What editions are available?
- Theatrical Cut (102 min.)
- The Cabal Cut (144/145 min.)
- Extended VHS Cut (159 min.)
- Director’s Cut (120 min.)
Clive Barker’s Nightbreed was drastically cut by 20th Century Fox when it was released theatrically in 1990. For many years fans asked and pleaded to writer-director Clive Barker to release his director’s cut of the film. And it finally happened in 2014 when Shout Factory released it on Blu-ray and DVD with wealthy extras. Originally Shout Factory promised to include an 144/145 minute long cut of the film called The Cabal Cut but it didn’t come to fruition. A 159 minute long cut of the film on VHS has also surfaced but has not been released on any form. The theatrical cut of the film was released on the original Blu-ray release from Shout Factory in an limited edition set. The theatrical cut is available on DVD from Warner Bros Archives.
The director’s cut of Nightbreed on Blu-ray from Shout Factory includes intro with Barker and Mark Miller, the restoration producer of the director’s cut where they state the following:
Mark Miller: We’re here to bring you for the very first time the director’s cut of Nightbreed.
Clive Barker: I made a movie some twenty years ago called Nightbreed which was based upon a novel, a short novel I wrote called Cabal. And unfortunately it got a lousy handling with the studios who didn’t like really the fact that I was making a movie about a monsters that were heroes. And that was the whole point of the movie but unfortunately when it was gutted and taken out to an audience in a really messed up form nobody was able to really understand the whole passion, the driven, the making of the movie was. So few years ago, I said to this man, “you know it would be really nice if we could find the missing pieces and put it back together again.”
Later in the intro Barker talks about the difference between the cuts:
Clive Barker: … we have 40 minutes of footage that was not in the original picture, the movie is only 20 minutes longer but that’s because there has been replacement of some footage and the addition of another 20 minutes of footage. So total of 40 minutes. Isn’t that right?
Mark Miller: That right.
Clive Barker: That’s a lot of footage.
Mark Miller: It’s an entirely new film
Clive Barker: It’s an entirely new film.Source: Introduction by writer/director Clive Barker and restoration producer Mark Alan Miller on the Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut Blu-ray
The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut
Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com
