Nightbreed: The Director's Cut Limited Edition: Review

The Film

After a couple of decades and rising fan interest, the Director's Cut of Clive Barker's Nightbreed is finally available for all to see. The original theatrical release of Nightbreed was not Clive Barker's original vision, instead it was a whole different cut of the film from the studio that often went in the opposite direction of his original intention. Now he was able to go back and re-edit the film that he originally wanted. This Blu-ray release by Scream Factory is a dream come true for fans of Clive Barker and Nightbreed. In particular, the limited edition contains everything a fan can want. The 3 Blu-ray disc set includes the original theatrical cut on one disc, the Director's Cut on another disc, and a bonus disc with exclusive to the set special features. Scream Factory also released a non-limited standard release that has just the same Director's Cut disc as the limited set on Blu-ray and DVD.

Having never seen Nightbreed in any of it's various cuts, I did not have any specific expectations going in. After now viewing both the theatrical cut and the new Director's Cut I can say that Nightbreed is a good monster movie with a whole lot of different monsters and the classic role reversal of monsters as the good people and humans as the bad people. The film focuses on the character of Boone (Craig Sheffer) who becomes determined to find the place of Midian, where the monsters reside, that has been haunting his dreams. Thinking that this was the place he belonged he quickly learned that it was not a place for him, at least not until unfortunate circumstances result in him changing into a monster himself. Those unfortunate circumstances were the direct result of his psychiatrist, Dr. Decker (David Cronenberg) who uses Boone as his fall guy for a bunch of serial killings that Decker committed.

The description above pretty much sums up the theatrical cut of the film. While there are quite a few other little side plots, the theatrical cut never really expands or finishes them. So the theatrical cut is an entertaining monsters/serial killer mash up but because of the way the film was cut compared to how it was meant to be, a lot of stuff doesn't really have much going for it, or any clarity for that matter. In the theatrical cut the monsters look cool and seem interesting but not a whole lot of information is given about them. The romantic plot between Boone and Lori (Anne Bobby) doesn't really have much going for it. There are a few other things that were not properly fleshed out in the theatrical cut that resulted in a skeleton version of Clive Barker's film instead of a fully fleshed film.

The theatrical cut of Nightbreed is pretty good for what it is, a slasher movie with some monsters in it. The Director's Cut of Nightbreed is really good as the original intention of the film. The focus of the film shifts from Boone and Decker in the theatrical cut to Boone and the monsters in the Director's Cut. Also the film was supposed to show the monsters as good and the humans as bad. This idea is more obvious and coherent in the Director's Cut than in the theatrical cut. The Director's Cut is definitely a fuller experience that better explains all the characters and their motivations in the story, as well as giving a clearer plot.

The restoration of the film is very well done and way beyond what anyone could have dreamed of. Especially considering the quality found in the Cabal Cut that has been around for a few years. Fortunately Scream Factory found the original elements, so The Director's Cut was sourced from the original camera negative. The theatrical cut of the film was sourced from an interpositive and as a result the Director's Cut has a slightly better quality. However both look really good. There really isn't any problems at all with this release. There is great detail throughout the film. The grain in the film might be seen as being on more of the heavy side by some but there is no problem with clarity in the picture and the grain is very even throughout.

4/5

The Extras

The amount of bonus features put on this release are extraordinary. In terms of extras this is how you put out a significant movie in a special edition package. On the Director's Cut disc you get the making of documentary called, Tribes of the Moon: The Making of Nightbreed. This is a very well done 72 minute documentary that talks about the history of the film and the shooting of the film. The next meaty extra is Making Monsters: Interviews with Makeup Effects Artists. Another nice little bonus feature is Fire! Fights! Stunts!: 2nd Unit Shooting, which is a nice offering about the less talked about 2nd unit shooting effort. The last special feature on the first disc  is an audio commentary featuring Writer/Director Clive Barker and Restoration Producer Mark Allan Miller. The commentary is a rather enjoyable commentary featuring to obviously excited participants. It is filled with tons of great info.

The bonus disc that is only found in the limited edition set features a whole bunch of great behind the scenes extras. Those extras include deleted scenes, extended torture scene, stop motion lost footage, rehearsal test, makeup tests, matte painting tests, a profile on concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, a look at the editing process, and a closer look at the monster prosthetics. 

The disc with the theatrical cut only features the theatrical trailer

5/5

Overall: Highly Recommended



The limited set is available for order here: Nightbreed: The Director's Cut (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

The standard edition is available for order here: Nightbreed: The Director's Cut (Bluray / DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]

Also check out This photo gallery to get an in depth look at the limited edition release.