Nightbreed Uncut Report: Wondering What You Didn’t See? We’ve Got the Answers!
Steve Barton
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We reported a few months ago that the lost footage from Clive Barker’s Nightbreed had been found. Shortly after that an announcement came that the uncut print of the film would be shown to fans in attendance at the March HorrorHound convention in Indianapolis. The film was shown to a standing room only crowd and we’ve got the goods on what was added!
Big thanks to DC reader Gorebath for sending in the following report and review!
“This was the true definition of “workprint”, not the kind that most of you have downloaded, but a real clear rough cut that showed Clive’s true vision. The run time on this baby was about 150 minutes. All of this without the Decker murders and a lot of other scenes(mostly involving the breed).
The Cons:
There was no music and some of the dialog was missing (especially in the new footage). The middle half of the reel had the audio track off by 5 seconds, which was really annoying but tolerable. There was no dubbing, so when you hear Peloquin say “fuck the law” it’s hysterical because Oliver Parker, the actor, has a higher pitched voice, which obviously didn’t match the scene.
Some of the footage NEEDED to be cut. Some boring romantic crap in the beginning and some REDNECKS GONE WILD country driving on the way to Midian for the assault, to name a few.
Also, the new footage of the breed was so bland … I think it was because this workprint was minus some special effects. One scene was right out of Night of the Living Dead, where a cop keeps shooting one of the breed, but he gets back up after each shot and ultimately fucks the cop up. Cool, yeah, but the breed looked like my Grandpa and nothing like I thought that Clive could have come up with.
You’d figure that with 150 minutes, we’d get some better character development. Sad to say this isn’t true in most cases. I really wanted to see more of the Breed and understand them more, but that wasn’t the case in this cut. Granted, there is some footage of new Breed that we’ve never seen before, but Clive didn’t give us a chance to know, or care, about them.
The Pros:
More Decker means More Awesome. Especially since there are multiple scenes of him talking to his mask (and his mask talking back to him). That’s just a fact that no one can dispute. Also having more screen time is the Sheriff and most of this stuff is so over the top hysterical, I can’t understand WHY they didn’t put this in the film. The final 3rd of the film is where most of the uncut footage takes place. From the armory, where we get some really great scenes, to the final assault which totally changed the dynamics of the film. We get more Berserker footage but it was nothing to write home to Mom about. There really is a war in this newer footage and I think the uncut DVD would do this film justice.
Now to the Meat:
Yes, we have the scene with the beheading of Narcisse. Thumbs up.
Yes, we have the scene with the hilltop and Lori stabbing herself. It was…..okay.
Yes, there is more footage of the Berserkers. I was kind of hoping to get an explanation of the how and why, but that didn’t happen.
Yes, the priest does murder the sheriff, in a much more gruesome way, in the finale and he goes into detail about hunting down Cabal.
This definitive cut NEEDS to be restored and re-released to the horror fans. I figure of the extra hour or so of footage viewed, 45 minutes would be awesome to be put in an uncut DVD. Morgan Creek, get off your asses and do something for us horror fans. You also owe it to Clive Barker.”
We can only hope, Gorebath. We can only hope!
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