Nightbreed

[Alcide_Herveaux]

Has anyone got the specs for the versions of this film that are available in the UK? It's a film I've liked for a long time but never got around to picking it up so I was just wondering what would be the best to go for.

[Jyri_Lehtinen]

There isn't a UK release of Nightbreed, as far as I know anyway and so far there isn't a definitive DVD release anywhere else either. All of the ones I've gone through over the years have been more or less disappointing.

I'm a Clive Barker fan and do like the movie alot but now that I know better I'd rather stay away from the butchered, re-edited theatrical version available on all the dvds and wait for the extended Cabal Cut which Warner Bros. allegedly has confirmed of being in the works to be released later this year on DVD & BD. It's been a huge fan favourite on a underground movie festivals since 2012 (and limitedly before that too) and supposedly features ~40-50 minutes of additional footage, most of which was originally deleted from Barker's 1989 director's cut prior to the theatrical release.

I'm more than eager to see the movie in a form Barker always wanted it to be like, before the producers and studio executives got their way and made the theatrical version much worse. So many movies with similar fate out there so I'm glad this one will be getting a worthy release after all these years.

[Jari_Kovalainen]

Let us hope that the "new" cut of the film (The Cabal Cut) will be released on Blu-ray at some point. Then again, I guess the Cabal Cut is not sourced from the original film elements (at least not yet), so...

"Clive: "My friends, Clive here,writing to share some wonderful news. Following the two Sold Out screenings of Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut on Sunday, Morgan Creek has given us permission to show the cut around the world and to raise money to prepare the cut for a release on Blu Ray."

"Russell Cherrington: "For the last few years, Mark Miller has been working at getting Morgan Creek interested in a re-release of Nightbreed. He wanted them to allow a director's cut to be put together from the original footage. Nothing happened, and Morgan Creek told Mark that they could not locate any materials. Phil and Sarah from http://www.clivebarker.info then got involved with Mark, and between them, an original workprint was found on VHS. This was transferred to DVD and shown in 2010 at a HorrorHound event.
"I asked to see the workprint in June 2011, and decided at that point to work with the original script to create a composite cut of Nightbreed. It became clear to me that what I was working on was The Cabal Cut of the film. In late 2011, another workprint was found, again on VHS. I got a DVD copy of this from Mark, and with Seraphim Films' blessing, I worked the material from all three sources into the Cabal Cut."

( http://www.clivebarker.info/morenightbreed.html )

[Jyri_Lehtinen]

Yup, at least the earlier screenings of the Cabal Cut were heavily VHS sourced for the deleted scenes, at least a few years back so we'll see how true the commercial release actually is or if it's just a hoax. Some sources say the studio has always had the reels of the director's cut while other sources say the original film reels are long gone.

Now if someone would miraculously give Paul W.S. Anderson the original reels of Event Horizon so he could give us the infamous ~133min director's cut as opposed to the rather poor 96min theatrical.

[Jari_Kovalainen]

Some sources say the studio has always had the reels of the director's cut while other sources say the original film reels are long gone.

Morgan Creek (the studio that owns the rights to Nightbreed) have stated that the material is gone. But of course that material still might be somewhere - you never know until they've searched everything. But I doubt that they'll.

In the current situation, IMO they should just release the remastered theatrical cut + "Cabal Cut" as an extra. VHS workprint to Blu-ray? Er...

[Jyri_Lehtinen]

Quite often when original film reels of a movie are lost/nowhere to be found, they have ended up into the hands of some random movie enthusiast who maybe months or years later resurfaces with them for the joy of the director and fans so a restored HD version could be created instead of using inferior sources.
This sort of things have happened with more movies I can remember so let's hope it happens with Nightbreed too.

[Alcide_Herveaux]

There's a German release on amazon.co.uk that boats English audio and claims to be uncut although there isn't a run time listed. I know what you mean about getting a decent cut of some films Jyri. I live in hope that they'll release a fully uncut version of Mad Max The Road Warrior one day.

[Jyri_Lehtinen]

That's just uncut by German standards, meaning no further German cuts by FSK or JK/SPIO. All the German releases include just the US theatrical, around 97:10 (PAL) and there are numerous German bootlegs out there as well, as you can see HERE for example.

[Alcide_Herveaux]

By German standards.......yeah because now that you mention it the German's have a bad habit of needlessly over cutting (in my opinion) a lot of films.

[Jyri_Lehtinen]

The Germans' way of heavily cutting a whole lot of films is strange. They cut already cut films often making the final results more than ridiculous, for example by removing most of the violence, fighting and blood from action or horror. That is often the case with their FSK 16 cuts of FSK 18 or unrated movies. Apparently their laws for parental ratings related censorship are quite strict for certain things.
With some movies their style of cutting is done the same way than syndicate TV censorship; to maintain a reasonable length for the films due to heavy cutting, they replace a lot of the deleted footage with less harmful alternative material (if available). In many cases the alternative footage changes the course of the movie quite dramatically.

[Alcide_Herveaux]

Yeah I don't get the mindset behind it either and the Chinese are just as bad from what I can tell.

[Leigh_Riding]

I believe Nightbreed is now available from Warner Archives... aren't they region free?

[Alcide_Herveaux]

I've just read that there's going to be a new version of Nightbreed released next year and it'll feature over an extra hour of footage scavenged from VHS ect

[Jari_Kovalainen]

Yes, "Cabal Cut" seems to be coming. Let's hope that the "theatrical version" is still included - I doubt that those VHS-scenes are in very good condition. Moving this thread.