Nightbreed (1990) Review: WTF Why Didn't I Watch This Sooner?!

Excuse me, why didn't any of you guys tell me about Nightbreed? It's okay, I forgive you.
I'd heard of it in passing, but in my true fashion, I was the last to watch it. I'm sure this movie is huge, because it's directed by the beautiful Mr. Clive Barker (he also wrote the book that inspired the film), and I somehow just never watched it. It's on Netflix, Taylor. WHAT have you been doing?

As a Hellraiser fan, you would think that I would go ahead and try to find all of the works by Mr. Barker, but I don't necessarily work that way. I probably should, considering it seems like his works are all very similar, it just depends on the date. Take Midnight Meat Train for example. I adored it, and found out it was Clive after the fact. (If you haven't seen it, the story is wonderful, Bradley Cooper is wonderful (and not bad to look at), the antagonist is thrilling. But I'll save my love for that one for another time.)
This one reminds me a lot of Hellraiser in the sense that there are a group of crazy-looking fools running around wanting to kill humans, that kind of look like they would be Cenobites, but they are in fact Nightbreeds. What does this mean, you ask? Here's a synopsis:

***SPOILER ALERT, IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO RUIN IT STOP READING...I'll still love you.***

Aaron Boone is slightly mentally unstable, seeing a psychotherapist to help with his crazy dreams he's been having about a place called Midian. He's never been there, but he sees it vividly when he's dreaming, so he knows exactly what it looks like and who the creatures are that live there. His therapist is a huge jerk, and convinces him he's a serial killer. He gives him what Aaron believes is Lithium to calm him down, but it turns out his (SUPER HUGE JERK) of a therapist gave him a hallucinogen. He ends up in the hospital, meets a patient who also knows of Midian, and he gives Boone directions to get there. He then promptly rips the skin off of his face (hooray!).
Since he was in the hospital (after jumping in front of a truck while tripping out of his mind), he escapes when the doctors come to help his roommate. This sets off a police chase to go find him, but he's at Midian (because why wouldn't you go to a crazy-looking graveyard while you're high?!). He meets a few of the Nightbreeds there, tries to join them, and they tell him no, but not without trying to attack and eat him. He does get bitten, though, and that's when all the fun starts.

I don't want to give away too much, although the synopsis in itself is probably pretty confusing. I guess you'll just have to watch. But here's my review:
The film itself is really entertaining. I'm normally very picky, I like to find things wrong with films, but this one was great. They brought two (or three if you also want to count the love story smooshed in between a serial killer and a "mental patient"-turned-Nightbreed. Honestly, it's a great story about tolerance between social groups, if you want to get really deep.
I loved the makeup, I loved the personalities of the characters, and I loved that half of the Hellraiser cast was in it. Doug Bradley, Nicholas Vince, and Simon Bamford were all prevalent in this film. The only Cenobite missing was Miss Barbie Wilde.
The music was also a big factor in my love for this film. It was so, so awesome to listen to. That's something I don't typically look too closely at, but this time it stood out to me as a really important part of the story. It pulled everything together.
If this film was out of 5 stars, I would give it a 4.5, taking away that .5 only because I was never really scared, but it was graphic enough to cover that up.
If you haven't seen this one already, I absolutely recommend it! Leave me a comment to tell me if you love it as much as I do. Until next time!