Really good fare for horror fans, noisy, full-blooded and slightly off the beaten track. A society of freaks and monsters (they're the heroes, by the way) lives beneath the Midian cemetery and Boone (Craig Sheffer) finds himself drawn there, even after his death - though to reveal quite why would be to unlock a key element in writer-director Clive Barker's plot. The first couple of reels are a bit wearisome, but the sheer expense and spectacle of the rest, even given the repulsive nature of some of the 'creatures', is quite overwhelming. The 'human' actors have an unenviable task in a film like this, but Sheffer, Anne Bobby (his girl) and director David Cronenberg (as Sheffer's psychiatrist) all infuse a creditable amount of personality into their characters under the circumstances - although why the villain has to dispatch a policeman near the end is something of a mystery. But Barker's bizarre imagination and a pretty high budget provides some demented tableaux that even outdo Hieronymous Bosch. Non-horror fans may find it quite disgusting.

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