N is another of those letters where I knew instantly the primary movie. Nightbreed. But possibly not the Nightbreed you know. The original release in 1990 was messed up by the studio. In the 2010 decade, Clive Barker and his associates began a project to restore the vision of the story with a director’s cut of the movie.

As this movie plays out on my tv, I realize that I want to do a much deeper dive into it than this post will allow. Based on a Clive Barker novella Cabal released in the 80’s, the world Clive built was absolutely amazing. Novella. Movie. Comic series. Anthology. Second comic series. Revamped movie.

This story has taken on a life of it’s own. Like all of Clive’s worlds do. I’m just going to gloss over some aspects of that. You’ll have to wait for the more in depth one later! The primary one I want to touch on with this is the Boom comic from 2014. A comic series tied directly to the rerelease of the movie. It was a 12 issue series that did something fun and amazing. After issue 5 (I think) it had an end note saying “Now go watch the director’s cut movie and be back next month for issue 6, which continues Boone’s story after the events of the movie.”

A brilliant marketing idea and story telling mechanism.

But what about the movie? The original messed things up by shifting the story to focus on Decker the serial killer played brilliantly by director David Cronenberg. Avoiding the real story here which focused on the love story between Boone and Lori, and the overarching concept of humanity being monstrous and the monsters of Midian being the good guys.

The first thing the director’s cut did in changing the story comes from removing about 20 minutes of footage and adding about 45 minutes of footage. The effect of this removes 20% of the original movie and then puts in 50% more to what was left. That’s wild to think about. 25 years later they were able to find and restore the footage, creating the masterpiece movie fans of the novella had been waiting for.

Don’t get me wrong, when the original came out, I enjoyed it in spite of the massive deviation. And when the new DVD became available, I picked up the version with both original and director’s cut discs.

Boone has been dreaming of the city Midian and the monsters that live within. But to find it, he has to die. Those living in Midian are no longer of the natural world. Referring to themselves as Others and to the rest of humanity as Naturals. The character of Decker is integral to events unfolding, as he brings knowledge of the monsters to the police. And thus brings war to the mostly peaceful denizens of Midian.

But humanity has never cared for peace. And if it looks like a monster, it must be dealt with accordingly. The fight between good and evil has never been more misunderstood than in this movie. Appearances do not have the significance that humans put upon it.

Boone’s arrival in Midian signifies massive changes to the Tribes of the Moon. Humans knowing about the existence of Midian brings it’s end. And Boone is tasked with ushering in a new era for the Nightbreed as the safety of Midian disappears. War between the holier than thou police and rednecks against the Tribes of the Moon doesn’t go well.

Decker leads the charge as he feels destined to destroy Midian. As night falls, the city falls as well. But not all of those in Midian are peaceful. And the most violent of them all are the Berserkers. With the city falling, they are freed from their cages and unleashed in defense of Midian.

The story of Boone and the Tribes of the Moon has so much more to be told. Comics and other authors have dipped into it, but Clive has not. At one point I had heard he had planned a follow up book, but that seems unlikely given his poor health and the number of projects he has waiting to be finished.

The story moves at a snails pace, introducing us to a group of friends. Friends who have secrets that aren’t fully explained. Eventually the friends start dying when they see the apparition of a friend, Kia, who died years ago. As the story slowly unfolds we find out that Kia died from an accident. An accident they decided to cover up by making it look like she committed suicide.

But secrets eventually threaten to surface, and as their secret threatens to become exposed, one of them feels a need to prevent that exposure and will do whatever it takes.

This movie treads a thin line between supernatural horror and the evil of a man who cares only for himself. This isn’t the scariest movie, or the most engaging. But it starts with the letter N!

I’m not entirely disparaging of it, it was a decent movie and sits on my shelf likely to be rewatched some day in the future.