Sunday, April 12

Barker's Bullshit Introduction


Found this interesting, this morning I picked up Media Home Entertainment's VHS (cover above) of Clive Barker's much maligned Nightbreed. At the beginning of the tape there's a short two minute clip serving as an introduction by Barker himself. Surrounded by cool busts of his Nightbreed creatures, Barker serves up scripted, platitude-laden fluff as neon green light and smoke illuminates the "behind the scenes" set. I say "scripted" since you can see his eyes subtlety dart back and forth as he briefly speaks about Midian, the effects creators, and Cronenberg's appearance. This intro doesn't appear on Warner's DVD release.

I'm not blaming Barker for anything, but you can't help but ponder what Barker was thinking through the whole thing considering the studio interference the feature suffered. I can't believe he agreed to even do it as he waxes on about "his vision" during the clip. Hopefully that rumored director's cut DVD will surface soon. Also it's damn near incredible how much Barker has changed in appearance over the years.

2 comments:

venoms5 said...

I had read that supposedly the excised footage no longer exists. I saw the film in the theater and couldn't make heads or tails of what the film was really supposed to be about, but the plethora of monsters was good enough to take your mind off the troubled, yet confusing storyline.

Jayson Kennedy said...

I haven't seen the movie in years. I saw it right after my first ever viewing of Hellraiser and being shocked it was from the same director. I think I'll pop it back in soon...

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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