nightbreed

We're about a month away from a one-night-only screening of Clive Barker's Nightbreed, uncut. The film will be shown at HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis, which takes place March 26-28. I have never wanted to live closer to Indianapolis before in my life, but jealousy abounds as I write to you from my desk on the East Coast, broke as a mofo.

The story of Nightbreed is a long and sad one but here's the gist. Basically, the studio screwed Barker by forcing him to release an edited version of his original cut. Poor marketing and what seems like a general lack of interest on the studio's part made the film fade away. Fans supported the film, however, and it was elevated to something of a cult flick. Hardcore Barker freaks speculated about the lost film footage since the film's release and recently Barker's friend, Mark Miller, learned that the footage did still exist and was sitting a vault the whole time. When Miller approached studio execs about the find, he was told that the film didn't warrant the money needed to produce an extended cut. Fans signed petitions on Barker's website and continue to build a case for the film's DVD release, which you can help out with here.

For years, people talked about 25 minutes worth of scenes excised from the final version, but it was revealed that a 145 minute version of the film's mid-1989 workprint exists. Barker's website posted this:

Only the old-school horror freaks who lived through the 1980s can tell you about how Clive Barker's Nightbreed was more or less gutted by its studio. Apparently more than 20 minutes of character stuff and splatty bits were excised to make the flick a little shorter, a little tamer, and a little ... confusing. But there's still more than enough in the theatrical cut to turn Nightbreed into a bona-fide cult item among the horror fans.

But get this! According to a Twitter Tweet by the real Clive Barker, that deleted footage has been found! What sort of footage? I refer you to this passage from the IMDb: "Director Clive Barker was reportedly required to cut the film down to 101 minutes from the original 126 minute cut by distributor 20th Century Fox. They felt that this cut was too long and rather too explicit for an R-rated release. Also, Barker shot additional scenes with David Cronenberg's Decker character to flesh out his mentality. The excised footage consisted of some very graphic gore during the climax, disturbing images in the monsters' lair and quite a bit of "unnecessary" character development. There were also some strange sexual themes between the monsters and Boone that wound up on the cutting room floor."

And it sure seems like all of this stuff will be put back in once Nightbreed hits DVD (again)! How very exciting to see an old horror flick "anew." Obviously it's way too soon to know any details, but expect more news as it becomes available.

(Thanks to Pete and John for the tip!)