Clive Barker's
Nightbreed: The Director's Cut - Limited Edition. This is the one that really precipitated the whole Scream Factory Catch-Up in the first place. I mean, wow. It may not be the best movie Scream Factory has ever released, but it's got to be the most impressive work they've ever done for a film. I mean, just licensing a catalog title from Warner Bros for a start - ha ha! But seriously, they recovered the long lost footage of Clive Barker's original version, sat down with Clive, and had him personally reconstruct his director's cut, even getting
Doug Bradley come in to re-dub his lines when necessary. Plus, you know, it's just the HD debut of the film in the first place, so we're getting a new HD scan of the theatrical version, and a massive collection of all new special features for a film that had (crazily) never had any extras with it before on DVD. This is like the utopian ideal vision of a special edition release.
Update 9/9/16 - 10/7/26: Well, I guess even a "utopian ideal vision" can be improved upon. It was only a matter of time until
Nightbreed got upgraded to 4k, but who knew Scream Factory would wind up disappointing? Thankfully, Arrow has now come around with far more impressive and satisfying results.
Now, when I said "may not be the best film," I didn't mean to imply that
Nightbreed is a piece of crap. It's a very flawed, interesting film that probably plays better for dedicated Clive Barker fans than general audiences. But there's a lot to like here, including
David Cronenberg as the mad slasher, cool matte shots and the colorful collection of weird supporting monster characters. The story's ambitious and doesn't cheap out on the thrills or spectacle. A man (
Craig Sheffer of
A River Runs Through It and
Hellraiser 5) is troubled by memories of committing gruesome murders, which leads him to believe that he's secretly a literal monster and should live in a secret monster city hidden underneath a graveyard that he's seen in his dreams. Naturally, that place turns out to actually exist and it's a place you can just casually drive to. But everyone from the cops, his girlfriend to his twisted psychiatrist and a crazy priest are on his trail, and the resulting conflict could result in the end of the world, because those monsters also have an ancient tree god-type guy secretly ensconced with them... or something.
So if you want bloodbaths, monster fights, crazy characters and a little originality, you'll find it all here. But you'll also find sloppy direction, lead actors who feel like they've been picked out of USA Network's talent pool, flaccid relationship drama, frequently bland photography and cloying attempts at cutesy humor. But the good stuff makes this at least worth one solid watch. I like that it's not afraid to get dark; giving it a little edge at times. Performances range from subtle and restrained to
Hee Haw, which makes it hard to believe Barker had previously directed the much more refined
Hellraiser. I guess this project away from him; after all, he's been famously unhappy with the version that was taken out of his hands, recut, screened and flopped theatrically. It's one thing to judge this version of the film, but we'd never gotten to see Barker's true vision... until now.
I'm so glad we finally got to see this film as it was originally intended; it's certainly illuminating, and it does cement some connections that were always a little tenuous in the theatrical version. But it may hurt as much as it helps. Is it really an improvement to stop the plot so we can hear
Anne Bobby cover the entire "Johnny Get Angry" song in her nightclub? And some scenes between Sheffer and Cronenberg are said to make the latter's plans more explicit, but was anyone really unclear about what he was up to in the theatrical version? The restored scene of the police gearing up and gushing over their weapons gets downright goofy. And, frankly, I prefer the original, darker ending with Cronenberg's character, then the amended one in the director's cut. On the other hand, the director's cut has some neat new scenes, including one I won't spoil with Cronenberg and the Narcisse character, and some line replacements are for the better. Bradley's voice does sound more natural. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced either cut is particularly superior, but any fan of the film will definitely want to see both.
Nightbreed has pretty much always been available from Warner Bros on a no frills DVD. It was widescreen, at least, but completely barebones except for the trailer. It eventually went out of print and up in price, prompting Warner Bros to reissue it in 2011 as an MOD DV-R in their Warner Archives collection. But I never even bothered with it, holding out for the special edition that was bound to eventually happen. I mean, even if the missing footage had never been recovered, it's still one of a very few Clive Barker films where he was able to direct his own work, and it's loaded with stuff to talk about. But it took the surfacing of the workprint tapes, re-edited into the Cabal Cut, to finally push the project into being, and Scream Factory announced their grand 2014 restoration. Then suddenly, whattayaknow, the original film elements came out of the woodwork, and now we have a beautiful, fully restored director's cut in HD. And they threw in the HD debut of the theatrical cut into the same set.
But as we rolled into the 4k age, Scream really fumbled the ball. In 2023, they gave us a 4k Ultra HD version... of just the theatrical cut?? Yeah, they just added a UHD disc with just the theatrical cut upgraded to 4k and slipped it alongside the three older BDs in streamlined packaging and called it a day. After the massive (and fully justified) hullabaloo they made over this new director's cut, they weren't going to even give us a composite cut? Many fans probably never plan to watch the theatrical cut again now that Clive has declared the new cut be his true vision. If anything, releasing the director's cut in 4k and just leaving the theatrical cut in 1080p would've made more sense. But no worries. Arrow came along and saved the day, with a fancy new 2 UHD limited edition featuring both cuts in 4k, plus everything from the Scream Limited Edition and more, all new special features to boot.
 |
1) 2001 WB DVD; 2) 2014 SF theatrical BD; 3) 2014 SF director's BD;
4) 2026 Arrow theatrical UHD; 5) 2026 Arrow director's UHD. |
You might expect Scream's theatrical blu to look just like the Warner's disc but in HD, but no. They've done new scans for both versions. Even Scream's two cuts look slightly different when they share the same footage, with the director's cut looking ever so slightly more detailed with the most natural grain. The old DVD is paler (although considering how dark and low contrast much of this movie is, I could see a case for preferring the extra brightness) and much softer - more than just the difference between SD and HD - and the blu is redder. What's perhaps most interesting, though, is the framing difference on the DVD. Both releases list 1.78:1 in their specs, but the old DVD is really a slightly taller, pillar-boxed 1.76:1, giving it extra information along the bottom.
So for starters, Arrow is the first to correct the aspect ratio to 1.85:1. This is not the same transfer from the 2014 Shout disc on a 4k disc, because that was scanned in 2k. So they gave it a new 4k scan in 2023, and that's the same master Arrow used, and both utilize HDR10 and Dolby Vision (you can see how much more vibrant the colors are than the old editions, and these screenshots are in SD). French label ESC were the first to make a composite cut and release the director's cut in 4k utilizing the 2023 scan and upgraded footage from the 2014 BD. Arrow is using that same ESC transfer, though according to the booklet, they had Fidelity In Motion conduct "additional grading and restoration work." And whatever they did, it paid off - it looks great. I notice the seams between the new and old footage less now than I did in 2014 when it was all in the same resolution, and with FIM, you know the encode is extremely crisp.
Scream's director's cut has mostly high quality sound, but some scenes'
audio are sourced from the old workprint tape, and you can really hear
the noise gate struggling against the hiss. You only really notice it
in a handful of scenes, however (like the restored Cronenberg's restored
phone call near the beginning of the film), and even then they do a
decent job of keeping it from becoming too noticeable. Warner Bros gave
us the choice between a 5.1 mix and the original stereo mix, which
Shout also does on their director's cut (but now in DTS-HD, of course),
but they only have the stereo mix for the theatrical cut. All versions
have optional English subtitles, though WB also threw in Spanish and
French ones.
And Arrow has done additional audio restoration, too. Those problematic moments in the director's cut now sound a lot closer to the rest of the film; you won't notice the difference unless you make a point of listening for it. Now both cuts have the DTS-HD 5.1 mixes, as well as the stereo in LPCM, with optional English subtitles.
I should point out that Scream Factory also released this has a two disc
set, with 1 blu-ray and 1 DVD copy of the director's cut. But of
course we're going to look at the limited (albeit to 10,000 copies,
which is barely limited) edition boxed set, which is 3 blu-ray discs of
both cuts of the film and even more special features on the third disc.
And I've a few people say they felt Scream just left the filler for the
bonus disc and all the best stuff was on the main Director's cut disc,
but I disagree. I actually found some of the more interesting stuff to
be on the bonus disc, including a frank interview with the editor who
re-cut
Nightbreed against Barker's wishes and a cool look at some
stop motion creatures that never made it into either cut of the film.
Meanwhile, one of the "big" features on the main disc was a drawn out
series of interviews with the cast where they were each asked to
describe their characters, which wasn't terribly illuminating at all to
anyone who'd already seen the film, and actually gets a little tedious.
Still, of course, both versions have some great and crucial extras.
There's an introduction and audio commentary by Barker, in-depth
interviews with the effects team, 2nd unit director and stunt man, and
that documentary I criticized in the previous paragraph, which did also
include some good content with the cast. That stuff and the trailer are
what's in both sets.
Besides the aforementioned looks at the stop motion and editor, the
bonus disc also offers over 25 minutes of deleted scenes not included in
either cut - including an interesting, unseen kill or two - some in
full quality and others sourced from video tape. We also get a series
of shorter featurettes looking at the matte paintings, makeup tests,
rehearsal, artwork, and a more in-depth interview with effects artist
Bob Keen
(who was included in the effects piece on the other disc), including
his behind-the-scenes footage. Plus, it's got like five stills
galleries. The 3-disc set comes in two separate amaray cases, both with
reversible artwork, housed in a nice, solid slip-box, which also
contains a pretty lavish, 40-page booklet, telling the story of the
Cabal and director's cuts. And if you were one of the first 3000 people
to order it direct from Shout's website, it came with a large 18"x24"
poster as well.
And Arrow has everything from the Scream set, including the third bonus disc. And they have more great stuff! First they have two new audio commentaries. One is with
Kim Newman (he's mainly here as an expert moderator, but he did spend a day on set and is closer to the whole thing than most expert commentators),
Peter Atkins (who besides what he's credited for, also wrote the original screenplay adaptation of Barker's novel before Clive wrote his own) and
Stephen Jones. It's great until the last half hour or so, when Jones gets hung up on making an argument that goes nowhere. Then the other one is with the editor and producer of the director's cut; and it's also quite good. They have a lot of candid info about how the director's cut came to be, though they spend a lot of time laughing hysterically at inscrutable in-jokes, and you'll wish they took their time here more seriously (honestly, I suspect inebriation). But if you can put up with it, it''ll pay off. The third big, new addition is a feature-length documentary, made entirely of footage Stephen Jones shot on the set of
Nightbreed. The interviews are far more extensive than your usual promotional EPK featurette, and there's also tons of great behind-the-scenes footage. Arrow also includes the "Johnny Get Angry" music video that was made for the 2014 release, but Scream rejected.
And they have their own swag. Arrow's discs come in a black amary case with reversible cover art housed in a solid slipbox. And there's a slipcover to go over that box. Also in there is a double-sided fold-out poster, a 56-page perfect-bound booklet by
Mark Salisbury and
Phil &
Sarah Stokes, plus the standard Arrow card (mine was for
Wildstyle).
This set is pretty close to perfect. One can't help wonder why, if the director's cut footage was found in 2014, it couldn't be scanned it again for the 4k. But the composite cut is so well done, it almost doesn't matter. The picture's better, the audio's better, the special features are better... the only thing they could've thrown in to sweeten the pot is the Cabal cut. You can always buy that separately if you really need it. You don't need that digitized VHS footage in 4k.
