The ’90s Dark Horror Fantasy Epic From A Legendary Author, Stream Without Netflix

Nightbreed follows a mentally disturbed man named Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) who keeps having recurring dreams about monstrous beings in a mythical world called Midian.

After being encouraged by his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby) to go back to see his psychiatrist Dr. Decker (David Cronenberg), he is horrified to learn that some elements of his nightmares reflect in detail the murders being committed by an actual serial killer on the loose.

Dr. Decker gives Boone what he says is librium, but instead slips the distraught man LSD. The drug gives Boone a psychotic episode and lands him in a psychiatric hospital. While he is there, another patient starts ranting about Midian and begins to tear his own face off, giving Boone a chance to escape during the chaos.

Nightbreed finds Boone following details in his dreams to a cemetery where he believes Midian begins. He is attacked by one of the monsters from his dreams and bitten savagely on his arm.

Dr. Decker, suspecting that Boone is at the cemetery, has police waiting outside their gates who open fire and kill him.

The bite on his arm resurrects Boone and he returns to Midian for answers. It’s revealed that Dr. Decker is the serial killer and has been using Boone to both cover up his brutal murders and to find a way into Midian himself.

While Boone’s motives for seeking out Midian are pure, Dr. Decker wishes to destroy it and everyone in it.

The people of Midian are revealed to be ancient creatures who created the mystical place out of necessity. Hunted by humans, they needed a place to be both free and safe from man’s constant efforts to extinguish them.

Nightbreed unfolds as a newly anointed Boone joins forces with the inhabitants of Midian in a final showdown between the Nightbreed and Dr. Decker.

The film captures the true essence of a dark fantasy film like no other from its era. The creation of Midian for the screen and the brilliantly accomplished costuming and special effects makeup for its inhabitants are enough to bring the Clive Barker novella Cabal (upon which Nightbreed is based) screaming into life.

Barker served as director of the film as well as providing the screenplay and put forth his best efforts in violently smashing the fantasy world into the real one.

Danny Elfman’s musical score provided the haunting overlay the film needed to truly envelop it as a movie that is as riveting as a horror film just as it is beautiful as a fantasy film.

Beyond each of the Nightbreed creatures in Midian is a righteous soul that seeks security as well as justice, characteristics that allow for audiences to empathize with beings that, though monstrous in appearance, have pure souls.

Barker’s ability to take viewers from being fearful of these beings to a place where they root for them is also very well done and serves to elevate the film’s sense of humanity.

On a socio-political level, Nightbreed has been applauded for drawing comparisons to the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community by 1980s society.

Barker, himself a member of the community, drew praise from activist groups then and in contemporary times for making the film a “truly gay horror fantasy epic.”

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Despite the accolades, Nightbreed wasn’t a commercial success when it was released to theaters in 1990. The film managed to exceed its $11 million production budget in ticket sales, but only managed a gross return of $16 million.

Some of this could be due to how the film was marketed, with some horror fans avoiding it because they thought it was a fantasy film and fantasy fans staying away because they believed it to be another dark horror slasher from Barker.

Nightbreed is both. There are certainly heavy elements of a slasher movie throughout, particularly the brutal murder sequences at the hand of Decker. The film’s primary protagonists, though not monsters per se, have frightening appearances which add horror film layers to the production.

But at the end of the day, Nightbreed is merely using the aforementioned characteristics to weave in the deeply rooted dark fantasy storyline.

You can stream Nightbreed for free with Midnight Pulp and Cineverse or rent it On Demand through AppleTV and Prime.