Come meet the dead of night.

April 2, 2024

Danny Elfman’s NIGHT BREED Score Given Expanded Soundtrack

Intrada announces an expanded edition of Danny Elfman’s 1990 score to Clive Barker’s NIGHTBREED, which provided Elfman with the perfect opportunity to indulge in his first outright, gore-filled horror feature. As Elfman himself described his experience, “NIGHTBREED was great fun, and I loved working with Clive Barker. But it was a real difficult score, 75 minutes with a lot of different styles, very dense, difficult music that was very challenging. But as always, the harder it is the more I love it.” Not only did NIGHTBREED mark Elfman’s dive into a nightmarish fever dream, but it also marked his first significant use of world music in a film score. A South American pan flute, the shimmering beat of a Balinese gamelan and heated drumming all feature in this large orchestral work that is unique, but also clearly classic Danny Elfman.

At the time of the film’s release, a generous album was released on MCA Records. With the generous cooperation of Universal Music Group, Morgan Creek and Danny Elfman’s team, Intrada was able to greatly expand the album into a 2-CD set. The first disc features the complete 75-minute score. The second features the original and carefully curated 46-minute album Elfman assembled back in 1990, as well as a suite of alternates. The album includes new liner notes by writer and online Film Music Live host Daniel Schweiger.

The film is based on Clive Barker’s novella Cabal, in which a graveyard necropolis named Midian provides sanctuary for creatures that have fled to hide from horrific persecution. Their shattered god, Baphomet the Baptizer, calls out to an unlikely savior named Boone (Craig Sheffer), a young man who thinks his visions of beckoning nightbreed are proof of his insanity. Further convinced that he’s a murderer by his psychiatrist, Decker (David Cronenberg), Boone is betrayed and shot down by the police. But death is only the beginning of Boone’s journey as he’s resurrected as the ravenous ‘Cabal.’ Now he must accept his Moses-like destiny to protect his newfound people and lead them from the destruction of Midian at the hands of a bloodthirsty human militia.

For more details, see Intrada