Each month in Horror Queers, Joe and Trace tackle a horror film with LGBTQ+ themes, a high camp quotient or both. For lifelong queer horror fans like us, there’s as much value in serious discussions about representation as there is in reading a ridiculously silly/fun horror film with a YAS KWEEN mentality. Just know that at no point will we be getting Babashook.

***SPOILERS for Nightbreed to follow.***

Synopsis: Boone (Craig Sheffer), an unstable mental patient, is falsely led to believe by his doctor (David Cronenberg) that he is a serial killer. Tracked down by the police, his doctor, and his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby), Boone eventually finds refuge in an abandoned cemetery called Midian among a “tribe” of monsters and outcasts known as the “Nightbreed” where they hide from humanity.

Queer Aspect: The Nightbreed represent queerness, or any fill-in-the-blank “Other” you can think of.

“You call us ‘monsters,’ but when you dream, you dream of flying, and changing, and living without death. You envy us, and what you envy–”

“We destroy.”

Trace

I’m shocked that it took me this long to finally see Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, Joe. It’s one of those films that has been on my radar forever but, if I’m being perfectly honest, it never really appealed to me, so I kept putting it on the backburner. Why didn’t it appeal to me? Well, despite being released in 1990, Nightbreed has always had a distinct ‘80s monster movie vibe to it. More specifically, the film seemed like an R-rated The Monster Squad or, to a lesser degree, The Goonies to me, and I’m sorry to say that even as a kid I never warmed to either of those films (I know, I’m a monster).

So imagine my surprise that I quite enjoyed Nightbreed! Flawed as it is (and it is very flawed, as anyone who knows about its troubled release history will tell you), I couldn’t help but be won over by the Nightbreed themselves and the powerful, if somewhat underdeveloped, message that the film is trying to convey.

Also preventing me from seeing this film sooner is the fact that I’ve always found its numerous available versions to be intimidating. For readers who may not know, here is a rundown of the various versions of Nightbreed that are available:

• Theatrical Cut (102 Minutes)
• Cabal Cut (145 Minutes)
• Director’s Cut (120 Minutes)

To top things off, there’s supposedly an Ultimate Cabal Cut in the works, which will run three hours long. What the fuck, movie? You can see a bit more of a detailed account of the different versions right here, so I won’t go into too much detail about the differences between them. I only bring up the much-publicized release history of the film to say that deciding which version to watch can be daunting if you’re watching Nightbreed for the first time. Everyone has their own opinion about which cut is the superior version (the consensus seems to be the Director’s Cut), but how can you get the full Nightbreed experience without watching all of them? So in preparation for this article, I watched both the Theatrical Cut (on the big screen…thanks, Alamo Drafthouse!) and the Director’s Cut.

There’s a lot to love about Nightbreed, as messy as it is. Be it Barker’s direction, Steve Hardie’s production design (Midian looks great) or the wonderful makeup effects, Nightbreed is a triumph of production (just not one of editing).

Anne Bobby’s Lori is a compelling protagonist, arguably more so than Craig Sheffer’s Boone (more on him in a bit). Although the Director’s Cut does Lori dirty by having her kill herself in order to force Boone to turn her into a Nightbreed (this sequence is not in the Theatrical Cut), completely removing any sort of independence that she has as a character. Overall, though, Nightbreed has a lot of heart, and it shows in both versions of the film that I watched. 

Of course, Nightbreed isn’t without its flaws. There really isn’t that much in the way of plot. The Theatrical Cut feels chopped to bits and the Director’s Cut is too slowly paced. Because of the clash between Barker and the studio (they didn’t want to put out a film that made the monsters the good guys and decided to market it as a straightforward slasher film instead), the Nightbreed get the short shrift when it comes to character development. Decker’s inclusion in the film, while appropriately scary, feels superfluous. Maybe his character was more developed in Barker’s 1988 novella Cabal, upon which this film is based? (I haven’t read it). Also not helping matters is the fact that Craig Sheffer is incredibly uncharismatic.

I suppose I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what makes this movie so queer. Other than the fact that it was written and directed by Clive Barker, one of the most famous queer horror artists of our time. The narrative itself is filled to the brim with queerness and serves as an allegory for intolerance. Can anyone watch Nightbreed and not automatically associate the titular creatures with queer people? They’ve been outcast by society and are deemed as dangerous by the “normal” people. The climax of the film culminates in an assault on the Nightbreed’s home base of Midian as the “normies” would rather kill all of them as opposed to understand them. Sound familiar?

I won’t dive too much into this just yet, but I did want to comment on what Dr. Decker’s stance as a serial killer says about queerness. Obviously, the Nightbreed are the good guys, representing queer culture. The police force represents the heterosexual/binary community. What are we to believe that Decker represents? He is a monster, just not in the literal sense. Is there any intentional subtext to his character? Or is he simply meant to be a generic slasher villain? I feel like it’s the latter, which is why I don’t love his inclusion in the film.

Joe, were you as enamored with Nightbreed as I was? I didn’t get to touch on the film’s reception, which in 1990 was extremely negative. Which was more terrifying: Dr. Decker’s costume or Cronenberg’s performance (I jest, but it is very….odd)? Also, could you tell it was a gay man directing this film? My big clue was that awful sweater that Lori wore for the first half of the film. It desexualizes her in every shape, way and form. I mean, it’s terrible.

Joe

Ummm, I will hear nothing but praise for David Cronenberg! You know how much I love him, and I’m particularly infatuated with him when he appears in unusual (or unexpected) acting roles (see: Alias). Had I known that one of my favourite directors appeared in this film, I undoubtedly would have made more of an effort to seek Nightbreed out sooner!

Like you, Trace, this was my first watch of Barker’s film. My (pre-watch) experience with the film was almost exclusively associated with its troubled production history, which – unfairly – maligned it in my mind. The studio didn’t have confidence in the film and there are multiple competing versions? My Spidey senses were tingling that this was a bad film and it should be avoided and so I held off until we selected it for this month’s column.

Naturally making viewing choices based on rumour, speculation and internet gossip is not the best policy. So, of course, I wound up mostly enjoying Nightbreed, despite its inherent messiness. I have only watched the Director’s Cut (I’d received the same recommendations as you that it was the best option), so I can’t comment on the differences with other versions or the book aside from what some web-sleuthing revealed.

What stood out to me is how delicately positioned this film is between the horror films of the 80s and the 90s. As you pointed out, Trace, this does have a kind of “throwback” quality to it that evokes horror-themed family films like The Goonies (or even The Neverending Story)  – only here it is interspersed with some pretty darn graphic images of murder (Decker’s opening massacre of the family, the hotel spree and the final fiery climax). It’s a very odd mix of tones – and yes, pacing – that honestly seems like it never would have appealed to a wide audience, which just makes the studio decision to recut it and sell it as a slasher all the more baffling. Who did they ever envision this film for?

To me Nightbreed reads pretty firmly as a queer allegory, not just because of its very publicly “out” creator. As you mention, the Nightbreed are clearly social outcasts who simply want to exist, but are deemed inferior and threatening, and therefore worthy of persecution and genocide. There isn’t a great deal of subtext, here; this is full-on text. Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal more to it than that (the film’s message is a fairly obvious “don’t persecute people who are different or Other from you!”). In this sense, the film’s lack of plot makes the meandering narrative feel a little unnecessarily stretched out.

The fact that it wound up becoming a minor cult hit is completely unsurprising to me. Reading the speculation about what will be included in the forthcoming Ultimate Cabal Cut alternately makes me excited and extremely nervous. I’m a big Barker fan, particularly of Hellraiser, so anything that inches the dial closer to his preferred vision of this story is appealing to me, particularly as a queer viewer. At the same time, the Director’s Cut definitely drags in places, so I’m not sure what the Cabal or the even longer Ultimate Cabal cuts would offer.

Regarding Barker’s queerness peeking through from behind the camera…you opted for Lori’s chunky sweater when there was a fiery, sweaty tighty-whitey sex scene right there for the taking?! For shame! Sheffer’s tragic mullet and wooden acting-style aside (he’s in a masterclass with fellow late 80s heartthrob/dullard, Dale Midkiff), there’s plenty of eye-candy on display when Boone hallucinates a (presumed) earlier sexy encounter with Lori. I particularly liked how the blocking of the actors used Sheffer’s body as cover to shield Anne Bobby, thereby maximizing the amount of his skin on display. Boone wasn’t the only one sweating during that vision!

Circling back around to Cronenberg’s performance, you’re not actually wrong to suggest that it is odd. In nearly all of his performances in front of the camera, Cronenberg tends to give off a cold, almost otherworldly, reptilian feel. Here he’s playing a killer psychiatrist, so the cruel, analytical vibes are a perfect fit; if we’re being honest Decker was my favourite character because he’s so unusual and enigmatic. I really wanted more of him! I would watch the hell out of a more straight-forward slasher featuring this character going around slaughtering families (including kids!), motel guests and gas-station attendants.

The problem is that he’s an on-again, off-again villain in the film (I would argue Charles Haid’s Captain Eigerman is the other). Decker is most useful as an inciting incident character who drives Boone to discover the Nightbreed, a role that doesn’t really necessitate him even being a killer. Does he make sense in the rest of the film, especially when Eigerman begins to dominate the proceedings? Honestly no…but maybe that’s just the cut we’re watching!

Trace, do you think that the confusing antagonists and lack of plot were to blame for the film’s initial negative reception? Do you wish the film were a little deeper? And what was your favourite sequence?

Trace

Oh, I’m sure the confusing antagonists and lack of plot are to blame for the film’s initial negative reception. It’s also due to the fact that, well, the script just isn’t very well thought-out. And there is so much exposition. I’d argue that the film, like the Nightbreed themselves, is trying so hard to be understood that after a while you just want to tell it to shut up. I completely understand why this film didn’t resonate with critics. The mis-marketing is no doubt to blame for its poor commercial reception, as well.

And yet, I still found it oddly charming. Grotesque warts and all. There’s something to be said for good intentions, isn’t there?

I wonder if you would appreciate the Theatrical Cut of the film more. It’s 20 minutes shorter, but it does come at the cost of screen time for the Nightbreed. This was due to the aforementioned fact that the studio wanted to emphasize the slasher elements of the film, so it does play quite a bit differently. I also can’t believe there’s a 3-hour cut of this movie on the way. I mean, if you think the Director’s Cut has a meandering narrative, I can only imagine what that one will be like.

Will it make it deeper? I doubt it. Do I wish the film were deeper? I mean, I guess? I love Barker’s writing, but I think he’s always had an issue translating his work to the screen (it’s part of the reason why I think Peter Atkins’ script for Hellbound: Hellraiser II is better than Barker’s script for Hellraiser). As it stands, Nightbreed is fun, messy fluff, and I’m okay with that.

I’m so glad you compared Sheffer to Midkiff because that is the exact comparison I was making in my head (though I’m sure my recent rewatch of the original Pet Sematary played a factor in that). Boone is such a non-entity in this film; he’s just so bland. Also not helping matters is the fact that Lori too often feels like the protagonist of the film (I could be wrong, but she has more screen time than Boone, doesn’t she?). She’s also much more of a spitfire than Boone is, making her instantly more captivating. I do still have reservations about what her suicide says about her co-dependency issues, but until that moment Lori is pretty great. Also, forgive me for glossing over Boone’s underwear. I just couldn’t take my eyes off of that hideous sweater.

It’s fascinating to me that you wanted more of Decker. I agree that his sequences are the only parts of the film that I found legitimately scary (and to answer your question: his massacre of the family is my favorite sequence), but he just felt so disconnected from everything else that was going on. The movie is called Nightbreed, and I sometimes felt like the Nightbreed were secondary characters in their own film! If the Ultimate Cabal Cut has more footage of them, I would be okay with the film excising more of Decker’s scenes (though it sounds like that particular cut will just have all of the footage ever filmed). Since Decker does play a prominent role in the source material, I wonder if it’s just something that I’m never going to think works in this particular story.

We haven’t devoted much text to the Nightbreed themselves. From a purely technical perspective, they are wonderful. Each with their own distinct look and (sometimes) powers. As I mentioned above, the makeup for the Nightbreed is outstanding. If only the narrative had done them more justice so we had a chance to actually get to know them. I couldn’t tell you any of their names. I just called them “porcupine lady,” “the scalped guy” and “moon-head.” That certainly speaks something to Barker’s script. The Director’s Cut at least tries to remedy this problem, but it still doesn’t fully work. Why should we care about this group of misfits, other than the fact that they are misfits (and some of them still like to kill people)?

Joe, I also have to ask: what did you think of Lori’s stage performance of Joanie Sommers’ “Johnny Come Angry”? That was an addition to the Director’s Cut, and seems to be a contentious inclusion among fans. I found it delightful, if a bit too long. Have you seen Barker’s Lord of Illusions? That’s another blind spot for me.

Joe

Good call bringing up Lord of Illusions because it and Nightbreed share a good amount of DNA. Barker is (in)famous for exploring certain themes and character tropes and both films are very much seedy investigations into a subculture that contains more than initially meets the idea (in Nightbreed it is a fabled mutant colony; in Lord of Illusions the secretive world of magicians is a gateway to a demon-worshipping cult). I actually have a BIG soft spot for Illusions, not just because it stars Scott Bakula (of Quantum Leap fame), but because it scared the bejesus out of me as a child. I doubt that it has aged particularly well, but there is definitely some haunting imagery and FX work that parallels the work of Nightbreed. They would make a very complementary screening pair. I may have to add that to our spreadsheet of titles to cover in the future…

As for Bobbys’ cover of “Johnny Come Angry,” I have no idea why people would take issue with it. Like you, I found the sequence a touch long, though I do enjoy a good full length nightclub musical number in a film (come through Dark City, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks: The Return). I thought it was a fascinating way to introduce the character and the lyrics, about a woman who wants her lover to step up and act like more of a man, seems apt considering the journey that Lori and Boone are about to go on.

Admittedly that’s why the ending doesn’t exactly work for me. We’ve had a good discussion about how this film didn’t connect with the studio, who clearly misunderstood what they had and what to do with it. The ending feels like a bit of a studio note from someone who thinks that Boone and Lori belong together. It feels…forced.

While I’m hesitant to force compulsory queerness onto any text, the entirety of Nightbreed is about Boone discovering that his place is among the underground dwellers of the Nightbreed (aka QUEERS) and whether or not Lori fits into his new life. For her to kill herself so that she can stay with her boyfriend, who by this point is a completely different (non-human) person, feels like an odd betrayal of both the narrative and the characters. What’s the message here: literally sacrifice EVERYTHING, including your life, to keep a dysfunctional relationship going? Considering how interesting and empowered Lori is throughout the film, this outcome feels disappointingly out of touch.

I’m sure that our collective dislike of the ending has everything to do with how much more invested we are in Lori. On paper Nightbreed is Boone’s journey, but you’re right that the reality onscreen is that Lori is our true protagonist. Not only is Anne Bobby a more captivating actor, but Lori (seemingly) has more screen time (Consider how absent Boone is once he disappears into the inner chamber to chat with Baphomet, the Nightbreed deity. He’s gone for ages!).

So let’s return to the Nightbreed themselves. I’ll confess that they were kinda the least interesting part of the film to me. I agree with you, Trace, that they’re under-developed and, aside from the strong prosthetic work, kind of interchangeable. It’s no surprise that Hugh Ross’ Narcisse is such a crowd favourite: not only does he get more screen time than the other Midian residents, he has that fantastically uncomfortable scene when he removes his own scalp with a pair of razors <barf>. Plus he’s funny, which this movie is often sorely lacking.

Unfortunately, the other Nightbreed simply don’t do anything half as interesting as Narcisse. I appreciated that Peloquin (Oliver Parker), the dread-locked red Nightbreed, is a bit of a dick, not because it makes him likeable, but because at least it confirms that some of the Midians have distinct personalities.

The sequence when Lori wanders through their underground living space, which is a stunning piece of set design, is emblematic of my issue with the Nightbreed. Too often it feels like Barker is content with using the characters as scary stand-ins for Lori’s fears (“I’m losing my boyfriend to these things?”); it’s the cinematic equivalent of theme park house of horrors where people in prosthetics and elaborate costumes jump out and scare you. The Midians don’t feel like actual characters; they’re either metaphorical stand-ins for the oppressed or they’re the personification of Lori’s fear about losing her boyfriend. Sadly this doesn’t make them three-dimensional or interesting. As a result, it’s hard to invest in their quest to survive, even when the shit hits the fan and the local yokels arrive for the slaughter.

There’s enough quirky/odd/visually interesting stuff in Nightbreed to recommend and I was rarely bored. In fact, more often than not my notes simply read: “where is this going?” I’ll probably check out the Cabal and maybe even the Ultimate Cabal cut of the film someday…but I’m not in a rush to revisit Boone or the Midians in the immediate future. I’m glad we’ve checked Nightbreed off the list, but is is a bit of a mixed bag.

Next time on Horror Queers: just in time for its special edition release by Scream! Factory, let’s dive into quintessential zombie/fraternity horror Night of the Creeps.

Nightbreed is available to stream for $3.99 on YouTube and for free on Amazon Prime.

And don’t forget to catch up on our previous Horror Queers articles here or check out our podcast page here.