I reviewed the comic books based on this film, so what the
heck, let's review the film itself, since Netflix recently dropped the
anticipated-for-decades Director's Cut.1
We've always noticed glitches in Clive Barker's second film-
an adaptation of his novel "Cabal," which is basically
"X-Men" with monsters & murderers instead of mutants- but we all
assumed they were due to severe studio recutting.2 Now with Barker's complete
vision laid bare, the truth can be told.
The studio was not entirely to blame.
For starters, the lack of character development is a
non-starter.
It's supposed to be a big deal that Boone, the hero, is
willing to violate The Law- the 'breed code of conduct- but the part where he
was taught The Law and integrated into the Midian monster society is almost
totally skipped over. This is basic Hero's Journey stuff, people! And this was
1990, for goodness' sake! You could at least throw us a training-montage bone!
And heck, the Law seems pretty antiquated and disregarded even before Boone is initiated. One 'breeder, Peloquin, flat-out says "F--- the law" when it gets in the way of him devouring some human meat in Midian. And Peloquin is a veteran Nightbreed. So it's really not a shocker to have our hero disregard the law. He'd been a member of the 'breed for, what, a day and a half at that point?
Plus, the Law has no impact because we don't know what or
why it is. They could have given us some brief explanations, something like
"We don't eat meat because some of us are half-animal and that blurs the
lines. We don't kill or use weapons except in self-defense, because we've been
used as slave-soldiers in the past." Stuff that makes sense.
Peloquin has no arc, either. His initial appearance where he
bites and infects Boone is striking- he has the best lines,3 he looks great, he
defies The Law,4 he sets a prophecy in motion by biting Boone,5 and he's
clearly got a watchdog role by the monsters' front door. He's important. But
then at the end of the film, he's just another foot soldier. After he bit
Boone, there was no more reason to have him in the film.
The film's basic mechanics are faulty, too. When the
monsters rescue Boone from jail, the suspense is killed by Boone's girlfriend
taking several minutes to smooch and catch up with Boone IN HIS JAIL CELL,
MID-JAIL BREAK. And while this stuff is happening, the monster's home is under
attack, making it extra-annoying that the narrative is being halted for
romantic chit-chat.6 So when they get back to Midian and it's blowing up and
they're like "We're too late!" I'm sitting here like "Yeah, if
only you'd gotten there a few minutes earlier. Like maybe if you hadn't STOPPED
COLD FOR SEVERAL MINUTES TO MAKE OUT IN THAT JAIL CELL!?!
The monster who ripped the skin off his head- Narcisse-
wasn't killed by Decker in the 1990 studio cut. He's killed in the "Cabal
Cut." But his death or survival doesn't affect the plot at all. He's the
most charismatic character in the movie,7 so it's odd that he really gets no
character arc and his death or survival is such a non-event in both versions.
And the film's biggest weakness: Boone doesn't really work
as a "Chosen One."
It's not just that he's a bland cipher with no back story or
clear motivation or values. It's the way that the bland cipher is used.
Theoretically, Boone is an ideal Nightbreed Ambassador to the human race
because he can look human and he's very hard to kill. He does not make good use
of these advantages, and winds up in jail very quickly.
Supposedly, Boone's prophesied by the Nightbreed god
Baphomet to be "Cabal," the one destined to free the monsters from
hiding underground. But to what effect? He encourages them to fight back at the
end...and they don't do a very good job at it. Bite a few people, punch a few
people, hit a few people with sticks. Listen, Cabal- I know Spartacus, and you
are no Spartacus.
The 'breed get viciously mowed down by heavy weaponry and
are barely shown taking any humans out at all. They evacuate right into the line of fire. And when they fight, they fight like
bad guys. "Go out there and just kind of run around! Attack in waves of
like three of four guys so they can gang up on you! There's a bunch of trees
around, so make sure not to stand behind them! Here are some sticks to swat at
people with!" And there's no explanation for why the super-monsters- the
Berserkers- weren't sent out first, or at least, before dozens of them were
killed. And then the Berserkers just flip a couple police cars and WWF-punch a
handful of humans with about as much gusto as Tor Johnson in "Plan 9 from
Outer Space."
To Barker's credit, he at least has Midian getting hit with
shock-and-awe level firepower. The monsters are getting bombed to the point
that their lair was collapsing. You clearly get the impression that the
inexplicably maniacal and fanatical cops were gonna keep attacking until the 'breed
were driven out. So it at least made sense that they needed to evacuate- the
place might've fallen on them if they didn't.
And thanks to Boone/Cabal/The Chosen One, the handful of
'breed that survive the showdown with the humans are "freed" from
Midian...so that they can go live in a barn. "I'm Peloquin, I'm a
Nightbreed, and I live IN A BARN DOWN BY THE RIVER."
Ending up in a barn is really a crap ending. Midian was
fine. They had a good ecosystem down there, no one was bothering them, Baphomet
was a freaky cool god overseeing them, it all worked. Nothing good came out of
Boone blundering in there, other than getting a bunch of them killed, all of
them evicted, and then stranded in the middle of nowhere.
It would've been a triumph if they powerfully fought back,
rose up, and dominated the humans or at least got recognition or made some kind
of peace, but they didn't. They're way worse off than before. It's implied that
maybe Boone/Cabal will find another place for them, but doesn't that mean
they're just heading for another hiding place? How is that better?
In the absence of a sequel,8 it doesn't really hold up to
scrutiny. A lot of this is because we're all more movie-savvy and trope-savvy
now. The biggest strike against seeing "Nightbreed" now is
that we have films like "Dark City," "Cronos," the
"Blade" series, and "Hellboy" to compare it to. It’s been
massively leapfrogged.
The fact that Barker was presenting monsters sympathetically
in 1990 was huge. So if nothing else, he opened the door for movies to have
likable monster protagonists. That's worth something, especially since slashers
still dominated the horror airwaves at the time.9
Barker has so many interesting-looking monsters that he
gives only a second or two of screen time to, and the monsters that actually get a
couple scenes- we're mystified as to their motives and natures and plans. It
all just feels like a missed opportunity. The best format for this story would
have been a "True Detective"-style 8 or 9 episode series. Barker had
a lot of ideas here and he didn't do any of them justice.
Even Decker, the
psychiatrist-turned-manipulative-serial-killer. Compelling as he is, he's nuts
for no clear reason.10 The movie just needs him to be crazy enough to frame
Boone for murder and sic the cops on Midian. He's psycho because the script
says so.
And this is a tough thing to admit, but I kind of agree with
the studio for cutting all the fat out of the movie's first half-hour. Boone's
girlfriend singing for five minutes,11 the redundant opening phone convo
between Boone and Decker, Boone's lady visiting him at his garage,12 Boone
hallucinating,13...none of that was necessary, nor did it tell us anything we
didn't already know from the 1990 cut. I mean, it's kind of interesting that
Boone's lady was a local rock star. And that Boone was a garage mechanic. But
do either of those matter to the story? At no point in the movie does someone
say to Boone's lady, "Hey, didn't I see you singing at a club one
time?" or "Aren't you the lady in that band?" She’s never
required to sing as a plot point. And at no point does a car break down and
Boone use his garage mechanic skills to fix it. That’s a big ol’ wall of
unfired Chekhov’s guns.
The 1990 cut felt choppy and abrupt without those scenes,
but it also had momentum. We're rocketing right along to Midian in that
version. And that worked. I don't recall what was different about the rest of
the movie, aside from the ending- which was slightly better in the "Cabal
Cut."
I'm gonna give the devil his due- the studio's version of
the pre-Midian section of the movie is better than Barker's. Barker's has the
APPEARANCE of more character development...but it's irrelevant character
development, so it doesn't help the film, just bogs it down.
Stupid Meddling Film Studio: 1
1. This is the "Cabal Cut," to be totally
accurate. I understand there's an even longer version that's actually
officially the "Director's Cut," but I'm reasonably certain this is
the longest version that will ever be released.
2. The studio cut the film from 2.5 hours to 90 minutes- not
a trivial amount of surgery.
3. "It's all true. God is an astronaut, Oz is over the
rainbow, and Midian is where the monsters live." Classic.
4. Hey, maybe Law-defiance is transmissible by bite?
5. Which I guess Peloquin knew he was destined to do, since
there's an ancient cave drawing showing him doing it? Did he just bite everyone
he came near, just in case that person was the Chosen One?
6. In the book, Boone and his lady actually have sex in his
jail cell during that scene. Barker really has no clue when it comes to pacing
or common sense sometimes.
7. And, next to Decker, Narcisse is the only character who's
not dragged from thing to thing as a plot device- he takes initiative, whether
it's face-ripping or prison-breaking or evacuating people in a crisis.
8. And to be fair, Barker originally wanted this to be a
trilogy.
9. And even in this film, Barker was pressured into
including a couple slasher scenes- the family getting slaughtered and the guy
getting stabbed and tortured to death by Decker were reshoots because the
studio wanted more slasherness.
10. Is the killer doctor's huge room with all the blades and
sick art at his house or office?
11. And fair enough- the singing scene isn't BAD, it just
doesn't add anything. It would've worked if we found out something like she
worked in an animal shelter, so that when she sees the creatures in Midian, she
would connect those to her day job and feel a similar sense of needing to do
"animal rescue" on them. That's a free idea. Barker can take that and
reshoot the movie with it!
12. That's the only scene where his day job gets mentioned.
13. And why does he look so terrified and repulsed at a
vision of himself getting sexytime with his lady? The film's director is gay,
but I thought Boone was straight...
-Phony McFakename
