Nightbreed - Do you want a director's cut?

Do you remember Clive Barker's Nightbreed? It was a great film. It had quite a few faults but it had a cool story and some creepy character designs. Plus David Cronenberg was in it as a serial killing psychiatrist.

The movie centers around Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer), a young man plagued by dreams of a city called Midian, populated by bizarre creatures and deviants of all types who refer to themselves as the "Nightbreed". Aaron is framed for several murders by his psychopathic therapist, subsequently killed by police and resurrected by the magic of Midian. Boone joins forces with the other monsters to defend themselves from the true monsters of the story: humankind.

For many years there has been talk of a director's cut, rumors that the version of Nightbreed that hit theaters wasn't Barker's preferred vision. Rumors of 25 minutes of deleted scenes. However, rumours also went round saying that all extra footage had been deleted.

Now, according to CHUD a fan named Mark Miller made some phone calls to some people and got some interesting new info. This is what he found out.

"One fan set out in search of the truth, armed only with a few phone
numbers and the power of a name...

"On one call I was transferred to a production executive. You already
know what I told him, so let me tell you what he told me: He Can Access The Lost
Nightbreed Footage At Any Time.

"My jaw dropped. Struggling to remember my already limited vocabulary,
I asked what had to happen in order for the footage to see the light of day. He
explained to me that someone, namely one of the higher ups, had to have a good
reason to pull it out of storage. I, having that good reason, nodded and thanked
him. He couldn't have been a nicer guy.

"Excited, I pictured myself walking through large dusty warehouses
filled from floor to ceiling with ancient reels of arcane footage. I’m sorry to
report, that's not what happened.

"Shortly after, one of said higher ups was gracious enough to give me a
moment of his time. I was shocked when he told me there wasn't a big enough
audience for the film and that the answer to my request must be no.'Not even
worth the cost to upgrade to Blu-ray,' he said.

"Ouch."

It does seem a bit odd that the studio are acting like this (although it is Fox so it's not that odd).

Truly awful films are being released on Blu-Ray, yet here is a true cult classic sitting there with previously unseen footage. They could really push the fact it has material that had long thought to have been deleted.

However, you can make a difference. If you want to see a director's cut of Nightbreed on wonderful Blu-Ray then e-mail cliverbarker.info here or speak to the them on Twitter - @philandsarah).

Tell them Live for Films sent you.

Spread the word people. The monsters are getting restless.

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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