| Biography Clive Barker was born near Penny Lanes, Liverpool in 1952. After attending junior school in that city, he entered Liverpool University to study English Literature and Philosophy. At twenty-one, Clive moved to London. There he formed a theater company to perform the plays that he was writing and worked in that medium throughout his twenties as a writer, director, and actor. Many of these early plays contained the fantastical, erotic and horrific elements that would later become part of his literary work. They include: History of the Devil, Frankenstein in Love, Subtle Bodies, The Secret Life of Cartoons, and a play about his favorite painter, Goya, entitled Colossus. HarperPrism has put together The History of the Devil, Frankenstein In Love, and Colossus in a collection entitled Incarnations. The imaginative qualities that were such a fundamental part of Clive's theatrical work found their first literary outlet in the short fiction to which he turned in his late twenties. The first published examples of these tales are Book of Blood, Volumes 1-3. They saw only modest success in the U.K., but with the publication of the book in the United States and the appearance of his first novel, The Damnation Game, he began to find favor with readers and critics alike. Three more volumes followed, published in the U.K. as the Book of Blood, Volumes 4-6, and retitled in America as The Inhuman Condition, In the Flesh, and Cabal. By this point many of his books were finding their ways into translation, and now appear in over a dozen language. In 1987, following the adaptation of two of his stories for the movies (Rawhead Rex and Transmutations, both of which he disliked), he decided to direct something himself. The result was Hellraiser, based on a novella called The Hellbound Heart. The film developed a cult following and has since spawned several lines of comic books as well as three movies sequels: Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (directed by Tony Randal), Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (directed by Tony Hickox) and Hellraiser: Bloodline. Subsequently, Clive adapted his short story Cabal into Nightbreed, which he also directed. After the publication of the novels Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show, several Barker-related publications appeared: graphic art adaptations of his short story called "Tapping the Vein" and two large format covering his art work called Clive Barker: Illustrator, Volume I and II. The epic fantasy novel Imajica followed, then an illustrated children's fable called The Thief of Always, a line of superhero comics for Marvel called "Razorline", and a one-man art show at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York where his work is still being displayed. Clive has served as Executive Producer on the film Candyman (directed by Bernard Rose) which was based on his short story, "The Forbidden" and on Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh (directed by Bill Condon). Most recent, Clive published Galilee, Everville, the sequel novel to The Great and Secret Show, Second Book of the Art, and Sacrament, a dark fantasy for all ages. His most recent film project was Lord of Illusions, which he wrote, directed and co-produced. Projects currently in development are: an animated feature based on The Thief of Always, a mini-series Weaveworld, and an interactive computer game called Extosphere. Though Clive has moved to Los Angeles and is now involved with several projects for both the large and small screen, his first love remains books. He number amongst his literary influences the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Herman Meville, William Blake, Will Burroughs, Arthur Machen and both the old and new testaments. About himself, Clive writes: "My enthusiasm as an artist is rooted not in any particular medium, but in the act of imagig. My books, films, drawings and plays, thought they may seem to be very disparate in content, are still mapping out different parts of the same landscape: that is to say, the world between my ears, I am motivated to write or paint by the images and scenes which arise from my subconscious, without invitation, which seems on closer inspection to dramatize elements of my deeper self. I am a Jungian, not a Freudian. I believe that a collective unconscious--a pool of shared images and stories which all humanity is heir to--exist, and the artist dealing in the fantastique is uniquely placed, in that he or she can create stories or paintings which dramatize the eruption of the unconscious into our day to day lives. I've pointed out many times that we spend one-third of our lives asleep. During the adventure of dreaming, we are making both a private investigations into our hopes and fears and also swimming in the dream pool, which we share with the rest of our species. I hope that the fiction I write will empower us to both comprehend our secret dream selves and understand the profound intimacy we share with every other human being." Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" based on his novel "Cabal" which was the inspiration for Cradle of Filth's "Midian" release. Released: 1990 Released by: Fox Cert: 18 Running time: 102 minutes ISBN # 1-55873-694-8 Enter a netherworld of darkness and terror as horror maven Clive Barker (Hellraiser) takes you on an unforgettable journey to fear and back. Welcome to the Nightbreed! Far below the waking world lies the secret lost city of Midian, a subterranean haven for a society of dead souls called the Nightbreed. Boone (Craig Sheffer) is a psychiatric patient haunted by his own cold-blooded psychiatrist Dr. Decker (David Cronenberg), Boone discovers Midian and joins the hidden tribes of the night. As the police and Decker close in on Midian, Boone realizes that his personal destiny is to this supernatural city against the living world that seeks to destroy it. Basing the script on his novel Cabal, horror-meister Clive Barker, in his sophomore effort as a director, tells the strange and sometimes gory tale of a young Canadian who inadvertently tangles with the Night Breed, a demonic race that inhabits an ancient graveyard said to have the power to forgive transgressors of their sins. Synopsis Craig Sheffer plays Boone, a young man in Calgary, Canada, who dreams about monsters chasing him through a field near an imaginary place called Midian. That's a step up, since he had been dreaming about mass murders that had a nasty habit of also occurring in real life. But we're hardly reassured about Boone's prognosis when we find out that his psychiatrist is none other than David Cronenberg, (the real-life director of THE FLY and DEAD RINGERS). Playing the devious Dr. Decker, Cronenberg gives Boone some little pills that will "calm him down." Instead, Boone is found wandering in traffic and babbling incoherently. At the hospital, a doctor casually informs him that Decker's medicine is actually a strong hallucinogenic. Meanwhile, yet another mass murder Boone described to Decker has occurred, and Decker is busying himself with violating patient-doctor confidence by prodding the police into arresting Boone. It turns out that Midian actually exists, and prior to ripping off his face on-camera, a fellow patient conveniently reveals to Boone its location, just a short scenic drive from Calgary. Escaping from the hospital, Boone heads there. The police follow him, kill him, and bring his body back. Boone rises from the dead and hightails it back to Midian, where the title's beasts, which are actually shape-shifters, welcome him. Back in Calgary, Lori (Anne Bobby), Boone's girl friend, becomes obsessed with seeing the place where Boone died. So she sets out for Midian--followed, again, by Decker, who is himself obsessed with destroying the night breeders. To aid him in his crusade, Decker enlists a redneck sheriff (Charles Haid), helping to turn NIGHTBREED into a touching allegory about intolerance along the way. Cast David Cronenberg Dr. Philip Decker Charles Haid Capt. Eigerman Craig Sheffer Aaron Boone John Agar Special Appearance Simon Bamford Ohnaka Tony Bluto Leroy Gomm Anne Bobby Lori Doug Bradley Lylesberg Catherine Chevalier Rachel Alan Harris Stand-Ins Lindsay Holiday Morgue Assistant Stephen Hoye Gibbs Daniel Kash Labowitz Bradley Lavelle Cormack Eric Loren Ambush Cop Peter Marinker Pathologist Ted Maynard Bartender Mac McDonald Lou Rickman Kenneth Nelson Emergency Doctor Norton S. Parker Poloquin Oliver Parker Peloquin Hugh Quarshie Detective Joyce Hugh Ross Narcisse George Roth Kane Bob Sessions Pettine Malcolm Smith Ashberry Todd Thaler Mitch Webb Jail Cell Doctor Deborah Weston Sheryl Ann David Young Otis and Clay Production Team Clive Barker Director, Screenwriter David Barron Assoc.Producer Danny Elfman Music Christopher Figg Producer Marie France Costumes Tony Gardner Makeup Mark Goldblatt Film Editor Steve Hardie Production Designer Ann Hollowood Costumes Image Animation Makeup Bob Keen Makeup Richard Marden Film Editor Gabriella Martinelli Producer Bruce Nyznik Music Director Geoff Portass Makeup James G. Robinson Producer Joe Roth Producer Robin Vidgeon Cinematographer Shirley Walker Music On Nightbreed 66 - EXT. NECROPOLIS GATES - DAY The silhouette of Peloquin, a were-creature, moves between the tombs. He draws on the cigarette. By its brightening point we glimpse an extraordinary face: more animal than human, but no recognizable species. PELOQUIN: He's not Nightbreed. He's Natural. BOONE: No! I've killed people; I'm like you, that's why I'm here... PELOQUIN: Shut the fuck up. You're meat. KINSKI: If we eat him we break the law. In the shadows Peloquin starts to alter his form, Boone watches, amazed, as the crouching figure breathes in deeply, his alien appearance becoming smoke, which he sucks into his throbbing body. BOONE: My God... My God, it's true... PELOQUIN: Of course it's true. Everything's true... (He starts to emerge from the shadows) God's an astronaut. Oz is over the rainbow. And Midian's where the monsters live. And you came to die. BOONE: I didn't... didn't come to die. I came to be with you, I'm one of you. Peloquin reaches out and touches Boone's chest. PELOQUIN: No. Sorry. I can smell innocence at fifty yards. BOONE: I've killed people. Fifteen people. PELOQUIN: Who told you that? BOONE: What do you mean? PELOQUIN: He lied, asshole. He lied. You're Normal. And that means... you're meat for the beast. Second Draft - December 1988 "For the first 'Nightbreed' picture, which is the first of the 'Cabal' pictures, we might do a little bit of shooting in Canada, but essentially we want to work with the same team that has done such extraordinary work here [on 'Hellbound']. In the 'Nightbreed' pictures, I will say I think there'll be more monsters per square inch of screen than probably ever seen before. I mean this is a major, major number of monsters. It may even be three movies eventually. As long as it's planned, I like the idea of a series. The only time it doesn't work, it seems to me, is when - as in the Nightmare on Elm Street pictures - there isn't planning. "I would certainly like to direct the first 'Nightbreed' because I think it is a horror movie with a very new angle. And it has all these creatures in it, and it can be very imaginative and very fun to do. One of the things that Chris [Figg] and I are trying to do is re-establish that tradition in this country. Nobody else is doing it." Chains of Love By Mark Salisbury, Fear, No 3, December 1988 "They [20th Century Fox] tested the movie and it tested real well. Then they realised that the campaign was a difficult one because Nightbreed was slightly difficult to classify. It has elements of fantasy, elements of horror fiction, and it was a mixture of both. I saw that as a strength. [Fox Chairman] Joe Roth saw that as a strength. The marketing people saw it as a weakness. They saw the fantastical elements as being difficult, rather than one of its strengths. That's one of the things that I do, both as a writer and as a moviemaker; I write this weird, delirious kind of fiction. It is not necessarily like anyone else's kind of stuff. I wanted to make a movie that was a celebration of monsters, a movie that was a Bosch canvas come to life. It wasn't going to be this rational, logical thing. Instead of trusting the movie, they tried to do something that is reprehensible - they tried to represent the movie as something that it wasn't [a slasher film] which is a small element in the movie. The monsters were nowhere to be seen in the ads or the one sheet [poster]. The TV teasers were extremely confused and didn't represent the movie. Added to that, they chose not to preview the movie, which enrages critics - especially those unsympathetic to the genre in the first place. Nightbreed is a difficult movie of its type because it doesn't fit any neat categories. The result was confusion and poor box office. "Hellraiser was also an odd movie with weird elements but New World said, "This is a movie that Barker's made. We don't necessarily understand it or like it, but we'll get it out there." And they took one of the movie's strongest images - Pinhead with the box in his hands - and put in on the poster beautifully. Nightbreed was packed with such images! We had 'em crawling out of our ears and the movie needed to be sold that way. Putting aside reviews, they couldn't even open a movie with 200 monsters in it. "No movie is perfect. There are screw-ups in Nightbreed and all kinds of things I'd do differently, but that's true of Hellraiser and my books as well. Whatever else you can say about Nightbreed, it's not like anybody else's movie, it's not a tintype. It delivers what I always promised it would - a monster movie that would spill over with weird images and creatures. There are lots of horror movies out there that don't have very much in their minds. Nightbreed does. You don't need to be talking down to people all the time. So yes, the movie has a bleak end. It doesn't cross all the t's and dot all the i's, but neither does Hellraiser. We don't now where the cenobytes come from. I like the sense that there's a mythology that you only get a glimpse of. You don't get the whole thing, like you don't know how Freddy Kreuger gets into people's dreams. "There's got to be a way to make the kind of movies that I want to, which are never going to be mainstream, ordinary, middle-of-the-road pictures, and find people in the major studios who will support them. Clearly it's difficult. David Lynch, Cronenberg and Romero are not working in the main flat of the studio. Argento is barely known in America. Those large organisations are extremely conservative." Barker Bites Back By Anthony Timpone, (i) Fangoria Horror Spectacular, No 1, 1990 (ii) Fangoria : Masters of the Dark "I've always loved monsters. I think 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. I called it Midian. An underground city peopled with creatures from our darkest fantasies: things that feed on blood; things that avoid the light of day; things repulsive and fascinating; forbidden souls hiding from their cruellest enemy - man. All of us, behind the camera and in front, had the same intention - to make Nightbreed a film like no other, flipping all the conventions of the horror movie, plunging you into a world of insanity and miracles where dead men can be heroes and monsters beautiful, where the only place of refuge is the most forbidden place on earth: Midian - the home of the Nightbreed." Introduction to Nightbreed By Clive Barker, Nightbreed US Video, 1991 "Hellraiser was unapologetically a movie set out to make your palms get clammy and make you shift around in your seat. You weren't sure you wanted to see what was coming next. That isn't the case with Nightbreed. It is much more benign in its intentions. This picture is much more upfront about the fact we don't want to see the monsters die. We actually find them interesting. And sexy. We're not really on the side of the cross-wielding Christians, we're actually on the side of the creatures of darkness. "The whole idea of Nightbreed began with my novel Cabal. It's a book I'm very fond of and, as I was finishing it, I realised that it would lend itself very nicely to movie adaptation: it was economic in terms of narrative structure and I thought it might be something I'd want to do myself. One of the things I love about making a movie from something I've written is the pleasure of being able to reinvent your imagination: you've done it once, you know the way it looked when you wrote it, and then you reinvent it entirely. Nightbreed doesn't look the way I imagined it when I was writing Cabal. It has turned out to be much larger in scale than I originally anticipated, but it's still manageable for someone like me who is only making his second picture. "The book is about Boone and his journey; the movie is about the Nightbreed, this hidden tribe of mythological beings, shape-changers and strange people who come from the Old Country of the imagination. My sense was that I had to work really hard to scare audiences, I had to put more solid 'jumps' in it than I did in Hellraiser - it's full of those cheap little tricks. But I also had to make sure that, when the monsters appear, the audience will warm to them despite their strangeness, despite the fact that some of them are quite dangerous. If they simply bit and tore and turned to smoke and ripped people up, the audience was never going to come into their world. There had to be an element of Tod Browning's Freaks in which you saw that there was a wit and a sly warmth to these characters. The balance to be achieved was not to let the humour undercut the scares. "In the Thirties you felt sympathy for King Kong and the Frankenstein monster, but there haven't been many movies like King Kong and Freaks and Bride Of Frankenstein lately. There's no trace of that earlier, much richer tradition and that's what the inhabitants of Midian represent. What I wanted to do in this movie was to set that Thirties tradition against the Eighties tradition. You start with a stalk-and-slash character, but this time you're going to understand that this isn't something you want to applaud. I'm saying to the audience, 'Here's the tradition you've been applauding, but there's another tradition which is rich and various and witty and warm and poetic. Isn't that what we should be celebrating?' "Finally, I think that we will perceive the living from the point of view of the dead, we will perceive the natural from the point of view of the unnatural, we will perceive ourselves from the point of view of something other than ourselves - whereas conventionally in horror movies, at least today, you perceive the Other from the place where your head is when you go into the theatre. Nightbreed is a hymn to variegation. No Breed looks like any other Breed. In the same way the cantina sequence in Star Wars worked the first time you saw it, I want audiences to have the impression that there is this great gathering of creatures and they are never quite sure they've seen them all. I think Image Animation has once again created some immensely memorable images - creatures that are monstrous and beautiful in the same moment, which has always been my favourite condition for any creature. "I think this movie will be a kind of ride - not a ghost train ride because that's too grim; not a fairy tale ride because that's too grim as well; but sort of a ride through the space between my ears, a trip through Clive Barker's skull. There's some very dark stuff in there, some sexy stuff and some funny stuff as well. I hope it will be the kind of dream you don't want to wake up from, the kind of dream that when you've opened your eyes you think, 'I wouldn't mind going back there.'" Nightbreed (press pack ?) By [ ], Fantazia, No 5, October 1990 [re. casting Cronenberg out of type] "It's an insight missed by Barry Norman! Most insights are missed by Barry Norman! You're right. The thing for me was his doing what will probably be the last horror movie I'll do for a while, was the idea of colliding two traditions, very consciously. I mean, the movie is a series of riffs. My two favourite descriptions of the movie: one was that it was an Indiana Jones odyssey on acid, which I very much liked; and the other was that it was like a series of trailers, which is not wrong. It is, it's like a series of trailers for a whole bunch of movies, interweaving and colliding and then going off at various directions. It's a series of moments from traditions, if you like. "It's unfair on David, that casting, deeply unfair on him, because - and I think this is one of the reasons why he did it - the new horror which he represents, 'Long live the new flesh,' is so much more interesting than the tradition he's representing in the movie. Stalk 'n' slash is a very uninteresting sub-genre...I think it is a pretty dull genre. So I wanted to kind of collide that with, as you rightly say, a much older tradition, which is this kind of fantastical tradition of monsters, which is fairy-tale as much as anything. It's going into the enchanted wood and finding around every corner some kind of strange beast; and you're not absolutely sure whether they mean you good or harm." The Edge Interview By David Alexander, The Edge, 1991 "Cronenberg is a very interesting man. Very urbane and civilised. And he makes these crazy and demented movies! So I thought he'd fit the role of Decker perfectly especially when he's beneath the mask of the serial killer. I also found it interesting to watch the contrast between David Cronenberg the moviemaker and David Cronenberg the actor. "I don't think the budget [for Nightbreed] was huge. Today, even modest films have a budget of fifteen to twenty million dollars, and Nightbreed was certainly nowhere near that. It was a bigger film than Hellraiser; and certainly had a bigger budget. I enjoyed having the larger scope for that picture. Hellraiser was a very small film and those limitations helped with the claustrophobic mood. So to answer that question, I'd have to say that it would depend upon the script and the story you are trying to tell. It would be very difficult to try and do Nightbreed on Hellraiser's budget. And it's very possible that Hellraiser wouldn't be as good on Nightbreed's budget. [re. Cabal's facial markings resembling Maori tribal designs] "It was a completely conscious effort. That's rather obscure, and I'm surprised you picked upon that. The spiral is a classic form, very symbolic. Lost Magic Kingdoms is a wonderful book, with beautiful photography and very informative. So, I do look everywhere, and I do see a kind of new tribalism. You don't have to go to New Guinea to see ear, nose, and cheek piercings anymore. In Los Angeles, all you have to do is step out onto Santa Monica Blvd. to see all kinds of tattooing. Forty years go, you wouldn't see people doing these sorts of things with their bodies, at least not in Western culture there has been an eruption of new tribal forms in our culture." L A Gore By Paul Mungo, GQ, December 1992 ...other comments 133 - OUTSIDE BAPHOMET'S CHAMBER Ohnaka and Lori reach the next to last chamber; a roaring from below, down a slope in front of them, walls vibrating with the din from Baphomet's chamber. Ohnaka withdraws. Blindingly bright light, out of which Lori spots a figure climbing towards them. LORI: Boone? Boone! She moves down to Boone, scrambling up the slope towards her, drenched in sweat, half-mad with terror. BOONE: Don't... don't look... He reaches for her, then collapses. She starts down the slope towards him. Dust falls from the roof, the din makes her reel. But she reaches him, starts to haul him to his feet. Then, she looks up and we get a glimpse of... 134 - INT. BAPHOMET'S CHAMBER Out of the blinding light, and seemingly the source of it, a huge black figure turns towards her; twelve feet high, severed limbs connected by sinews of hot, white energy and extruded spines, the face terrible, wise and beautiful. Lori's stunned, she averts her eyes. Boone collects himself enough to pull her away and they help each other frantically scrabble up the slope, out of the chamber. Second Draft - December 1988 Doug Bradley: "I didn't really enjoy playing Lylesberg very much. There just wasn't very much to get hold of; he was a Moses-type character. He stood for a kind of patriarchal thing; sit down, don't rock the boat and don't frighten the horses, which was fine and I did it to the best of my ability. I'm not sure I was perfect casting for it necessarily, and I found it quite hard work. I felt quite on the fringes of the movie as a whole." Pin - Points By Nick Vince, Hellbreed No.3, July 1995 Geoff Portass: "We've got computer-controlled animatronics in Nightbreed, but only where necessary...Nightbreed has in it every type of monster imaginable, but no monsters that necessarily say 'monster' to you. The real monsters in Nightbreed are the humans. That gives us great opportunity: we're on the monsters' side. With that in mind you don't design anything that's really going to upset that." Games Without Frontiers By Brian J. Robb, Fear, No.6, May/June 1989 Bob Keen: "The whole idea is that we wanted a certain background and texture. I think Clive will use the characters we see a little of in future movies. It's pretty much like the Star Wars films, in that you lay down the storylines and textures for numerous extra characters, and then you can build on that in later films. In a way, it's heartbreaking to work on something for five months and only have it end up on the screen for three seconds, but it will eventually pay off." On The Set of Nightbreed By J.B. Macabre, Slaughterhouse, Vol 1 No 5, 1989 Charles Haid: [on Eigerman] "A very interesting aside to this, which should give you some idea how I've found a way to make Eigerman come to life, is a quote I read recently from Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie. He said, 'I am a son of the Eiger. I live in its shadow.' That gave me a focus, tied in the fascist elements being used as a background detail." Birth of the Nightbreed By Philip Nutman, (i) Fangoria, No 86, September 1989 (ii) Fangoria: Masters of the Dark David Cronenberg: "Clive has got about 60 or 70 characters to deal with in this film and I only have to deal with one. So, if Clive would say, 'Maybe he'd pick up the cup of coffee,' and I would say, 'Oh no, I don't think he would do that,' well, Clive would listen. To a certain extent, Clive is going to trust my instincts as an actor, with that character, because that's the responsibility, to keep that character consistent through and through. On the other hand, you depend very much on your director to bring you into the movie at the right level. "The first scene I shot was a scene at the end of the movie, and that was my introduction to the character of Decker: I don't say a word, but it's a very complex scene. Clive has to tell me what level we're on for that, because he's the only one who's got the whole picture in his mind. My instincts might say, 'Do this in a hysterical tone,' and he might say, 'No, no, that's quite wrong, because you've got to build up later to even more hysteria, so if you go totally to the top, you've got no place to go.' It's really collaboration that way. It never really gets to, 'You're wrong.' "A death scene is always a wonderful thing to do. Basically, it's all play, it's like kids and that's what's nice about it. You get on the set, there's a strange balance between the adult part of yourself, which has to be obedient and punctual, and the part that likes to play. It's really exciting to be on the set as an actor, and primarily be expected to play, make yourself up and put on funny clothes. That's what it is, and that is my pleasure. It has nothing to do with real death or anything like that whatsoever. You're going to do your version of a psychotic. My interests and Clive's overlapped to a certain extent. We could both talk about psychotics of the past, and some of the future, so we really don't need that kind of input [copious character research]. I find that very inhibiting as a director or writer. I tend to invent my research rather than do it. "There are certain similarities between what I do and what he does, and then there are some extreme differences. For me, it's the differences which are exciting rather than the similarities. We're both interested in transcendence through transformation, considered in a very physical sense rather than a metaphysical sense. Those are themes that we both return to again and again. But he is much more exuberant in his sense of invention and his creation of new mythologies without any rational explanation. That's where we become different: I would never create the Cenobytes, for example, I would never create the Nightbreed. Those are the differences there, I think." Faces of Death By John Gilbert & Mark Salisbury, Fear, No 22, October 1990 Bob Keen: "On Nightbreed we had two months to play around with ideas, before even modelling on maquettes. Baphomet is a real knockout of an idea and people will say 'Wow, that's never been done before'. "Clive dreamt up the answer of how to do Baphomet on screen. He phoned me up one night and said, 'I've dreamt it!' It's difficult putting your own imagination on the screen, but try putting Clive Barker's imagination on the screen! That's the challenge, making the imagination real...We're doing the best work we've ever done on this film. We've done two test tapes and everyone is very pleased with them." Games Without Frontiers By Brian J. Robb, Fear, No 6, May/June 1989 NIGHTBREED Produced by:Stars:Screened:AHA Ratings: Morgan Creek ProductionsCraig Sheffer, Anne BobbyDecember 14, 1989Believed Acceptable A community is terrorized by a masked slasher who has murdered six families in the past ten months. After a bad episode with some pills given to him by his psychiatrist, Aaron Boone is hospitalised. While in the hospital, a fellow patient slashes his own face off and dies. The psychiatrist, Dr. Decker, tells the police that Aaron may have been responsible and may also be the mystery slasher. Aaron flees to the countryside where he's drawn to a cemetery called Midian and stops to rest. He's awakened from his nap by a dog licking his face. The dog belongs to a mutant-type creature. Other creatures appear and chase Aaron, but they do not go beyond the cemetery gate. However, at the gate, Dr. Decker and the police are waiting for Aaron and Aaron is killed in a hail of police gunfire when he is betrayed by Dr. Decker. Aaron's bullet-ridden body disappears from the police morgue and Aaron awakens in a crypt below Midian, a place where the dead live again. He is told by the creature's leader that they are all that remains of past species that humans have destroyed. They are called "Nightbreed." From these ghoulish digs, Aaron seeks to stop the slasher who continues his bloody rampage above ground.Animal Action: One of the Nightbreed carries a pet dog about in his arms. Insects, snakes, a parrot and a kitten are seen mostly as atmosphere. When I listen to NIGHTBREED, I am almost immediately reminded of the classic children's story WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE By Maurice Sendak. Equal parts dreamy magic and foreboding monstrous danger, NIGHTBREED cleverly mixes soothing ethnic percussion, woody riffs and calming choir (both adult and children). Ultimately resulting into a score fully capable of transporting you through visceral action and stunning beauty. The terror (Dream) is loud and fully realized through orchestral bombast and choir. Just when we believe we have pulled through the terror, we are whisked into a wonderfully fun dance (Carnival Underground) with a light flute and tambourines. Deep timpani and brass recycle the NIGHTBREED theme. The choir, always alternating between the adult and children sings along "La, La, La, La." Into Midian is the recognizable Elfman cue. We get a strong sense of movement (reminding of Christmas Eve Montage from THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS). We only truly get a sense of Clive Barker's horror film with Meat For The Beast. Pulsating drums and rich brass with a random shot from the shakhachi (James Horner take note of word: random). NIGHTBREED, to those who have not seen the movie, is a Clive Barker story (originally titled CABAL) and film which was left to die by FOX in cinemas. While not a typical Barker exploration of sex and its perversions through violence, it attempts to blur the line between who the real monsters in our world are. Largely, it is an allegory for racism, acceptance and realizing one's self. It is not without its limitations, but it is ambitious beyond it's monetary capabilities (typical of Barker) and sports a coolly evil performance from master of bizarre David Cronenberg. What Danny's score does is supplant Barker's themes. The NIGHTBREED are alarming disfigurations and will act violently if provoked. But deep within their physical shells are hearts of fear without peace. The Initiation beautifully scores their traditions that they have kept hidden from the world. It is quiet, with soft metallic clangs and an assortment of grooves with softer strings. Scalping Time and Rachel's Oratory are very light tracks (contrary to what "scalping" may conjure in your mind!). Party In The Past returns us to the brass and choir blasts of Meat For The Beast and the Main Titles Uh-Oh Decker consists of some strings that sound remarkably similar to Henry Manfredini's FRIDAY THE 13th scores. Boone Gets A Taste alludes to EDWARD SCISSORHANDS with its choir. The percussion returns us again to Meat For The Beast making it the recurring cue for danger in the film as the NIGHTBREED attack another unwilling victim in their Canadian cemetery. Breed Love is angelic compared to the chaos of Mayhem In Midian, which bashes us over the head with clangs and loud orchestral peaks. Farewell gives us the dreamy music to send us off - that is until the music returns once more to scare us with 2nd Chance. The End Credits are pleasing as they provide a nice suite of cues and themes. (If you listen carefully, you can hear Danny tip his hand at the MARS ATTACKS! "March".) When I first bought NIGHTBREED a few years ago, I actually did not listen to it quite frequently. But it's use of percussion; choir and full orchestral sound have made me come to appreciate it. It now frequents my CD player and will definitely be something I listen to when I require being transported into another state. Which is NIGHTBREED's greatest quality. Something that is rare. It possesses the magic to bring out not the monster - but the wild and fantastical elements in someone. Grade: B+ Children of Midian - The Nightbreed · Vasty Moses Cabal Narcisse Baphomet Lylesberg Rachel Babbette Kinski Peloquin (and the Qualm) Shuna Sassi Lude Leroy Gomm Beloit Motto Saul Mater Q Scorch The Thrall Frick Giblin & Veale Mexico Chocolat The Berserkers Ohnaka Annastasjia Yilly Katt Otis & Clay Radinka Kolcha Threeflies The Fabilu Family Lizzie B Pessoa the Pale Kushnir Day Felooshia Mars Three White Sisters ON MIDIAN Any fan of monstrous creations has to be in love with NIGHTBREED. The film has mixed reviews from various genre fans, but most everyone admits that the monsters are fantastic to look at, even if you're not a fan of Clive Barker. Far below the waking world lies the secret lost city of Midian, a subterranean haven for a society of dead souls called the Nightbreed. Boone is a psychiatric patient haunted by the conviction that he has committed unspeakable crimes. Seeking sanctuary from the police and his own cold-blooded psychiatrist Dr. Decker, Boone discovers Midian and joins the hidden tribes of the night, realizing, in time, that his personal destiny is to defend this supernatural city against the living world that seeks to destroy it. There are monsters, monsters, and more monsters in this exciting, but sometimes confusing, film. We are probably in the small percentage of people who actually enjoyed the film NIGHTBREED and have studied it under repeated viewings. If you are in the larger percentage of viewers who did not like this monster epic, there is still a wonderful book for you titled THE NIGHTBREED CHRONICLES. This book is made for the monster lovers of the film. It has wonderful full-page colour photos of many of the featured monsters in the films and gives background information on each of the characters. Here are the grotesques and freaks, the noble beasts and exquisite transformers who populate the city of Midian, created by craftsmen and then brought to life by actors and actresses to whom, finally, these fantasy creatures became another kind of reality. Pick up the book from Titan Books. |
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