After years of slow and steady development, the TV version of Clive Barker’s cult classic monster metaphor Nightbreed has finally landed itself a new home, with Deadline reporting that the adaptation has been picked up by Syfy. Written by Jigsaw’s Josh Stolberg, and produced by Barker and Morgan Creek, the TV series has been in development since as early as 2014.
Telling a tale of monstrous outsiders battling for survival against even more monstrous humans—including a serial killer psychiatrist played by David Cronenberg—the original Nightbreed was a huge flop for Barker, ending the Hellraiser creator’s burgeoning career as a director. (Give or take the similarly poorly received Lord Of Illusions.) It’s since garnered a healthy cult following, though, drawn in by its unsubtle-but-potent metaphor about “monsters” trying to find a safe haven in a society that hunts and hates them. And to be fair, it’s easy to imagine those elements going over far more smoothly for audiences in 2018 or ’19 than they did in 1990, when Fox bizarrely tried to market Barker’s fantasy parable as a traditional slasher flick.