Frightful Features - Nightbreed (1990)

Based upon the director's novella Cabal, Nightbreed is a dark fantasy film that follows Aaron Boone, a seemingly normal human being who's been having strange dreams. Every night, he finds himself whisked away to a place called Midian where a race of monsters called the 'Nightbreed' live. However, Boone quickly learns these dreams are more than figments of his imagination and he might not be as normal as he thought.

I'll admit, Nightbreed is by no means a perfect film. Hell, one could argue that it's not even a good one. The plotting is somewhat haphazard and the majority of its characters receive very little development outside of a handful of traits and admittedly pretty cool designs.

With that being said, I can't help but have a fondness for Nightbreed. I understand why a cult of genre fans have formed around this movie. The concept of having these strange creatures existing right under our noses and being the truly persecuted ones is very intriguing, the make-up work is excellent and the creature designs are visually interesting, and the climatic third act is a special level of awesome. You can also sense the amount of love and heart Clive Barker put into the film, which causes Nightbreed to possess this odd charm to it.

While it might not be the best movie in the world, Nightbreed manages to sustain itself with a cool concept and utterly awesome third act. Give it a try if you like Barker's work, looking for something with some cool monsters, and an interesting secondary part played by a certain beloved horror director.