As you can tell by the name of the blog, I’m a big Clive
Barker fan. Nightbreed, flaws
and all, has always rivaled the almighty Hellraiser as my favorite
Barker flick. I think every kid who
grew up as an outsider has a soft spot for the Tribes of the Moon. Just like the rest of the Nightbreed
fans, I’ve dreamed of seeing the “uncut version” ever since the days when we
all thought it might be a myth. For
many, many years it was spoken of in tones usually reserved for London After
Midnight. So, you can imagine my
excitement when it was announced that the missing footage had been
located. You can also imagine how many
expletive laden tirades I subjected my poor computer to when Occupy Midian kept
sending me invitations to screenings that were half a country (and in some
cases, an entire continent) away. Then,
it finally happened. Baphomet smiled upon me. One of the last screenings before
it slunk back into the shadows to be restored happened in my back yard! A few midnights ago, I got the opportunity
to stagger (thanks to James Bickert and his spicy lemonade/tequila concoctions)
into Gwinnett Arena’s screening room and behold something that, as recently as
a few months ago, I feared I might never see.
And let me tell you, Cellmates, everything is true. God’s an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow, and The
Cabal Cut is just as bad ass as you’ve
heard it is.
As Russell Cherrington (the Cabal Cut director and
the man who actually found the footage) said in the pre-screening Q&A, this
movie isn’t Nightbreed at all.
This is a whole different film.
It’s been a long time since I read Cabal, and I’ve killed off a
lot of brain cells since then, but from what I do recall the new cut follows
the book pretty closely. One of the
criticisms that has long been flung at Nightbreed is that it doesn’t
make sense. Admittedly, the plot in the
theatrical cut is all kindsa disjointed and jumbled. That’s definitely not the case any more. Whole characters and subplots that were
originally left on the cutting room floor are resurrected. I think the main difference is the
astounding amount of character development that’s been added. It’s most evident with Lori, Boone’s
girlfriend. In Nightbreed, let’s
face it, she’s downright annoying at times.
She becomes a fully realized character with an actual arc in The
Cabal Cut. She’s a major player,
and the Lori/Boone love story is much more front and center. She spends a lot more time in Midian too,
which really does add a lot to the story.
We also get to savor more of David Cronenberg’s tour de force
performance as Dr. Decker. A lot of
nuance is added to the good doctor.
There’s one scene involving Decker having a conversation with his mask
that’s probably my second favorite re-inserted scene. My favorite is definitely when Boone… ah, dammit. I would be straying into spoiler territory
if I told you. That sucks, ‘cause I
really want to gush about that scene.
Let’s just say that my murmured “holy shit” wasn’t the only one I heard
during that moment.
The added footage also lets the outstanding set and creature
design shine. The clichéd line about
this being “the Star Wars of monster movies” applies now. The Tribes of the Moon are out in force. The sheer amount of unique makeups is
staggering. There are some never before
seen major effects and monsters that are, at very least, as impressive as
anything in the theatrical version. I
can’t emphasize just how cool the army of monsters is. A lot more of the proceedings take place in
Midian. It feels a lot more like the
vast, labyrinthine subterranean city described in the book than the mere
underground hideout we know. I dare say
that if this movie had originally been presented in this form, it might have
deservedly won effects Oscars in 1990.
I can’t, however, call it a perfect movie. I’m about to say something that will sound
like heresy to a lot of the fanboys that are salivating over seeing this, but
it’s a little too long. Just because
all of that footage was found doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s all
essential. There are times that the
flick gets a little slow. It could
stand to be tightened up by about 10 minutes.
Of course, the fans (myself included) want to see that footage. So maybe
while it ought to be excised from the flick, it should all certainly be
included as special features on the DVD/BD.
Speaking of which, I’m even more excited for Scream
Factory’s 2014 blu-ray release after seeing the film in its current form. I’m
not a hi-def snob, far from it actually, but the version I saw looked bad
enough to take me out of the flick at times.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of it and knew what I was in
for, but the new footage, quite frankly, looks shitty. It looks like a fifth generation bootleg,
which it essentially is. Sometimes it
was so blurry that it was hard to be sure what I was seeing. It was a lot like listening to The Ultimate
Warrior rant when I was a kid. I had a
vague idea of what he said, and it didn’t make a lot of sense, but I was so
excited that it was happening at all that I just went with it. As cool as this flick is, it deserves to
look great. Scream Factory has
delivered in spades on all of their releases so far, and with this being one of
those horror holy grails I have no reason to believe that it will receive
anything but the same TLC. The movie
was awesome when it looked like shit.
Looking as it should, it’s gonna be downright orgasm inducing.
I told Leah and Nicole as we were leaving that as much
as I cherish my innumerable Nightbreed viewings over the years, I sorta
envy those who will see the film for the first time like this. The Cabal Cut is a sprawling epic
that finally does the mythology of its universe justice. From the much more coherent beginning to the
seriously protracted climax to the completely different finale, it left me
slack jawed. The film can finally be
viewed for what it is, one of the most ambitious movies - not horror movies
mind you, but MOVIES – ever made. If
you love Nightbreed, you’re in for a treat that will exceed any
expectations you may have. If you hate Nightbreed,
I can’t see how The Cabal Cut won’t change your mind. If you’re a horror fan at all, the Scream
Factory release is the very definition of a “must own.” Now more than ever, I’ve decided that when I
die I don’t want to go to heaven or hell at all. I want to go to Midian, dammit!
After all, it is Shangri-la on dope.
Could any place possibly sound cooler than that? 9.5 secret faces of 10. Nathan says check it out.
This summer, I had the pleasure of sitting in
the Gwinnett Center’s screening room as Russell Cherrington told the story of finding a VHS containing the mythical director’s cut of
Nightbreed behind some books in Clive Barker’s house to a spellbound (Hellbound?) crowd. The long awaited emergence of the “Cabal
Cut” has been, without a doubt, the biggest story in the horror world this
year; and Russell is the man that made it happen. An award winning film and music video director, he is the “restoration
director” of Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut.
With Scream Factory promising a highly anticipated DVD and Blu-ray
release in 2014, there’s never been a better time to be a member of the Tribes
of the Moon. Everything is true. God's an astronaut, Oz is over the rainbow, and today Mr. Cherrington has made the trip from
Midian to Celluloid Central to tell us what Halloween means to him.
Hellraiser is
my 1987. It is, in my humble opinion, the single most important horror film of
the 1980’s. It changed everything for me. The Monsters are twisted humans, bent
into new forms on their journey to find pleasure in pain at the far side of
human experience. The story of family dysfunction gives it a balance and a
human drama to give the film heart. 
