BY MARK MAWSTON
“Nightbreed†is a movie I’d wanted to see
for many years. I’m not in a minority. I have the excuse that I missed its
initial limited theatrical run and simply never got round to seeing it. Later,
whenever I went to hire it from the video store on its VHS release , it was
always rented out- no doubt due to its then blossoming cult status. However,
those that did see it initially also
desperately wanted to see it again. By
that I mean that the print that was first shown in theatres and released for
home entertainment wasn’t even close to the vision director and author Clive
Barker had for the project. It was, as many classics have been, butchered as unsympathetically
as the creatures the film celebrated by those “above†who simply didn’t
understand or care. This is touched upon in Arrow’s new press release synopsis
for the film- a cult gem which seems to have morphed as much as the creatures
of it title:
Nightbreed,
from the mind of legendary visionary of the macabre Clive Barker (Hellraiser,
Candyman). A nightmare-induced fantasy
set in a world like nothing you’ve ever experienced before… Nightbreed will
leave you questioning who the real monsters are. The victim of studio interference
and an unrepresentative marketing campaign, Nightbreed has since undergone a
radical reappraisal. Arrow Video is proud to present two versions of this
depraved cult classic and an insane selection of extras that will likely never
be bettered, for the ultimate nightmarish viewing experience.
This release from Arrow is sumptuous and easily the best
version of “Nightbreed†both fans and fascinated seekers such as myself have
yet seen become officially available. The extras, as ever, are excellent and
the transfer is probably (according to those who know) the best the film has
had and may be even better than the prints seen on its initial release. As I’ve
touched on, the film has a huge following and I recently caught up with two of
its most high profile fans, poster artist Graham Humphreys and director John
Stevenson. Although both agree that the infamous Cabal Cut is still the Holy
Grail as far as the films various versions go, this director’s cut is a welcome
treat for fans. I asked them why they thought the movie was still so important
and why fans should seek out this latest Arrow release….
John Stevenson on
Nightbreed
It
wasn’t Clive Barker’s source novel “Cabal’ that got me obsessed with
‘Nightbreedâ€. It wasn’t even the film version, which I saw in the first days of
its release in 1990 in San Francisco. It was the Titan book ‘Clive Barker’s The
Nightbreed Chronicles’ released in 1990 to coincide with the theatrical
release. The book contains beautiful portrait photography by Murray Close of
over 30 of Midian’s denizens (created by Bob Keen, Geoff Portass and their team
at Image Animation) and their wonderfully strange and imaginative back stories,
courtesy of Clive Barker.
Looking
at the book was a much more satisfying experience than watching the frustrating
theatrical release which had cut most of Midian’s monsters, and reduced the
screen time of the few that remained to fleeting seconds. The film also gave no
sense of the fascinating monster society that ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’
filled in, in Barker’s dark and witty personal histories of his creations.
I
knew Bob Keen when we worked on ‘The Dark Crystal’ for Jim Henson, he on the
Garthim unit, me doing storyboards. We had talked about make-up and monsters in
our down time and I had followed his career after he left Henson’s. I had loved
‘Hellraiser’ and was tremendously excited by Barker’s promise of ‘the Star Wars
of horror movies’ with the largest menagerie of monsters onscreen in decades
for his next film ‘Nightbreed’. As I had avidly followed the film’s progress in
on-set photographs and interviews in magazines like ‘Fangoria’, watching the
film on its release with my heightened expectations was a particularly crushing
disappointment. Being able to stare at the wonderfully strange creature designs
and make-ups in ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’ was both consoling and frustrating.
These lovingly created creatures had obviously been intended as the stars of
the film, so why weren’t they in the movie?
The
sad tale of studio stupidity that destroyed Barker’s original vision is now
well known, as is the unlikely tale of its rebirth. The finding of the VHS work
print, its appearance at the Horror Hound convention in 2009, then Russell
Cherington’s restoration using the work print and DVD to create ‘The Cabal Cut’
that started touring conventions in 2012 (I saw it at Quentin Tarantino’s New
Beverly Cinema in LA in June 2012) and the eventual release of the Director’s
Cut on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in 2014 are all well documented. In 2017,
Clive Barker’s company Seraphim released a ridiculously expensive and
ridiculously limited run of ‘The Cabal Cut’ on Blu-ray, mixing additional
work-print footage with the restored Blu-ray Director’s Cut for a run time of
145 minute. In February of this year hopes of a proper restored 3- hour Blu-ray
release of ‘The Cabal Cut’ were raised on multiple online forums, only to be
dashed again some months later by Morgan-Creek’s refusal to allow the release,
making you wonder what Morgan-Creek has against “Nightbreed’ anyway?
Some
people have asked me why anyone would want a 3- hour version of ‘Nightbreed’. Isn’t
the 2- hour Director’s Cut enough? My answer is why wouldn’t you want a 3-hour cut of ‘Nightbreed?’ If you love the
film for its strangeness and fascinating monsters as much as I do, then you
want to spend as much time in their company as possible. As improved as the
Director’s Cut is over the theatrical version, I want more. I want it all. When I was pouring over my
well-thumbed copy of ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’ back in 1990, I never thought
I would get to see an extended version with all of Midian’s monsters restored.
24 years later I was watching Shout! Factory’s Director’s Cut Blu-ray with an
extra 40 minutes of material with a big, stupid smile on my face, and now Arrow
will release their version so UK viewers can finally join in the fun. Maybe if
I live long enough I will get to see a properly restored version of ‘The Cabal
Cut’ on Blu-ray. Until then, I still love visiting the inhabitants of Midian,
courtesy of the Director’s Cut, the Cabal Cut, and my faithful, battered copy
of ‘The Nightbreed Chronicles’.
Graham Humphreys
on Nightbreed.
Since seeing the full Cabal cut (shown at FrightFest a
few years back) the film appears more cohesive than the original theatrical
release. I recall that Dario Arento had discussed ‘Nightbreed’ with Richard
Stanley, describing it as a gay love story. At the time it wasn’t something I
saw, though with subsequent viewings and addition of reinstated scenes, it now
appears that Dario had a point.
The themes of outsiders, ‘normals’, a forbidden
existence, persecution, monsters in the closet and a community hidden from
view, all fit this reading. Is Cronenburg’s Dr. Decker actually in love with
Boone, whose the ambiguous sexuality seems torn between Lori and the
inhabitants of Midian? Decker certainly seems closeted and his attacks on
heterosexual family units and obsession with Boone are curious indicators. In
one early scene Boone observes his ‘other self’ engaged in sexual activity with
Lori, but is himself disconnected.
What seems especially prescient is the rallying of
rednecks to torment and murder the Midians, a theme also explored in Romero’s ‘Night of the
Living Dead’, where the climax sees rednecks shoot a man, not because he is a
zombie, but simply because he looks ‘other’ enough (in this instance,
black).
(What
follows is the official Arrow announcement and film synopsis):
“By night, Aaron Boone
(Craig Sheffer, Teen Wolf) dreams of Midian, a hidden subterranean world where
monsters have created a haven from humanity. Under pressure from his girlfriend
Lori (Anne Bobby, Born on the Fourth of July), he attends psychotherapy
sessions, unaware that his shrink, Dr Decker (Videodrome director David
Cronenberg), is setting him up to take the fall for a series of violent
murders. Convinced he no longer belongs in the human world, Boone goes in
search of Midian – not realising that the real killer has plans for both him and
the colourful cast of outsiders who call it home…
The victim of studio interference and an
unrepresentative marketing campaign, Nightbreed was poorly received by critics
on its initial release and failed to ignite the box office, but has since
undergone a radical reappraisal. Arrow Video is proud to present two versions
of this depraved cult classic: the studio-approved theatrical cut and the
reconstructed, reinvigorated director’s cut, for the ultimate nightmarish
viewing experience.â€
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations
of the 120-minute director’s cut, transferred from the original camera
negative, and the 102-minute theatrical cut, transferred from the original
interpositive
• Lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and
uncompressed 2.0 PCM audio on the director’s cut
• Uncompressed 2.0 PCM audio on the theatrical
cut
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and
hard of hearing
• New audio commentary on the theatrical cut by
critics Adrian J Smith and David Flint
• Audio commentary on the director’s cut by
writer/director Clive Barker and restoration producer Mark Alan Miller
• Introduction to the director’s cut by Clive
Barker and Mark Alan Miller
• Walking the Line Between Heaven and Hell, a
new video interview with critic Kat Ellinger
• Speaking up for the Monsters, a new video
interview with critic Kim Newman
• Tribes of the Moon: Making Nightbreed, an
extensive documentary on the making of the film, featuring actors Craig
Sheffer, Doug Bradley, Anne Bobby and many more
• Making Monsters, a documentary on the film’s
creature designs, featuring special makeup designer Bob Keen
• Fire! Fights! Stunts!, a video interview with
second unit director Andy Armstrong
• Deleted and alternate scenes
• Monster Prosthetics Masterclass
• Cutting Compromise, a video interview with
editor Mark Goldblatt
• The Painted Landscape, an exploration of the
work of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie
• Matte painting tests
• Makeup tests
• Lost stop motion footage
• Extended torture scene
• Rehearsal test
• Theatrical trailer
• Rare TV spots
• Multiple image galleries, including early
sketches, set photos, poster and pre-production art, stills from the UK launch
party at Tower Records, and more
• Original screenplay (BD-ROM content)
• Reversible sleeve feature original and newly
commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Double-sided fold-out poster
• Limited edition 40-page booklet, featuring new
writing on the film by author and critic Amy Simmons and an in-depth history of
the film’s development, release and rehabilitation by Mark Salisbury, co-author
of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed: The Making of the Film
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON UK