LITERAL REMAINS

the Clive Barker fansite fights for a 145 minute Nightbreed DVD no one wants….

Or so says Wil from HorrorYearBook.  I want it.  I like Nightbreed.  I think it’s an underrated film marred by not so good acting.  Anne Bobby is the main offender.  But other than that, what is everybody’s deal with hating this movie?  I don’t get it.  It’s almost as hated as the monsters in the damn thing.  And they were the heroes.

For anyone who doesn’t know a thing about this movie, here’s the 411:  Aaron Boone has dreams about a place called Midian, an underground city (beneath a cemetery) that is populated by monsters.  His creepy therapist, Decker (David Cronenberg, who appears to be loving his every scene), convinces Boone that his dreams stem from him being a local serial killer.  In all actuality, Decker is the killer and frames Boone for the murders.  Well, this sort of sets Boone off the deep end and he kind of gets himself shot in a show down with the police.  But not to fear, Boone is resurrected thanks to the bite he received from a monster of Midian before he got himself filled full of lead.  Presto chango, Boone is back on his feet in no time with his girlfriend (Anne Bobby, just atrocious) hot on his monster heels.  Before long Decker tracks Boone to Midian, and then the local human law enforcement invade and it becomes a free for all.  Great fun.  Wonderful B-movie.

Clive Barker adapted and directed Nightbreed from his own short novel Cabal.  It’s been some years since I’ve read the book, and it’s been some years since I’ve seen the movie, but the movie follows fairly closely to the source material.  The movie version doesn’t have the zip of the written story, or the, what’s the word, quality, either.  But Nightbreed isn’t the steaming pile of dog shit covered in bloody vomit that most people make it out to be.  It’s not Candyman, but thankfully it’s not Candyman Part 968 either.

Clearly the ambition outweighed the execution (it didn’t help that the studio marketed this as a slasher film, which it clearly is not).  Nightbreed was intended by its filmmakers to be the Star Wars of monster movies.  It’s not the Star Wars of monster movies, it falls in that area of being The Phantom Menace of monster movies.  Though I think it’s better than that one.  I’m not a Phantom Menace fan.  I’m not really a Star Wars fan, truth be told (everybody is not).

I think if we can have two or three editions of Hellraiser or Hellbound: Hellraiser II, we could at least have a director’s cut of Nightbreed.  Or something other than a bare bones edition of Hellraiser III:  Hell On Earth.

Long live Midian!

the_novacula