiration I had for Barker as an artist, and I put off watching Nightbreed as long as I could. It waited in 'My List' for me on Shudder for about a week before I finally lit a scented candle, popped open a beer, took a deep breath, and dove in.

There's nothing like starting a film off with a good scream.

Right off the bat, there's a woman's scream and instant tension - a shaky camera, shots of demon-like creatures flashing in and out, in and out, and a chase in pursuit. An opener like that starts a person off right on the edge of their seat wondering, "what the fuck is going on?!" ...but, like, not in the bad way. In the, "I'm now dedicated to spend the next hour and a half or more to find out what these creatures are, who they're chasing, and what the hell the next scene of a sleeping dude and his girlfriend have to do with any of it" kind of way.

Questions like that get answered at a reasonable rate, which is always a plus. The pacing of this film felt just right. I never felt bored or distracted like I sometimes do with other 90's films.

Some things that bother me about older films, and some concerns I had prior to watching this film, are the way it's shot, the acting, and the script. In a lot of 80's to 90's films, the production quality feels low, the acting is sub-par, and the script is next to worthless. I was happily surprised that there was no dialogue that I found to be meaningless. In fact, much of what was said was witty and clever if you're paying close enough attention to the context. The acting was great, and the cinematography was beautiful.

What makes this film different from any other film incorporating a decent script, good actors, and nice film work is the originality of the genre. Just like in Hellraiser, Barker creates a world so imaginative that while it's described as a fantasy, it feels separate from even that category. This film integrates so many different kinds of popular, narrow genres all at once - without being kitschy about it - making Nightbreed it's own beast.

Nightbreed's main character, Boone, is experiencing nightmares about a mysterious place called Midian where all kinds of creatures live and hide. He's seen a psychiatrist in the past about these nightmares, and the psychiatrist reaches out to Boone to inform him that he's noticed a pattern between some murders and the nightmares Boone had described to his psychiatrist before.

This asks the audience, is our main character having a psychotic break and murdering people without being aware of it? Can we trust his perspective? Which makes this sub plot fall under the psychological thriller genre.

SPOILERS AHEAD: We soon discover the murder is a separate person, behind a mask, murdering people and essentially framing Boone for the acts.

A masked mass murderer falls under the Slasher genre.

Then, we have Boone's girlfriend, Lori, who - after Boone gets prescribed hallucinogens under the pretense that they're lithium tablets to help with his nightmares, and runs off - goes searching for Boone and stops at nothing to find him.

Now we've got ourselves a dark romance.

On top of that, Boone goes searching for the world he experiences in his nightmares, Midian, where the monsters live.

I understood it as, though the film never goes into the details, Boone had somewhat of a tough childhood and the dreams he experienced were his way of escaping from troubled times or stressful situations. Therefore, though the monsters were frightening, he felt some sort of solace in the world of Midian. Also, Clive Barker has a way of taking an opposite-to-what-you'd-expect approach to creatures like the monsters of Midian, and demons in his other works (such as Mister B. Gone). He has you sympathize with them where most stories would have you hate and fear them.

After hallucinating and being told he's a possible suspect to a homicide, he's drawn to Midian - which, yes, turns out to be a real place - to seek refuge. When he arrives, he's greeted by several monsters, one of which wanting to eat him.

This is where the fantasy genre comes into play.

Two monsters bicker about whether or not to eat him, and one takes a bite. Without saying too much more about the exact happenings for those who still may be interested in watching, this launches the rest of the film into one large, beautiful convergence of the most genres I've probably ever seen integrated into one film.

Circling back around to my mention of sFX, all of Barker's characters feel like they're coming straight off of SyFy's 2011 series Face Off. They look THAT good.

It never feels like Barker's short on ideas for characters either. The camera always finds a new face to pan to that you hadn't seen before that is somehow more interesting and/or more grotesque than the last.

The crime scenes of the slasher's victims aren't just bloody messes thrown about either - like many other lazy slasher film approaches. Instead, the crime scenes we do see in this film feel poetic. For example, Lori picks up a fellow lady from a bar one night that agrees to join her on her search for her missing boyfriend (who may or may not be a corpse at this point). Lori's friend meets an unfortunate end by the masked slasher, and when Lori finds her, she's posted to a tree by several knives in such a way that her body reads as an art piece, more than something that happened to collide with a tree at the same moment of a few blades. A second example from the movie is after Lori finds Boone, they run away to a hotel together to assess their situation and rest when they stumble upon a massacre in the room beside theirs. Amongst the blood and gore, in front of one of the lifeless bodies is a stacked tower of playing cards as if on display. Nothing seems or feels visually unintentional while watching this film. The only comparison I have to this kind of homicidal poetry is the 2013 television series, Hannibal, that aired on NBC (now available on Amazon Prime in case you haven't had the pleasure yet). My point in referencing these shows to this film is that this film predates these shows by over 2 decades and still feels up to par with what our sFX and screenplays are capable of now.

Lastly, after a war between the nightbreed and local armed forces (police brutality has been a thing for quite some time, huh?) is settled and done, I feel the film is adequately summed up by one line spoken by our heroine as she begs to join the nightbreed with her beloved Boone who insists she stay among The Naturals (AKA the living). She pleads, "I went through Hell to find you!" And, as he turns his back away from her to join his nightbreed, she stabs herself in the abdomen, in true dark romance, Romeo and Juliet fashion.

I gotta ask, is love letting the person you care about go to live a hopefully happy and healthy existence even if that means it's without you? Or is love condemning them (or acquitting them depending on how you look at it) to a life with you? Basically, would you have changed her into a nightbreed or would you have let her go - assuming she wouldn't kill herself - if you had the choice?

P.S. I rated 4/5 because, though I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this film, something about it didn't completely shake me to my core. I have no idea what was missing, or that anything even was missing. Just that, it doesn't feel like a full 5 pineapples to me. But great film none the less!

What were your thoughts about this film? Anything I missed? Please share!