Nightbreed (1990) | IMDB v2.1

Nightbreed (1990) Feb 20, 2018 0:21:01 GMT

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Post by Toasted Cheese on Feb 20, 2018 0:21:01 GMT

Feb 19, 2018 23:48:32 GMT Reynard said:

Feb 17, 2018 21:46:29 GMT ravi02 said:

Still need to read the book, but I saw both versions of the film in the theatrical and Director's Cut (the one on Netflix).

Nightbreed has a cool premise and I appreciate what Clive Barker was trying to do (make "the Star Wars of horror films"), but I find the execution flawed, and that goes for both versions of the film.

First, I find Craig Sheffer to be a bland hero and I didn't get why he desires to be part of Nightbreed. It doesn't appear to be something exciting. To use a similar genre as an example, in most superhero movies we see the heroes use their enjoy their newfound abilities before fighting the villains. It doesn't happen here. Secondly, the Nightbreed monsters are supposed to be stand-ins for oppressed people and outcasts, right? Then why are most of them shown to be unsympathetic evil monsters?

Still, the creature costumes still look great and David Cronenberg's a chilling villain. Nightbreed may be a flawed movie, but it has an interesting premise that I feel deserves a remake. I hope Barker can turn it into a TV series and do it right this time.

I found that very troubling too. Barker preaches in favor of tolerance and oppressed people, yet he shows them as monsters that kill without much reason. Which is also true with Hellraiser, by the way. Barker also portrays most of "normal people" to to either stupid or evil, or both, which makes me wonder if he is in any position to be preaching. Many of his novels have this very black-and-white worldview too, which is sad, since he is a good writer.

Nightbreed would have probably been a better movie with someone else directing. Barker's work is often very workmanlike, though there are many great scenes, like the first kill by Cronenberg's villain, who is also a great character. Directing actors certainly is not his strong point either while the casting is a mixed bag, which results to a movie that is about events and not characters, while Barker probably wanted it to be a character-driven story. Not saying that Nightbreed is a bad movie, but it indeed has huge amounts of wasted potential.

This is not a popular opinion, but I liked Lord of Illusions - Director's Cut to be his most mature work on almost all levels, though rather bland characters and uneven casting still remain. Candyman remains the best movie based on his work and Bernard Rose is obviously a much better director.

I haven't read any of Barker's novels or stories, so I can't attest to the style or quality of his writing, but he seems more like an idealist\visual scenarist and what he might be able convey on the written page, doesn't mean he was ever going to be ideal as a film director, especially when dealing with his actors. I find this with Christopher Nolan. He is good with representing his visual ideas, but is not the most competent with his actors. Inception is a good example. It's like his strong cast were just left to flounder with what they learned from the script, without any deft guidance.