A Few Words About A few words about...™ Nightbreed - The Director's Cut -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Author, and filmmaker Clive Barker, has finally been able to reconstruct a version of his original intent for his film Nightbreed (1990).

Although I've been a fan of his earlier Hellraiser, my experience with Nightbreed is nil.

Therefore, I'll leave it to others to discuss the ins and outs of the reconstruction and varying versions over the years.  No reason to discuss something when others are far more knowledgable.

​My interest is in how it appears on Blu-ray, and to me it appears excellent.  From publicity, it seems that the work was performed from an HD scan of the original negative, which to me is a wasted  run of the OCN, as no asset protection has been created, but so be it.

​Again, while I have nothing against which to compare, Scream Factory's Blu-ray is a quality affair, with superb color and densities, black levels, and the requisite layer of film grain.

For fans of horror, in general, and Mr. Barker's work specifically, this release is apt to be one of the more important of 2014.

I now need to find 120 minutes, all in a row, which will enable me to sit down and enjoy the final reconstructed product.  My take on reconstructions is simple.  The work should have a relative cohesiveness of both image and audio, wherever possible.

The new Director's Cut of Nightbreed passes these tests with flying colors.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 4.5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[FanboyZ]

It appears that only the ADDED SCENES are from the OCN.
The balance of the movie still comes from the IP of the 1990 version prepared by WB at some unknown date. This version can be found on on disc 3.

 

[Vincent_P]

Actually I believe Shout Factory rejected the existing HD master did a new scan of the IP of the theatrical cut.

Vincent

 

[FanboyZ]

but the color seems to be of a Warner'ly persuasion.

 

[Vincent_P]

Whatever.

 

[bgart13]

It was the IP, which Shout had rescanned. The discs look very good. I started with the theatrical cut last night (which wasn't quite as bad I recall it being, but still not a good movie). Started the DC afterwards just to see what kind of differences were initially present; in the first 20 mins there's quite a bit different. Pretty impressed with the new footage and that it sounded as good as it did.

 

[The Drifter]

A while back, I saw the excellent & underrated horror flick Nightbreed (1990) Director's Cut on Blu-ray. Fantastic! I had seen the film before (on the older DVD), but this Blu was a revelation - incredible picture quality, and the additional scenes (which seemed to primarily include more of the creatures) were incredible. This DC was definitely an improvement over the regular theatrical cut.

David Cronenberg did not direct this, but plays a significant role in this film as the psychotic doctor Decker - quite creepy. This is one of the few films he's actually starred in.

The make-up/prosthetics on the creatures was superb - both grotesque & impressive. Some of the creatures were so stomach turning it was hard to look at them - sickening. And, though this wasn't directed by Cronenberg - I can see how it could have been - given the subject matter & creatures.

In any case, this is my favorite Clive Barker film, and definitely one of my favorite '90's horror movies - though it's almost an '80's film, since it was probably filmed in '89. The ambiance/story definitely brought to mind a late '80's horror flick. IIRC, it was a Canadian production; at the least, I believe it was filmed (and takes place) in Canada.

Too bad that the film didn't do better theatrically - it was obviously extremely expensive to produce/make, especially given all of the impressive creatures - these looked great even by today's standards, and the film is almost 30 years old.