Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.
Episode 08: Nightbreed — My Own Private Midian. Clive Barker built monsters a whole civilization, a studio got scared of it, and fans spent twenty years refusing to let a butchered cut be the final word. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie closed out his career painting Nightbreed's history. And underneath the monster makeup, a personal story about finding your own Midian a long way from home.
Films and references in this episode: Nightbreed (1990), dir. Clive Barker. Cabal (1988 novella). Hellraiser (1987).
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Delivers on the EP07 tease — “Midian looks surprisingly like Canada.”
The argument: understanding the monster means understanding yourself, or the thing you fear.
Cabal (1988). Why Barker kept it short and fragmentary.
Cronenberg against type. Peloquin, Kinski. Ralph McQuarrie's mural.
The Trilogy That Never Was
What Morgan Creek's fear cost the wider mythology.
Building Midian. Shot in Alberta.
Movement 3 — The Butchering
The studio note, the recut, the personal toll on Barker.
The decades-late critical reappraisal.
Mark Miller, Russell Cherrington, Occupy Midian, the tape bake.
Movement 4 — The Resurrection
The Cabal Cut. The Arrow 4K set.
Fan Cabal Cut vs. official Director's Cut — not the same thing.
Hellboy, Buffy, Angel, True Blood — Midian's children.
Midtown, My Midian — Baz's own story.
Barker's own words on what Nightbreed was always about.
Wrap, next-episode tease, sign off.
The central film. Dir. Clive Barker. Both theatrical and Director's Cuts discussed.
Barker's source novella, published as part of Books of Blood Vol. VI.
Barker's directorial debut — referenced in Movement 2 as the film Barker chose not to simply repeat.
Writer/director. Adapted his own novella. Central voice throughout via 2012 Rue Morgue interview.
Plays Dr. Philip K. Decker — cast for his reserved, composed manner.
Plays Peloquin, the Breed member who bites Boone.
Plays Sheriff Eigerman, leader of the human posse.
Editor of the theatrical cut — caught between Barker's vision and studio orders.
Composer. Score later reused to score the fan-reconstructed Cabal Cut.
Concept artist (Star Wars trilogy, E.T., Star Trek IV). Painted a 60-foot mural of the Nightbreed's history — his final screen credit.
Seraphim Films co-head. Found the lost workprint footage in Barker's storage closet.
Film lecturer who assembled the fan-made Cabal Cut from workprints and Barker's earliest scripts.
Rue Morgue Issue 129, “Midian Calling” (December 2012) — primary source for the production history, Barker's personal account of the recut, and the “closet where the homos live” quote used in The Door. Interview conducted with Barker, Mark Miller, and Russell Cherrington.
The DarkSide magazine, Arrow Video 4K UHD review (Allan Bryce) — source for the Arrow disc's extras breakdown and critical reappraisal material.
Occupy Midian — the fan campaign (5,000+ Facebook members, 8,000+ petition signatures, 15+ screenings from March 2012) that pressured Morgan Creek into supporting a proper restoration.
The Cabal Cut (2012, Russell Cherrington) vs. the official Director's Cut — two distinct fan/studio reconstructions, addressed directly in The Other Cut segment.
EP04 callback — Baz's lifelong werewolf/monster affinity, referenced in The Influence as connective tissue between episodes.
EP07 tease payoff — the Cold Open delivers on the “Midian looks surprisingly like Canada” line first teased at the end of Episode 07.
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Theme music: The Last Reel (mid-tempo version) — original composition. Licensed for commercial use via Suno.
“extremely-close-thunder” by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0
Baz To The Bone is produced independently. Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.