What the hell, I never understood his change from "don't murder these people" to full on villain in the end stinger.
Now that I've seen the Director's cut, I still don't know what his problem is.
I realize he got mutated by the magic goo, but that's what he wanted right, to gain powers?
But then in both endings he's fully evil and decides he's gonna kill all the Nightbreed?
It's like Ashbury switches places witn David Cronenberg when he gets mutated.
It's spelled Ashberry. In any case, the reverend was an example of what Christians would call lukewarm, which is what the Bible says that God will spew from his mouth. He knows the word, but he fails to live up to it. This is why we meet him in jail, for being an alcoholic. It is worth noting that in the book, he also has a fetish for lacy women's underwear. he knows what is good and righteous according to his own belief system, but he also fails to be the man that his belief system demands that he be.
Ashberry is in awe of what he is witnessing at Midian. He immediately realizes that what Eigerman is doing is wrong, though he lacks the respect of anyone around him and is thus ignored. Ashberry is realizing that there is far more out there than what his religion would ever allow him to see or to accept. He turns away from his god as he seeks this new knowledge, hence the scene where he rips his white collar away and asks Boone to take him along, and later when he witnesses Baphomet and discards his cross and Bible.
Let's explore Baphomet for a second. It is stated that no one has ever entered his tabernacle and survived, hence the reason that Boone warns Lori away from staring at Baphomet. She risks punishment by being there, though neither know their destiny yet which explains why Baphomet allows both of them to go. When Boone first comes to Midian, he must be judged by the god's blood. This doesn't come through clearly in the film, but the process of being judged has to do with accepting who and what you are. Boone has been turned inside out, having accepted himself as a killer before learning the truth that he had been lied to. He has now accepted that he has risen from the dead and there there is nothing left for him in the natural world.
Ashberry, on the other hand, is not a man who is ready to be judged. He is weak and he is not accepting of who he really is. He makes excuses for his alcoholism and he hides that side of him that likes to wear lace. Ashberry seeks knowledge that he is not ready for, and Baphomet "burns" him for his transgression into his sacred tabernacle as an unclean intruder. Ashberry is rejected by the very thing he thought would give him knowledge. His hatred stems from this rejection. Ashberry is rather like a spurned lover who now seeks revenge. If he can't be one with this new deity and his followers, then he will destroy them instead. It parallels dialogue from earlier in the film about what humans envy, they destroy.
In a nutshell, the Nightbreed are out of the closet, while Ashberry is still in the closet and thus resentful of his own kind and offering up harsh judgment in an attempt to deny the truth about himself. Baphomet turns Ashberry into what he really is, a self-loathing monster. Barker himself said many years back that Ahsberry would rally the people who have been waiting for someone like him to walk into their lives and lead them into a clash with the Breed. That is a hint of where the story would have gone in a sequel, though it has sadly never been written.
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Whose idea was it for the word LISP to have an S in it?