Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut (2012) Review

Based on this scene alone, Craig Sheffer cannot be deemed as the problem: He does what he can with the character. While he has a strong physical presence onscreen and the director’s cut further fleshes out his character’s relationship with Anne Bobby, I’ll be goddamned if the audience isn’t just waiting to get back to Decker.

Ah, Decker. If there’s one thing the Cabal Cut gets right it is the inclusion of more Decker. The serial killer, played with icy calm confidence by Academy Award nominated director David Cronenberg, is bar none the greatest monster of Nightbreed. Cronenberg’s performance in the original cut stood along Danny Elfman’s beautiful score as the best part of the entire movie. While Cronenberg is surely a god among film fanatics — genre or not — his turn here is unequivocally iconic.

Decker is a twisted, sick, reprehensible serial killers who preys on families — “Breeders” — and finds his ultimate calling to be destroying Boone’s adopted tribe in Midian. Barker’s metaphor of humanity as the real monsters, marginalizing the unique and different is often undermined by the fact that the film’s ultimate icon of human evil is just so goddamned likable.

Like The Joker or Freddy Krueger, Decker is the bad guy we love to hate and, in the process, kind of root for. In this reassembled cut, Cronenberg’s performance is made even more complex, giving us a multitude of standout character moments that emerge as Decker’s plan to conquer Midian comes into fruition. In this version, we are privy to more of the doctor’s quirks and frailties. By the end of the film, the character’s mask of sanity has slipped in a number of horrific and often hilarious ways. A restored scene where Decker’s zipper-faced skin mask starts talking to him, imploring him to put on his true face and take out Detective Joyce is a work of Grand Guignol hilarity and played pitch perfectly by Cronenberg.

While I was satisfied by the Cabal Cut‘s rounding of Decker’s character arc, I was most disappointed that the majority of the film’s monster cast is never fully developed — beyond the noted exceptions, of course. Peloquin has some cool dialogue, a great look, and is fiercely played by Simon Bamford, but his motivations are non-existent. He doesn’t seem particularly keen on following the laws of Midian or even defending his people, but merely acts on wild, often scary impulses. I don’t have a problem with wild card anti-heroes, but ones like Peloquin litter too much of Nightbreed‘s cityscape.

Narcisse is little more than a comic relief version of Peloquin — violent and greedy, but with a flare for absurdist humor and personal musings that never quite mesh the way Barker wants them to.

Kinski, the moon-faced, knife-wielding monster is just a pragmatic version of Peloquin — he looks cool, wants to keep order, and that’s about it.

Leroy Gom and Devil Lude are magnificently designed marvels, but as characters they are merely generators of cringe-worthy one liners and shocking special effects.

There lies the entire problem of Nightbreed, one heightened by the extended Cabal Cut: the monsters just aren’t likable. I marvel at their powers and Bob Keen’s accomplishments in bringing them to life on the big screen, but much like the recent X-Men films, the majority of them are just bit players for special effects purposes, given only the barest amount of attention by the script and haphazardly utilized.

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