- Director: Clive Barker
- Writers: Clive Barker
- Stars: Craig Sheffer, David Cronenberg, Anne Bobby
- Run Time: 2 hours
Synopsis
Credits roll over a panorama of cave drawings of various monstrous looking characters, some of which we’ll get to know later. We flash over to porcupine woman and others running through the cemetery in the fog. It’s all very mysterious and weird until we see that Boone is waking up; it was just a dream.
Boone’s girlfriend, Lori, wants to get out of town, just the two of them. Boone keeps getting phone calls from Dr. Decker, his psychiatrist, and he wishes that part of his life was over; all that remains are the bad dreams. Decker just won’t leave him alone, but Boone can’t figure out why.
We flash over to a couple at home with their child, but a strange masked man kills them all. The next day, Boone and Decker talk about the mythical city of Midian, where Boone believes his sins will be forgiven. Decker thinks that Boone is a serial killer. Six families killed in ten months. Decker gives Boone 24 hours to turn himself into the police. Boone has a feeling it’s true. Decker gives Boone a bottle of pills that he says will help him.
After a drug-induced hallucination, Boone goes to see Lori sing at the bar. He’s so high he can’t stay to the end of the show. He goes to the hospital, and he finds out that the “Lithium” he took is really some kind of hallucinogen. While he’s at the hospital, the guy in the next bed yells that he wants to be taken to Midian. The two talk, and Boone asks where Midian is, the man gives him directions. Then the man cuts his own face off. Boone runs off, and Decker questions the faceless man. Boone gets in the truck and goes to where the man directed him.
He gets to Midian, which is a huge, walled cemetery. He falls asleep and wakes up after dark. There are strange people all around him. Boone explains that he’s killed fifteen people, and the monstrous Peloquin explains that he’s been lied to, Boone never killed anyone. Peloquin bites Boone, but Boone runs off, straight into the arms of Decker and the police, who shoot him repeatedly. Boone’s dead, and they take him to the morgue where Lori identifies the body. Not long after, Boone’s body disappears.
In the cemetery, deep underground in the tunnels, the faceless man introduces Boone to the others. He meets Lylesberg, the leader, who initiates him into the Nightbreed.
We soon see that Decker is the serial killer, and he wants the immortality that Midian offers, but he doesn’t know where it is. Lori goes to Midian, which she only knows as the place where Boone died.
Lori makes a friend at the bar, and the next morning, she goes to Midian. Decker kills her new friend while Lori explores the cemetery. Lori hears something crying, and it turns out to be a strange animal suffering in the daylight. She carries it her mother, and the creature turns into a little girl. She meets Lylesberg, who says “What is below remains below.” Lori tries to follow them downstairs, but she gets a scare and leaves.
Lori finds Cheryl murdered outside, and Decker chases her around the cemetery. Boone interrupts, and Decker stabs him. Decker runs off, and Boone morphs into a monster and chases him but has to come back to care for Lori. Lylesberg says Boone must leave, it’s all according to the law of Baphomet, who created Midian. Meanwhile, Lori is shown a vision of the torture and torment the monsters have felt at the hands of humans throughout the past. Decker wants to kill them all.
Lori goes looking for Boone and sees all the inhabitants of the Midian tunnels. They are a weird bunch.
Decker tries to talk the inspector and the police chief into going up to the cemetery heavily armed and ready for battle. He’s says there’s going to be a lot more bloodshed if someone doesn’t stop them. Lori rescues Boone from Baphomet, and they leave the cemetery.
Boone is captured by the police, who interrogate and abuse him. Before long, the chief of police believes that he’s captured a dead man. The police grab one of the Midianites, but he dissolves in the sun. Decker, the Chief, and a bunch more cops head up to Midian, and they take a drunken priest and a whole parade of rednecks with them. The priest tells the chief that “there’s no evil here,” which doesn’t go over well with the bloodthirsty Chief.
Rachel and Narcisse, along with Lori, break Boone out of jail. The cops boobytrap the cemetery, while Decker kills the inspector. The bombs start going off, and the creatures underground see that the end is near. They start coming up and fighting back. Lylesberg tells them to calm down and stay hidden, but Boone explains that they all need to be evacuated. They need to fight back.
During the battle, Decker puts on his Zipperface mask and kills as many as he can. The cops have guns and explosives, while the Midianites use the various abilities that they have.
Lylesberg plans to destroy the entire cemetery, but Boone says no, they should release the Berserkers, the inhuman monsters that have no intelligence at all. The cops kill Lylesberg, so Boone ends up releasing the real monsters. Decker is killed, and the priest gets an upgrade, seemingly to be the villain in the never-to-be-sequel.
They can’t really move Baphomet, but Baphomet doesn’t blame Boone. He tasks him with rebuilding a sanctuary somewhere else and renames him “Cabal.” He is their new leader. Then the tunnels all explode and collapse, scattering and separating the Nightbreed. Lori ends up stabbing herself and Boone bites her to save her life.
Commentary
A few weeks ago we talked about our top all time favorite horror films. This wasn’t in the top two, but it’s certainly in my top six or seven. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this one. The Director’s cut adds a bunch of scenes, some more necessary than others, but overall, I like the new version better than the original.
The monster designs are all over the place from simple masks to complex inhuman things. Most of the creatures have their own names and personalities, and for the most part, we’re supposed to sympathize with the monsters. The humans really are the bad guys here.
It never slows down, with one action scene after another. There’s plenty going on with the secret world of monsters and the gun-happy humans and their inevitable clash. They completely didn’t need the whole Decker subplot, but it’s there anyway, which just puts the whole thing over the top with too much coolness to pass up. If you haven’t seen Nightbreed, you need to.