Missing in Action: Nightbreed: The Director's Cut

This is a new feature here at Horror in Retrospect, where take a look at movies that are in desperate need of a proper dvd release or dvds that need to be given the special edition treatment. I decided to start out with my favorite horror movie of all time: Nightbreed.

It was early 1991 and I was over at a friend's house when we decided to watch a movie. The movie of choice was Nightbreed, a movie that I only seen a trailer for, but otherwise did not know. We popped the movie into the VCR and over the course of the next hour and forty-some minutes we watched before our eyes the birth of a cult classic.

This movie meant something to me. It contained all of the good things that horror movies have to offer, but it was the things in the movie that I had never seen before that would stick with me. The idea of someone not belonging was not a new idea, but the fact that he wanted to go "where the monsters live" was totally new to me. The monsters were the good guys, trying to live a peaceful life, until the townspeople found out where they were and decided to destroy to utopia.

Nightbreed was not a hit when it was released in 1990, but has developed a cult following since it's release. The version that is available now is the theatrical cut and is not the true version that Clive Barker had set out to make. Not only did the studio demand Barker make cuts to the movie, but they made him add scenes to make the movie more of a slasher movie. The MPAA also made Barker cut scenes that they deemed too graphic.

For years fans have been trying to get a special edition released, but the geniuses at Morgan Creek (the company that owns the rights to the movie.) see no value in the movie and refuse to put the time and money into a release. This is beyond idiotic because there is more than enough demand for the movie, but there has been no progress in getting a proper release. Barker has even gone as far as finding a workprint of his original cut and plans to screen it at an upcoming horror convention.

There needs to be a special edition of this movie. At the very least, we need to see a restored director's cut. There is so much potential for a great release that would make Morgan Creek a lot of money, but it seems to me that they do not like money.