On February 16, 1990, Nightbreed, British horror author and filmmaker Clive Barker‘s second feature as a director, opened in theaters across the country after having its release delayed for months to allow for extensive re-editing and the creation of elaborate visual effects. Barker based the script on Cabal, his 1988 novella about a tormented man named Aaron Boone who is framed as a serial killer by his maniacal psychiatrist Dr. Decker and finds acceptance and amazing powers in an underground tribe of benevolent but frightening creatures known as the Nightbreed. The young director had planned for Nightbreed to be the “Star Wars of horror” and was given an $11 million budget – his biggest yet – to realize his vision.
The film was shot on location in Calgary, Canada, and at England’s historic Pinewood Studios, the facility which has hosted the productions of nearly every James Bond adventure as well as various Superman and Batman films, Aliens and Alien 3, and most recently Captain America: The First Avenger and the upcoming two-part adaptation of The Hobbit. Ralph McQuarrie, the late conceptual artist who helped George Lucas sell 20th Century Fox (the studio that would eventually distribute Nightbreed theatrically) on the first Star Wars, was brought in by Barker to provide important matte paintings and a mural that would depict the dark and twisted history of the Breed during a key sequence in the film.
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