NIGHT BREED - 1990
Morgan Creek Productions / 20th Century Fox
Rated: Australia: M / France: 12 / Sweden 15 / UK: 18 / USA: R |
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NIGHT BREED is a prime example of the beauty of a horror movie devoid of standard
Hollywood stereotypes. In NIGHT BREED the monsters are deadly, dangerous, out of control, yet never the less, the good guys.
The bad guys are us and easily recognizable. Writer/Director Clive Barker (HELLRAISER, HELLRAISER II, CANDYMAN)
shows us how very simple it is to unleash the evil in humanity. The most
casual call to arms can elicit murderous sadism, not out of anger or fear,
but simply because most law abiding folks joyfully itch for the moment
when authority gives them a free pass to commit acts of horrific barbarity.
These are the lessons of NIGHT BREED.
The story starts with a stranger a young man named Boone (Craig
Sheffer: BLOODKNOT, THE GRAVE) He's a decent enough guy, has a
woman who loves him and he is crazy about her in return - but he keeps
having these dreams. He dreams of an underground city called Midian. Midian
is where the monsters live and the visual horrors that live there are
the stuff of nightmares too terrible to deal with. So Boone goes to a
psychiatrist. Not just any psychiatrist it seems, but one with some serious
mental problems (HA! Try to find a psychiatrist WITHOUT severe mental problems!) Dr. Decker (David
Cronenberg: THE FLY, RESURRECTION)
is quickly revealed to be a bad guy. We know it, but Boone doesn't, and
Decker is messing with his confused head to convince Boone that he is
the mass murderer that has been terrorizing Ontario (since
they outlawed gun possession in Canada, everyone gets hacked up with knives
- Steak knives don't kill people: People kill People. When Butter knives
are outlawed then only Outlaws will have butter knives. They can take
my Hamilton Beach when they pry it from my cold dead fingers).
Merry Mishaps occur when Boone winds up in a hospital and meets another patient, Narcisse
(Hugh Ross) who also dreams of Midian. Narcisse
is devastated by his visions and his moods swing wildly, one moment wholly
distrustful of Boone, the next convinced that Boone is his guardian come
to save him. The manner in which the patient tries to prove his value
turned more than a few heads in disgust when I saw it at the theater.
Soon Boone finds his way to Midian only to discover an old and discarded cemetery.
But the night is falling as Boone wanders through the graveyard, trying
to make sense of his powerful visions. His belief that he might unwittingly
be a mass murderer, and the fact that Midian is not at all what he expected,
weighs him down in frustrated confusion.
The cemetery comes to life at night, not with zombies or the other undead, but with
the NIGHT BREED.
Various tangents and forms of humanity. Genetic side streets and back
alleys too deformed or weak to defend themselves against the conformist
behavior of humans. They have amazing powers, many of them being the "last
of the changelings" but they also have severe limitations. It is
these limits that compel them to hide from the face of society.
These individuals live together for the sake of survival, or because they are not of like
minds as Boone. Boone soon finds himself both hunted and protected by
the different citizens that make up the underworld of Midian. Bitten,
clawed and running for his life from the monsters, he suddenly finds himself
caught in the bright lights of police cars. Dr. Decker has followed Boone
and has the law in tow. He has convinced the police that Boone is the
crazed serial killer that they seek.
Merry Mishaps occur again as the movie takes another twist.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the movie is its threadbare quality.
The homes we see are worn and lived in, the professional offices are cold
and sterile. Where people (or creatures)
live, is warm and inviting; where they work is grey and lifeless. The
movie has the definite tracks of David Cronenberg, the director (RABID, SCANNERS, VIDEODROME, eXistenZ) all over it, yet it
was written and directed by Clive Barker.
In his early days, Clive's stories and films were crude (as in artistic) but powerful. HELLRAISER attempted to draw out the very short story THE HELLBOUND HEART, but was
given too many loose ends and a such a confused ending that it took HELLRAISER
II to bring it all together and turn both movies into Horror Classics.
I know of no one who loves one movie without the other. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER
II was not so much a sequel, telling the further stories of a set
of characters or a place, as the second half of the whole story, giving
HELLRAISER a finished middle and an ending.
NIGHT BREED has no such problems. Both the story and the movie end with a question
mark, but it is still a satisfying end instead of an abrupt interruption
that leaves you perplexed and lost.
Perhaps thats why, when searching on the internet, I found far more websites dedicated
to NIGHT BREED, which flopped in U.S. theaters, than I did for HELLRAISER, which is moving
on to its 4th sequel after burying itself under a sludge of bad
sequels in HELLRAISER 3 and HELLRAISER 4.
As an actor, David Cronenberg is pretty good. If there is one flaw in his character,
it is that he is not investigated as fully as such a major character should
be. Despite his presence, he has little more to offer than a two dimensional
villain; not through any fault of his own, that is just the way his part
was written. Other highlights are Charles Haid (ALTERED
STATES) who chews up the scenery with gusto. Having spent many years
on TV as the all around nice guy cop, It appears that Haid was just itching
to play the tyrannical evil Sheriff.
Kudos must also go to Geoff Portass, Chief make-up designer for the wonderfully varied
creatures of Midian. It would have been easy enough to do the cheat of
using head only appliances. Geoff went farther in convincing us by dressing
many of the actors in full body make-up and having that makeup actually
work in developing the characters. The monsters range from elegant to
grotesque with nasty little surprises embedded throughout. This is a very
gory story folks.
Like Stephen King, Clive Barker has more than his share of bad movies made from his
stories. Unlike King, Clive has no one to blame but himself, as he had
a direct hand in making all of them. If by some chance you have only seen the
worst of what Barker has to offer, then do yourself a favor and watch him
at his most creative.
NIGHT BREED gets 4 Shriek Girls
This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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