+ intro (on Sunday 30 October only)
Perhaps even more unclassifiable than his debut Hellraiser, Clive Barker’s singular sophomore feature is an exhilarating action/horror hybrid about a secret kingdom of monsters (AKA the good guys), and the villainous humans who hunt them down, led by a crazed serial killer played by none other than David Cronenberg. Equal parts gorgeous and grotesque, Nightbreed not only showcases Barker’s knack for ambitious world-building, but also serves as a queer-positive rallying cry for social reform.
Michael Blyth, bfi.org.uk
The Nightbreed Director’s Cut is an entirely different film than the one which was released in theatres. It is 20 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but it contains over 40 minutes of new and altered footage.
Clive oversaw the reconstruction and edit himself, personally ensuring that, at long last, he was able to tell the story he always wanted to tell, but until now, had never been given the chance. Once the scenes were reordered, and the original film footage restored, the entire film received a brand new sound mix and colour pass. It is, in every way, a different movie. It contains more story, more monsters, and there’s even a musical number. Ultimately, what we’ve delivered is a love story 25 years in the making.
Production notes
Clive Barker talks to Mark Kermode about time-twisting, shape-shifting and stirring the primal soup
Nightbreed is an inversion of what we normally think of monsters doing in monster movies, which is being the villains and the personification of evil and chaos. It also attempts to bring in some seemingly inappropriate imagery. One of the things I get most mail about regarding Hellraiser is the fact that Frank says ‘Jesus wept!’ just before he is pulled apart at the seams. When I went to Danny Elfman to score Nightbreed, I said let’s go to Biblical epics, and that brought in something which could be deemed inappropriate to the genre. But the story is in fact very clearly a ‘Moses and the Lost Tribe’ tale. So there are inversions and wilful mismatchings at work.
Then there’s something which has won me few friends on Nightbreed, which is a kind of experimental, scatter-shot structure. Most movie narratives are very linear and follow one character-that’s particularly true of horror movies. I wanted to see what would happen if you actually gave a whole group of elements free reign. One American review said the film played like a series of trailers, and that’s actually not so wrong. It makes it fun to watch, but it also means that at the end it’s really very difficult to sum up and assess what you’ve seen. Many of the movies to which I looked as models, such as Fellini’s Satyricon, have that quality. It’s as if you go through the movie like a pinball, knocked from one series of references to another, each of which is obliquely referring to the central theme of inversion.
It’s very difficult to feel anything for any of the characters, and that again is deliberate. Each of the characters has an archetypal place, they’re even dressed archetypally: Lylesberg is the monk; Peloquin is the pirate monster; Boone is dressed in jeans, leather jacket and white T-shirt, and so on. There are also lots of jokes in the names – there is a character called Narcisse, for example, who ends up with only his face left on. Boone is the gift, Midian appears in the Bible as a place full of devils, but also in a weird way is full of angels.
The strengths and failings of my written work are probably the strengths and failings of my movie-making. There is always the obsessive preoccupation with telling the other side of a story, and legitimising the vision of the dark side, which is very important in Nightbreed, as is the sexual element, which was one of the more controversial elements of my short fiction. So there is that continuity from the written work and also from my drawings.
Clive Barker interviewed by Mark Kermode, Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1990
NIGHTBREED DIRECTOR’S CUT
Director: Clive Barker
©: Inc. Morgan Creek Productions
Production Company: Morgan Creek Productions
Executive Producers: James G. Robinson, Joe Roth
Producer: Gabriella Martinelli
Associate Producer: David Barron
Production Manager (LA): Andy Given
Production Manager (Calgary): Joe Thornton
Production Supervisor: David Barron
Production Supervisor (Additional UK): Jeannie Stone
Production Controller: Sheldon Katz
Location Manager: Simon McNair Scott
Location Manager (LA): David Haldiman
Post-production Supervisor: Jody Levin
Action Unit Director: Andy Armstrong
Assistant Directors: Kieron Phipps, Tim Lewis, Peter Freeman, Marcus Catlin, Steve Millson, Antony Ford
Casting (UK): Doreen Jones
Casting (US): Todd Thayler
Screenplay: Clive Barker
Based on the novel Cabal by: Clive Barker
Director of Photography: Robin Vidgeon
Director of Photography (Action Unit): Wally Byatt
Director of Photography (LA): Steven Fierberg
Animation Photographer: Karl Watkins
Camera Operator: David Worley
Camera Operator (Model Unit): David Litchfield
Camera Operator (Action Unit): Lou Lavelly
Special Visual Effects: Image Animation
Baphomet Animation: Peter Tupy
Animation Optical Effects: VCE Inc
Matte Effects: Westbury Design & Optical
Matte Photographer: Neil Culley
Supervising Matte Artist: Cliff Culley
Matte Artist: Bob Bell
Special Effects Supervisor: Chris Corbould
Model Unit Director: Julian Parry
Model Photography: Harry Oakes
Editors: Richard Marden, Mark Goldblatt
Associate Editors: Alan Baumgarten, Peter Boita, John Grover
Production Designer: Steve Hardie
Production Designer (LA): Mark Haskins
Art Director: Ricky Eyres
Set Designer: Ann Hollowood
Conceptual Artist: Ralph McQuarrie
Storyboard Artist: Roger Deer
Sculptures: Alix Harwood
Costume Designer: Ann Hollowood
Costume Design (LA): Marie France
Make-up Artist: Aileen Seaton
Special Effects Make-up: Image Animation
Special Make-up Effects: Bob Keen, Geoff Portass
Special Make-up Effects (LA): Tony Gardner
Title Sequence Designer/Painter: Ralph McQuarrie
Titles: Pacific Title
Music: Danny Elfman
Music Director: Shirley Walker
Orchestrations: Steve Bartek
Music Editors: Sally Boldt, Bob Badami
Music Recording: Shawn Murphy, Bob Fernandez
Creature Choreography: David Glass
Sound Design: Bruce Nyznik
Sound Recording: John Midgley, Anna Behlmer
Sound Recording (Additional UK): David Allen
Sound Recording (LA): Walt Martin
Sound Re-recording: Gary Bourgeois, Chris Carpenter, Rick Hart
Sound Editors: Destiny Borden, David Arnold, Allen Hartz, Donlee Jorgensen, Dave Kulczycki, George Simpson, Dave Spence, David Whittaker, Jay Wilkinson Jr
ADR Editors: Barbara Barnaby, Cynthia Haagens
Foley Editors: Linda Folk, Solange Boisseau
Studio: Pinewood Studios
Cast
Craig Sheffer (Aaron Boone)
Anne Bobby (Lori Winston)
David Cronenberg (Dr Decker)
Charles Haid (Captain Eigerman)
Hugh Quarshie (Detective Joyce)
Hugh Ross (Narcisse)
Doug Bradley (Lylesberg)
Catherine Chevalier (Rachel)
Malcolm Smith (Ashberry)
Bob Sessions (Pettine)
Oliver Parker (Peloquin)
Debora Weston (Sheryl Ann)
Nicholas Vince (Kinski)
Simon Bamford (Ohnaka)
Kim Robertson (Babette)
Nina Robertson (Babette)
Christine McCorkindale (Shuna Sassi)
Tony Bluto (Leroy Gomm)
Vincent Keene (Devil Lude)
Bernard Henry (Baphomet)
Richard Van Spall (drummer)
David Young (Otis and Clay)
Valda Aviks (Melissa Rickman)
Mac Mcdonald (Lou Rickman)
Richard Bowman (Rickman boy)
McNally Segal (motel receptionist)
Daniel Kash (Labowitz)
Bradley Lavelle (Cormack)
Stephen Hoye (Gibbs)
Tom Hunsinger (Tommy)
George Roth (Kane)
Peter Marinker (pathologist)
Lindsay Holiday (morgue assistant)
Kenneth Nelson (emergency doctor)
Carolyn Jones (emergency nurse)
Ted Maynard (bartender)
Mitch Webb (jail cell doctor)
Scott Gilmore (ambush cop)
Eric Loren (ambush cop)
USA 1990
120 mins
IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS
Nosferatu (Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens)
Mon 17 Oct 20:50; Sun 13 Nov 15:50 (+ intro by Silent Film Curator Bryony Dixon); Sat 19 Nov 14:10
Frankenstein
Tue 18 Oct 20:50; Fri 28 Oct 18:20; Tue 8 Nov 18:20; Sun 27 Nov 13:00
The Skeleton Key
Wed 19 Oct 18:00; Mon 14 Nov 20:45
Meet the Monsters: A Season Introduction
Thu 20 Oct 19:30 BFI YouTube
I Walked With a Zombie
Thu 20 Oct 20:40; Tue 1 Nov 18:10
Creature from the Black Lagoon (3D)
Sat 22 Oct 18:15 (+ pre-recorded intro by Mallory O’Meara, award winning and bestselling author of ‘The Lady from the Black Lagoon’); Sat 29 Oct 11:40; Tue 1 Nov 20:50
In Dreams Are Monsters Quiz
Sun 23 Oct 19:00-22:00 Blue Room
Kuroneko (Yabu no naka no kuroneko)
Tue 25 Oct 20:45; Mon 31 Oct 21:00; Fri 18 Nov 18:15
The Fly
Wed 26 Oct 21:00
La Llorona
Thu 27 Oct 20:30; Mon 7 Nov 21:00
Celluloid Screams and Live Cinema UK presents: Ghostwatch + Q&A
Fri 28 Oct 20:20
Viy
Fri 28 Oct 20:45; Tue 8 Nov 20:50
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Sat 29 Oct 18:30; Wed 30 Nov 20:50
Candyman
Sat 29 Oct 20:45; Thu 17 Nov 20:50 (+ intro)
Nightbreed – Director’s Cut
Sun 30 Oct 15:10 (+ intro); Sat 12 Nov 20:35
28 Days Later
Mon 31 Oct 18:00 (+ Q&A with director Danny Boyle); Sat 26 Nov 20:45
Us
Tue 1 Nov 20:40; Sat 19 Nov 15:10; Tue 29 Nov 20:40
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Wed 2 Nov 18:10; Sat 26 Nov 20:40
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
Wed 2 Nov 20:45; Sat 19 Nov 20:45
Blacula
Thu 3 Nov 20:55; Sat 26 Nov 13:00
Cronos
Fri 4 Nov 18:30; Sat 19 Nov 12:10; Sun 20 Nov 18:30
Fright Night
Fri 4 Nov 20:50; Tue 22 Nov 20:40 (+ intro)
Possession
Sat 5 Nov 20:20 (+ intro by author Kier-La Janisse); Sun 27 Nov 15:30
Ganja & Hess
Mon 7 Nov 18:00; Sat 26 Nov 15:20
Inferno
Wed 9 Nov 20:40; Sat 26 Nov 18:20
The Entity
Fri 11 Nov 17:55; Tue 15 Nov 20:30
Def by Temptation
Wed 16 Nov 18:10 (+ intro); Sat 26 Nov 18:10
Jennifer’s Body
Sun 20 Nov 15:15; Mon 21 Nov 18:00; Fri 25 Nov 20:45
Pontypool
Mon 21 Nov 20:30; Sun 27 Nov 12:20
Under the Shadow
Wed 23 Nov 20:40; Tue 29 Nov 18:10
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Thu 24 Nov 20:40; Mon 28 Nov 18:10
Pet Sematary
Fri 25 Nov 18:15; Mon 28 Nov 20:40
Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras)
Sun 27 Nov 18:10; Wed 30 Nov 20:25
IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS EVENTS
City Lit at BFI: Screen Horrors – Screen Monsters
Thu 20 Oct – Thu 15 Dec 18:30-20:30
Beyond Nollywood World Premiere: Inside Life + Q&A with director Clarence A Peters
Sat 29 Oct 14:00
Matchbox Cine presents House of Psychotic Women
Sat 5 Nov 17:50
Son of Ingagi + Panel Discussion
Wed 9 Nov 18:10
Live Commentary with Evolution of Horror, Brain Rot and The Final Girls
Sat 19 Nov 18:00
Big Monster Energy
Tue 22 Nov 18:30
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Programme notes and credits compiled by the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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