Scream Factory have announced that they will release the previously unavailable Director’s Cut of Clive Barker’s 1980 movie Nightbreed on DVD and Blu-ray on October 28th.
Written and directed by Clive Barker, who also wrote the novella, Cabal, on which it was based, 1980’s Nightbreed follows a mental patient looking for refuge in an abandoned cemetery, only to discover it’s not that abandoned. The film starred Craig Sheffer (A River Runs Through It), Anne Bobby (Born On The Fourth Of July), and David Cronenberg (yeah, the director of The Fly and The Dead Zone).
But when Nightbreed was released, it was not the version Barker had envisioned, as the studio heavily edited the film, moving some scenes around, and removing others completely.
Now, twenty-five years later, Barker’s original version of Nightbreed is finally being released.
In the release, Barker is quoted as saying, “This is film history and beyond my wildest dreams of realization. When Scream Factory told me that they found the Nightbreed film footage I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller [of Seraphim Films] all the way back in 2008. As we embarked down the road of attempting to track down the lost footage, we looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe one day they’ll find it.’ It’s my pleasure to announce that the day has come. Speaking personally, I didn’t allow myself to believe that it would. Even if we did find some footage (which we did in 2009 in the form of heavily degraded VHS tapes) and even if we did find a company willing to release the film (which we did in 2013 with Scream Factory, God bless them) the prospect of finding the actual lost film materials was remoter than I’d wanted to admit out loud. If the footage could not be found by those who had worked closest on it the same year it had been released, then what were the odds we’d be able to find anything 20 years on? But Scream Factory, in their commendable determination, kept up the search and thanks to them total reconstruction has been made a possibility. There’s never been a reconstruction that’s had as little chance of succeeding and yet has succeeded on as many fronts as this film has. It’s unprecedented. To now have a movie that we can put together in the way that I fully intended it to be seen when I first set out to make this film in 1989 is extraordinary. The project has moved inexorably to this conclusion. Fate and the hard work of individuals such as Mark Miller, Russell Cherrington, Phil and Sarah Stokes, Occupy Midian, Morgan Creek, and ultimately, Scream Factory have made this a possibility and I could not be happier.”
The Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut will be released in two forms. The first, and most common, will be the Special Edition version, which will include the movie on both DVD and Blu-ray, as well as extras that were not announced. It will retail for $29.93.
There will also be Limited Edition, which will include the movie on both DVD and Blu-ray, as well as a third disc of extras (though, again, they didn’t say what), as well as a book with an essay and rare photos. It will retail for $79.97, but if you pre-order it from ScreamFactoryDVD.com, you will also get an 18″x24″ poster of the cover art, while supplies last. The L.E. version will be limited to 5000 copies, and will retail for $79.97.
For more on this and other Scream Factory releases, visit their website.
