Netflix Finds: NIGHTBREED: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT
Every week I'll dig through the available movie titles on Netflix and shed light on a favorite, cult classic, or any other overlooked worthwhile movie. There are enough people writing about Stranger Things and Narcos.
Even without its complicated production backstory, Nightbreed is a hard film to categorize. Netflix's summary - "Believing that he's a serial killer, a troubled young man is drawn to an old cemetery where a variety of monsters are hiding from humanity" - doesn't even begin to describe the surreal, nightmarish world that Clive Barker's second feature film lives in. Unfortunately, the studios (Morgan Creek produced it, 20th Century Fox distributed it) had an even more difficult time trying to figure out how to market it. They were looking for a profitable slasher movie, or even something similar to the identifiable horror of the Cenobites in Barker's (successful) debut Hellraiser. Despite positive test screenings and a few executives in Barker's corner, Nightbreed just didn't fit neatly into any one category. There are strong elements of fantasy and even mythology-building within the film's structure, along with the familiar horror tropes (embodied most notably in David Cronenberg's excellent performance as the sinister Dr. Decker). The result was Nightbreed being chopped down to 100 minutes from the original two and a half hours, a confusing ad campaign, and a box-office bomb.
Like many of its late 80s/early 90s peers, Nightbreed found a cult following on home video. Despite the choppy editing and abridged story, many fans connected with the tortured creatures of Midian and their allegorical hidden world. The special effects were also nothing short of dazzling and greatly appealed to genre viewers. In Barker's own words: "I write this weird, delirious kind of fiction. It is not necessarily like anyone else's kind of stuff. I wanted to make a movie that was a celebration of monsters, a movie that was a Bosch canvas come to life."
Several years ago, pieces of the original print believed to be lost were uncovered, then merged with the theatrical version and dubbed "the Cabal Cut". Running nearly three hours long (and lacking a decent print transfer) this version of Nightbreed was shown at several festivals in 2012. Later a Director's Cut was produced for DVD and Blu-Ray and added an extra 40 minutes to the film, but also replaced some fan-favorite scenes from the original theatrical version. This is the cut that is now on Netflix. Unless you're intimately familiar with the theatrical version, the Director's Cut won't look very different aside from an alternate ending which provides a much different fate for several key characters.
Despite disappointment from some fans over the alterations in the Director's Cut, Nightbreed is now as close to Clive Barker's original vision for the film as it ever will be. It's still an immensely enjoyable trip through the eyes of one of the more unique voices in modern fantasy and horror storytelling.
You can buy Nightbreed: The Director's Cut on Blu-Ray/DVD from Shout!Factory HERE.
