Nightbreed

In the alternative ending used in The Cabal Cut and Director's Cut of the film, the Nightbreed await Boone in a barn whilst Boone says his goodbyes to Lori, as he must find a new home for the Nightbreed. Boone promises to return to her, but fearing she will become old whilst Boone will retain his youth and immortality, Lori stabs herself, forcing Boone to resurrect her as a Nightbreed. Narcisse is killed earlier in the battle by Decker, so he is not present during these events. Meanwhile, Captain Eigerman wanders the underground remains where he stumbles upon the transformed Ashberry, who now desires revenge. Eigerman shares this desire, but Ashberry rejects Eigerman's offer, kills him, and starts his hunt for the Nightbreed. The surviving Nightbreed watch Boone and Lori in the distance. Kinski tells Babette that Boone will return soon, perhaps the next day, to lead them to a new haven. Boone and Lori appear are shown as part of a prophecy in a Nightbreed painting. Decker's resurrection plays as a post-credits scene.

Clive Barker always loved monsters and felt that "there's a corner of all of us that envies their powers and would love to live forever, or to fly, or to change shape at will. So, when I came to make a movie about monsters, I wanted to create a world we'd feel strangely at home in".[8] He was interested in creating a "horror mythology from the ground up" and developing characters that would live on in sequels.[9] As he finished writing the novella Cabal, he realized that it would make a good film that he would direct himself.[10] He originally envisioned a trilogy of films.[11][12]

Nightbreed was the first of a planned three-picture deal Barker had with Morgan Creek, Joe Roth's production company, that included an adaptation of Son of Celluloid and a sequel to Nightbreed. The first compromise Barker made was to change the title of the film from Cabal to Nightbreed because Morgan Creek insisted on a more commercial title and thought that the original one did not mean anything.[13] He was given a budget of $11 million, which was a considerable increase from the $2 million he had to work with on Hellraiser. His goal was to make the Star Wars of horror films. The monsters in the book are represented impressionistically over two or three paragraphs and the challenge Barker faced was to visualize them in much greater detail for the film.[14]

For the film, Barker used three soundstages at Pinewood Studios shooting some scenes on location at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, Berkshire, UK over several nights and in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.[9] Bob Keen and his crew had two months to play around with ideas before doing any modeling work. They used computer-controlled animatronics but only where necessary.[15] Towards the end of principal photography, Barker brought Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie in to paint mattes for the Necropolis sequences and design the history of the Breed in a symbolic way on an enormous mural across a 60-foot space on the set at Pinewood to be used in the opening credits.[16]

Barker was contractually obligated to deliver an R-rated film and could not make it as gory as his previous picture Hellraiser.[9] Barker previewed the first cut of Nightbreed with a temporary soundtrack that did not go well, as people were confused by the characters' motives. He made some changes and the second test screening was much more successful. However, the ending with Decker's death was not well received and Barker changed it.[17] In late July 1989, the studio announced that the release date for Nightbreed was being pushed back from its original autumn 1989 date to early February 1990 instead. The press release cited "the complex demands of the film's ground-breaking post-production optical effects", but this also included McQuarrie's mural and matte paintings, and a week of additional shooting in late August that would see key parts of the narrative re-shot.[16] Barker shot extra scenes over three days in Los Angeles in late 1989 which included additional scenes with David Cronenberg which expanded and clarified his character. Barker's original version ran two-and-a-half hours and Fox asked for almost an hour to be cut prompting editor Richard Marden to leave the project in protest. Nightbreed was cut to two hours and then again to 102 minutes.[17]

According to Barker, the studio did not promote it well with posters that misinterpreted the content. When he saw the way they were selling Nightbreed, he "freaked out and said, 'What you doing? This isn't the movie, and was given all kinds of excuses ... 'Well, there isn't time to change it, we have to release it now'."[29] The head of marketing at Morgan Creek never watched all the way through because it "disgusted and distressed" him, according to Barker.[29] The studio did not understand it, it had no movie stars, it was violent,[29] and it had elements of fantasy and horror which they saw as a weakness while Barker saw it as a strength. They ended up marketing Nightbreed as a slasher film with television teasers that were confusing and did not represent it.[30] The trailer was sent to the MPAA and it was rejected 12 times. They forbade any monster footage, and it was cut down to someone being terrorized with a razor, which constituted only five minutes of Barker's film.[17] Looking back, Barker realized that Fox was better at promoting films like White Men Can't Jump but "not so good at selling the quirky stuff".[31]

The studio argued that there was no point showing Nightbreed to critics because the people who see horror films do not read reviews. Therefore, the film had to be sold to the lowest common denominator.[32] They refused to preview the film for critics, a decision which angered Barker.[30]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports 39% of 28 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 5.41 out of 10.[33] In his review for the Toronto Star, Henry Mietkiewicz wrote "Nightbreed might have been a monster movie milestone, if Clive Barker's directorial abilities had kept pace with his skill as a master of British horror fiction. Unfortunately, Nightbreed probably will be remembered as much for its haphazard plotting and underdeveloped characters as its delightfully daring concept".[34] Derek Malcolm wrote in his review for The Guardian that "it is neither direct nor subtle enough as a piece of film-making. It is difficult to suggest that evil is human and monsters have souls within the context of a mountain of special effects. The result is patchy in the extreme and not always capable of transcending a genre that has become less and less intriguing as less and less is left to the imagination".[35]

However, Entertainment Weekly's Ty Burr gave the film a "B" rating, writing "From the film's Gothic sets, fantastic makeup, and nightmarish plot line, it's clear that Barker owes as much to Poe and Lovecraft as to classic Hollywood screamers like Island of Lost Souls. But Barker's most perverse touch is that he makes these creatures the good guys (no wonder the PR flacks were bamboozled). Despite their grotesque appearance, they're a more colorful and engaging bunch than the emissaries of the normal world. Barker piles on more subversive subtext than his story can bear — it's a monster movie, after all — but his daft, Grand Guignol vision has real power. The quality that freaked out the studio, Barker's ambition, is precisely what makes Nightbreed so impressive."[36]

Filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky liked the film, calling it "the first truly gay horror fantasy epic", explaining how the unconsummated relationship between doctor and patient is in his view the central theme.[37][38]

Nightbreed was released on February 16, 1990, in 1,488 theaters, grossing $3.7 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $8.8 million in North America on an $11 million budget.[2]

In 1990, to tie in with the film's box office release, Epic Comics produced a four-issue adaptation of the film, which included significant differences from the finished movie, more closely related to Clive Barker's original script. The comic book continued to run past the end of the film, ultimately stretching to twenty-five issues before it was cancelled.[41][42] The comic book was drawn by Alan Grant, John Wagner and Jim Baikie.[43]

A two part graphic novel was also produced, Hellraiser vs Nightbreed: Jihad, which merges the two worlds created by Clive Barker and features the Cenobites as agents of order against their chaotic nemesis the Nightbreed, and the Jihad (Holy War) of extermination that the first wage on the latter.[44][45]

Nightbreed returned in 1992, as a short story in the second issue of the four issue Epic anthology series.[46]

A 12 issue mini-series was published by BOOM! Studios in 2014-2015 following the storyline of the Director's Cut of the film.[47]

Two video games based on the film were released shortly after the movie. The games were intended to form a trilogy[48] but due to the poor performance of the first two the third was never made.[49]

• Nightbreed, The Action Game

The first was a traditional action game[50][51] and was released for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, and for DOS.[52] Loosely following the same plot as the movie, it intersperses various action sequences.

• Nightbreed, The Interactive Movie

The second game was released for the Amiga and ST and for DOS.[53] Also based on the film, there was less action involved as it was more of an interactive movie.[54]

Morgan Creek reportedly began developing a television series based on the original film in 2014.[55][56] In September 2015, Morgan Creek announced the sale of the domestic rights to its library of 78 films. However, the production company plans to retain the TV rights to Nightbreed.[57] In June 2018 Syfy, Morgan Creek and Barker will develop the series.[58] It is being written by Josh Stolberg and directed by Michael Dougherty for SyFy.[59][60]

In 2009, Mark Miller, co-head of Barker's production company, Seraphim Films, helped track down the missing footage that was cut out of the director's cut of Nightbreed.[61] Miller discovered, after talking to a production executive at the studio, that the footage was never actually lost but readily accessible. When asked, a studio executive said that there was not a big enough audience to warrant the studio spending money on a new, extended cut of the film.[62] A VHS copy of Barker's 145-minute version of the film's mid-1989 workprint was discovered. It did not feature any of the re-shoots of Decker's murders.[63] An extended 159-minute cut version, from another VHS found in July 2009, premiered on March 27, 2010, as part of the HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis.[64] This new version adds almost an hour that was cut from the theatrical release, including a song sung by Lori, and more animation. Barker said that he hopes to bring back Danny Elfman to add more music.[23]

In early 2012, Russell Cherrington, a senior lecturer in film and video production at the University of Derby, created a composite cut of the film using the footage found on both VHS tapes and a DVD then recently released by Warner Archive Collection, Warner's made-to-order DVD service. This version is the most complete version of Barker's film available and has been dubbed The Cabal Cut. The cut runs 155 minutes long and was shown at that year's "Mad Monster Party" in North Carolina with actors Craig Sheffer and Anne Bobby attending.[65]

The "Mad Monster Party" projection of the Cabal Cut led to a renewal of interest among fans, especially on the Internet.[66] A new petition was created and social networks were used to raise awareness for the extended cut and to encourage producers to release it. This would be colloquially known as "Occupy Midian", a term coined by actress Anne Bobby.[67]

A Blu-Ray release of the "Cabal Cut" was announced on July 13, 2017, via the Clive Barker Podcast.[68] This release utilized then-restored footage from the Director's Cut and the pre-existing VHS copies, for a total length of 145 minutes. The release features new material and commentary tracks exclusive to that release. Handled by Morgan Creek and Seraphim Films, the Cabal Cut Blu-Ray was released in a limited quantity through Clive Barker's online store.

Barker announced in 2013 that Shout! Factory would release The Cabal Cut on DVD.[69][70] This version was later clarified to be a brand new director's cut that uses the footage and not the full Cabal Cut.[71]

Shout! Factory announced The Director's Cut Blu-ray in October 2014. This version, overseen by Clive Barker, runs twenty minutes longer than the theatrical version and contains forty minutes of new and altered footage.[72] Shout, with Warner Home Video, located the original film elements in the Warner archives to newly restore the sequences. Barker stated, "when Scream Factory told me that they found the Nightbreed film footage, I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller all the way back in 2008."[73] Shout announced a Special Edition Blu-ray / DVD combo pack and a 3-disc limited edition Blu-ray, containing a booklet and the theatrical cut. When the limited edition sold out during pre-orders, Shout! doubled their production run.[74]