Nightbreed

While Cronenberg works, the two other main humans - Boone and his girlfriend, are flat and boring, mostly due to uninspired performances. Still, that's like blasting Star Wars for Mark Hamill's acting. While this isn't as great as Star Wars, it's in the same vein, and if Nightbreed had made some loot, I think we would have gotten some very cool sequels with a fantastic mythology.

The background is more intriguing than the stumbling up-front story, and monster watchers will get full use of the freeze-frame facility.

The movie is all visuals and atmosphere without an effective structure. It doesn't move you, it's on display. [24 Feb 1990, p.E5]

Writer-director Clive Barker's Nightbreed is a mess. Self-indulgent horror pic [from his novel Cabal] could be the Heaven's Gate of its genre, of obvious interest to diehard monster fans but a turnoff for mainstream audiences.

Surrounded by Mr. Barker's visual clutter and lack of narrative energy, Mr. Cronenberg's presence only highlights the difference between a gruesome but first-rate psychological horror story like Dead Ringers and a mediocrity like Nightbreed.

Barker calls his shambolic, uninvolving narrative 'scattershot'; put less kindly, it's as explosive and directionless as a blunderbuss.

It bombs, but not for lack of trying. It bombs for too much trying. [17 Feb 1990, p.C3]

So this movie is pretty rad. Clive Barker added this gem to his fantasy horror collection and its inspired take on a mysterious tribe of outcasts is wonderfully relatable. Being a gay man I definitely get the comparisons of prejudice and racism throughout the film. Watching his director's cut it's a pleasure to finally see his vision take form. Sure some of the set pieces could have used some fine tuning but the practical effects and creature design are so impressive and the direction is truly inspired. It's a unique watch, not flawless but is kinda perfect the way it is. A small step up from the already great theatrical cut. 4/5

although there was a ton of stuff that jus didn’t work out in my opinion, the stuff that did was some of the craziest stuff i’ve ever seen

Nightbreed is really an interesting movie, not state-of-the-art but still very fine. The theatrical version isn't probably really representative of Clive Baker's original vision and miss many points and sequences. But the director's cut is really more impressive. One of the strong thing out of Nightbreed is David Cronenberg as Dr Decker that can easily scare the **** out of you and just perfectly feet in his part. Some special effects are really cheesy but that's not gonna hurt too much the final result. Danny Elfman's score is one of his best work to date in my opinion and helps to build this kinda gothic / gore atmosphere. Overall that's a very fine experience that I can only recommend to every horror fans. My final rating is about 5/10 for the theatrical but a strong 7/10 for the director's cut.

Nightbreed features exceptional creature effects, entertaining action and world-building potential given its intriguing and fresh premise, but its sloppy storytelling and questionable creative decisions will leave viewers rather disappointed.

If you just want to waste your time watching a mediocre horror ( ? ) film, then by all means enter at your own risk. The sound off is better than listening to this sophomore attempt at a horror film. The special effects reminded me of the old fifties films. At least ‘The Blob’ had some story to it, and as a bonus you got to see one of Steve McQueen’s first films.