Nightbreed came out in 1990 and was poised to change the way we saw vampire films. At least, that’s what I thought when I went in to see it back then. Or maybe it was a more standard horror/slasher film with a vampire protagonist. Yeah, I was wrong. I walked out of the theater glad to have my expectations dashed, but did feel underwhelmed with the final product.
I had largely forgotten about Nightbreed since then and now Shout Factory has brought the film to Blu-ray, not only to get the film in front of a new audience but also to remind people that have seen it before just how fun it is. Well, fun may be a relative term. Creepy? Yes. Well done? Yes. Worth watching? Absolutely. Overlooked? Sadly, also true.
What is Nightbreed about? Aaron Boone is, at the request of his girlfriend, seeing somebody who may or may not be helping him through what might turn out to be a bout of serial killing. Add to Aaron’s troubles the fact that he dreams about a place where people are different. Very different.
I don’t know if I’m really spoiling anything by saying that Dr. Decker (played by David Cronenberg) turns out to be not all as he appears. A series of events which are more convoluted than they need to be eventually land Aaron into the land he has been dreaming of which turns out to be underneath the city. What follows is a sort of cat and mouse game between revealing the underground society of peaceful monsters and demons to the outside world versus capturing the evil human who actually is one.
What we get here is the Director’s Cut, finalizing Clive Barker’s vision making for a much better film than what I first saw in theaters. Maybe it is the passage of time, maybe it’s the new cut, maybe it’s the fact that now I know it isn’t a vampire movie in any way, shape, or form, but Nightbreed was highly enjoyable to watch. It doesn’t scare like a traditional horror movie but does have plenty of creepiness to it and a decent dash of horror.
Shout Factory has done a great job in restoring the film to look better than it probably ever has. Not only that but we get a wealth of solid extra features that make this a decent offering. We get an introduction to this director’s cut as well as an audio commentary that is rather interesting. Then there are the featurettes which look at the making of the film from a number of different points of view ranging from stunts to the editing to restoration to experiences on the set and much more.
I do wish I got the more “deluxe” version of the film on Blu-ray which not only included the above but also the original theatrical version and more special features. Apparently it was a limited edition, as in actually limited to 10,000 copies. It might have been better to simply have that one be the main release and scrub this one. Still as it is, Nightbreed is a film that didn’t deserve to be overlooked when it was released and doesn’t deserve to be now.