Holy shit dude, which Nightbreed movie did you watch? This was always one of those spooky features that I’ve seen a few times, but I don’t remember catching any of the themes and arcs and puzzles that you mentioned in this glowing review. I haven’t seen this movie for over 25 years and admittedly I’ve had a weird experience with Nightbreed.

On the surface, Nightbreed seems like the perfect horror movie for horror fans. It has monsters aplenty, weirdness, a violent monster shoot-out with police (I think. It’s been a while.), and some of the coolest creatures of the decade. That porcupine lady was rad shit and I still love that one. But Nightbreed never really delivered much to me apart from some cool looking heebie-jeebie monsters, which is why I’m surprised there seems to be levels to it that I never caught when I was a fat kid eating Frosted Flakes in front of the TV. Maybe it was the fact that they were all supposed to be the good guys even though they were hideous, maybe it gave me a weird Garbage Pail Kids vibe, maybe it just stunk, but it never connected much, even as a rabid horror dork.

I remember watching it once when I was sick and stayed home from school. “Fuck yeah, day off, I’m eatin’ soup, sharting in my jammies, and popping in a horror movie!” I chose Nightbreed again. But feeling sick, watching that fucking moonman mutant that looked like Mac Tonight, seeing that fucking reggae Darth Maul snort for 90 minutes, and seeing all of those ugly monsters complaining about taxes and shit, just made me feel more ill. I think I shut it off and watched Days of Our Lives instead. Nightbreed left such a bad taste that day that I watched it a few years later and that memory of watching it while sick, brought back those icky diarrhea chills and I haven’t watched it since.

This is a totally personal thing, so I can’t judge the movie objectively that well. But even before this experience, I didn’t get much out of Nightbreed. Which is weird because it seems tailor-made for horror fans. I know there was always some fuckery with the release, a lot of things were cut, censored, lost, etc. and I’ve heard the extended cut is much better. Still, I’ve been on the “Nightbreed gives me the shits Train” and didn’t care. But from what you’ve described, this version seems like a different movie entirely! Is the extended version that different from the original release? And that much better? From what you’ve laid out (in a great review by the way), I think I’ll try giving it another shot. Hopefully it won’t make me feel like a sausage casing filled with dookie.

Hope you gents had a wonderful Christmas! And I wish you both a happy 2020! I look forward to spending the new year with the Silver Emulsion crew.

Snuggles! 😀