[neverending]

NIGHTBREED: THE CABAL CUT

This was a real treat. The story of the studio's butchering of Nightbreed against Clive Barker's wishes is legendary. A member of Barker's production company discovered cut footage a few years ago and using the shooting script, assembled a complete version of the film in secret. After showing his cut to Barker, the director asked for only four small revisions.

Since then, the restoration director has been touring with the new cut at film festivals and horror conventions, to great acclaim. The film is vastly different than the release version, and restores Barker's vision to his adaptation of his novel "Cabal."

Barker wanted to make a film about monsters in their own society, where they were the good guys. The studio wanted... well, the studio wanted a slasher film, so they demanded reshoots expanding Dr. Dekker's role (David Cronenberg's only acting role.), and reducing the monster plot. The Cabal Cut restores the monsters, and cuts out a lot of Dekker.

For now, the only way you can see the true version of Nightbreed is to be lucky enough to see it at a festival or con. I just saw it tonight at Portland's HP Lovecraft Film Festival, and was blown away. This is an amazing film, and if any of you have a chance to see this, by all means do so.