Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports 39% of 28 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 5.41 out of 10. In his review for the "Toronto Star", Henry Mietkiewicz wrote ""Nightbreed" might have been a monster movie milestone, if Clive Barker's directorial abilities had kept pace with his skill as a master of British horror fiction. Unfortunately, "Nightbreed" probably will be remembered as much for its haphazard plotting and underdeveloped characters as its delightfully daring concept". Derek Malcolm wrote in his review for "The Guardian" that "it is neither direct nor subtle enough as a piece of film-making. It is difficult to suggest that evil is human and monsters have souls within the context of a mountain of special effects. The result is patchy in the extreme and not always capable of transcending a genre that has become less and less intriguing as less and less is left to the imagination".