Nightbreed (also known as Night Breed on publicity material, or Clive Barker’s Nightbreed) is a 1990 American dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his 1988 novella Cabal, and starring Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, David Cronenberg, Charles Haid, Hugh Quarshie, and Doug Bradley. The film follows an unstable mental patient named Aaron Boone who is falsely led to believe by his doctor that he is a serial killer. Tracked down by the police, his doctor, and his girlfriend Lori, Boone eventually finds refuge in an abandoned cemetery called Midian among a “tribe” of monsters and outcasts known as the “Nightbreed” where they hide from humanity.

At the time of its release, the film was a commercial and critical failure. In several interviews, Barker protested that the film company tried to sell it as a standard slasher film, and that the powers-that-be had no real working knowledge of Nightbreed‘s story. Since its initial theatrical release, Nightbreed has achieved cult status.

Over time, Barker expressed disappointment with the final cut approved by the studio and always longed for the recovery of the reels so the film might be re-edited. In 2014 a director’s cut was released by Scream Factory.