Nightbreed

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Grimm R Nightbreed is a horror fantasy that is directed by Hellraiser's Clive Barker and follows Aaron Boone as he's haunted by nightmares of a city of monsters. He goes to a psychiatrist named Decker who turns out to be a serial killer and is framed for the murders. After Boone is killed by the police and brought back to life by the Nightbreed, they join him on a quest to stop Decker from killing again. The movie stars Craig Scheffer and David Cronenberg and I first want to mention how I've never seen a Clive Barker film before and for my first time, I can say I really enjoyed the world-building that was going on and the story revolving this city called Midian and the rules that are put in place for the Nightbreed I thought were interesting. Following Scheffer through the movie as the protagonist, I thought he did a great job as he does give off that 80s lead look and style as well as the whole movie does but there was something about him that reminded me of a Patrick Swayze or Matt Dillon from Outsiders and his performances in certain scenes I thought were pretty good. This movie also has a score from Danny Elfman who is just phenomenal as ever and truly helps make the story come alive with the tone especially during the action sequences which were also shot really well. I also thought the practical effects were pretty amazing and this made me truly miss how incredible the effects were back then than they are now. I also noticed that some elements in this movie feel similar to 1989's Little Monsters. I thought this movie used them nicely with a more mature tone. Now even though this movie has many things that I like, I also had many issues which involve the choppy flow of the story and the plot feels all over the place in some places, now I know there is a Director's Cut and I'm not sure if that version fixes this issue but it was hard to not notice the amount of skipping from scene to scene there was. There was also a big part of the movie that I thought came out of nowhere which is when the police attack Midian as I didn't see that coming from the premise and thought this movie would've been more of a revenge story, with that in mind though the practical effects and the action was shot really well, I just did not expect the story to take this turn at all. Overall, Nightbreed is a great horror/fantasy that has a more mature Tim Burton tone and is carried by the world-building, special effects, acting, and the premise that I think was executed well but the movie is all over the place and some creative choices left a bad taste for me. Nightbreed gets a B-. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 04/17/24 Full Review Alec B There's a lot going on, maybe too much for one movie. That being said it's hard not to admire the pure unadulterated vision of Barker here and I like that the movie isn't coy about its message or who the real villains are. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/09/24 Full Review Keiron D My absolute favourite monster horror! The first horror I watched as a young kid, I love the mind of Clive Barker. The music by Danny Elfman is really great! Perfect! Dr. Deckers mask still freaks me out! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/04/23 Full Review Jonathan O Nightbreed is on hellva ride is fantastic fantasy action horror film with both MCU and DC style. It does have Guillermo Del Toro, Sam Raimi and Tim Burton style the make up effects looks phenomenal the story was alright but there's a bit hit and miss but David Cronenberg as Dr. Philip/Slenderman performance is really incredible very disturbing sinister and both scary and creepy and clever villain. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/17/23 Full Review Steve D An aimless film with an odd tone. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 09/10/23 Full Review Ryan J Despite a prolific and acclaimed career spanning nearly 40 years in literature, Clive Barker has only directed three feature films to date. The reasons for this aren't particularly difficult to understand: Barker's first film cashed his check in Hollywood, so to speak, while his sophomore effort, the divisive Nightbreed, was unfortunately a victim of creative compromise and studio interference. The result, however credible in its ambitions, ultimately squandered more than a bit of the goodwill that Barker had established with his previous film. A Clive Barker Primer Barker, of course, is an artist who needs no introduction. As the author of essential works of contemporary horror such as The Damnation Game (a Faustian tale of unholy pacts) and the tremendous Weaveworld (a sprawling work of dark fantasy in which an entire, imagined world is discovered sewn into the fabric of a carpet), Mr. Barker has established himself as nothing less than one of our great living masters of horror. To hear Quentin Tarantino tell it: "To call Clive Barker a 'horror novelist' would be like calling the Beatles a 'garage band' ... He is the great imaginer of our time." RELATED: The Clive Barker Franchise That Never Was Barker's most famous cinematic offering, of course, is the immortal 1987 nightmare Hellraiser, itself based on the author/filmmaker's own novella, The Hellbound Heart. Hellraiser is one of those movies that is so totemic, so instantly iconic from the moment you first lay eyes on it, that you soon come to understand, to one degree or another, why Hollywood felt it necessary to construct an eleven-film franchise based on the success of the original work. The image of the Cenobites – that pale cavalcade of fiendish inter-dimensional sadists, personified largely by their terrifying master, the aptly-dubbed Pinhead – is one that has worked its way into our popular movie-going consciousness; this is true even if, for one reason or another, you've yet to see Hellraiser itself. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Nightbreed

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