Editorials
The Road to Midian: Clive Barker’s ‘Nightbreed’ Turns 30
After the success of Hellraiser, Clive Barker chose to adapt his 1988 novella Cabal for his sophomore feature. The setup of the novella was ripe for crafting expansive mythology from the ground up, one that posited monsters as the good guys and humans as the real villains. That the source story only briefly described the monsters in a mere matter of paragraphs meant it was open for creativity. What was envisioned as an epic romance in a world of sympathetic monsters eventually was trimmed down and marketed as a slasher thanks to the studio balking at new terrain.
Nightbreed flopped upon its theatrical release on February 16, 1990. Still, thirty years later, the core themes of Barker’s vision shine through and remain timeless, both in the profoundly altered theatrical release and his original version.
Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) dreams of Midian, a place where creatures of the night live in hiding from the dangers of man. He’s so troubled that his worried girlfriend, Lori (Anne Bobby), urges him to seek help, which puts him in the clutches of Dr. Phillip Decker (David Cronenberg). Decker is a sadistic killer. He drugs Boone and convinces him that he’s the one responsible for the recent string of grisly murders. After an encounter in a hospital with a man named Narcisse (Hugh Ross), Boone is given the actual location of Midian, which sets him down a path to accepting his destiny, full of bloodshed and heartbreak, as the savior of the Nightbreed.
At the center of the looming war between man and monster is the enduring love between Boone and Lori. Throughout Boone’s evolution- the death of his human self and rise as new Nightbreed- Lori refuses to give up on him or their relationship. It’s Lori, a virtuous human descending into the epicenter of the catacomb-like Midian, who conveys the narrative’s message of acceptance and value of not judging a book by its cover. Many of the Nightbreed look “other” and are dangerous, but they’re the ones living in terror; man tends to destroy what it envies and fears.
As for the Nightbreed and the city of Midian, Barker enlisted his special makeup effects collaborator on Hellraiser, Bob Keen. In the beginning, Keen and Barker had full creative control on designing the Nightbreed and the story. Eventually, though, the studio got cold feet on a two-and-a-half-hour romantic dark fantasy that made the monsters the heroes and so they pushed to make Dr. Decker much more prominent. Planned stop motion animation sequences involving creatures in Midian were trimmed and scrapped, scenes were edited out entirely, and more scenes with Decker were added to expand his character and motivation. The idea? To make Nightbreed more of a straightforward horror movie.
Keen wasn’t the only Hellraiser connection, either. Doug Bradley plays Lylesberg, the Nightbreed’s lawmaker and leader. Nicholas Vince, known as the Chatterer cenobite, appears as Kinski, a crescent-moon faced creature that has a direct hand in Boone’s journey. There’s Simon Bramford, who looks the most human as Nightbreed Ohnaka, a far cry from his role as cenobite Butterball. Oliver Parker appeared briefly in the first two Hellraiser films as a workman or mover but stole scenes in Nightbreed as the memorable monster Peloquin.
Even with a heavily cut and altered theatrical version that emphasizes the humans over the Nightbreed, it’s easy to see the direction Barker was headed with his envisioned film trilogy for Boone. Whichever cut you watch, the newly changed Ashbury remained a dangling loose end for the Nightbreed to contend with, and their numbers drastically dwindled. Meaning that Boone’s journey to find these endearing monsters a new place to live, free from judgment and harm, would be an arduous and winding road.
Thanks to vocal and stalwart fans and champions of Barker’s initial vision, many cuts of the film have finally seen release. With it, numerous ways to discover a timeless tale of love and acceptance in a world of monsters. Barker and the original studio, Morgan Creek, are even working on continuing Midian’s story with a Nightbreed TV series, proving yet again the enduring quality of this unique universe.
Cool monster designs, sympathetic creatures, an enduring love story, and even an earworm score by Danny Elfman all make for a unique and compelling creature feature. It’s also one of the rare instances where if you don’t like one cut, there are numerous cuts of the film that change the tone and scope of the story. Even if the theatrical cut favors the slasher style of Decker, it’s still Boone’s prophecy and the denizens of Midian that make Nightbreed so special.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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