eFilmCritic

[David Cornelius]

So who here's seen The Plague, that DTV horror flick with James Van Der Beek and all those kid zombies? I know Scotty has. Anyone else?

Anyway. Seems the filmmakers have a hell of a bad story to tell about their experiences making their movie - namely, that they were kicked out during editing and had the entire film reworked without them. Now they're trying to get their own cut released. I'm not sure if an online petition would work (do studios EVER look at those things?), but I loved the film and would love to see a remix. So yeah, I signed.

Long story short, anyone else here see the thing and think there's room for improvement? Or is it a lost cause? Or something else?

[MikeParker]

THE PLAGUE: WRITERS & DIRECTOR'S CUT unreleased & needs supp

In the fall of 2005, the film, THE PLAGUE, was taken away from its writers and director during post. After an 8 year struggle to make a thought-provoking, socially relevant horror film dealing with the subject of kids and violence, the film was re-cut from scratch by the producers without the involvement of the film's creators. The new focus of the producers? To make a "killer-kid film". Stock footage was added, new dialogue recorded, and the film completely restructured. The result was a version of the film that in no way reflects the years of hard work, creativity, or artistic intent of the writers and director of the film. Nor does it reflects any conversations, development ideas or intentions that were shared during the three-year collaboration process. It is solely and completely a "producers' cut".  It was released to dvd in September of 2006 at a running time of 88 minutes under the title CLIVE BARKER'S THE PLAGUE, though it was not based on any of Barker's work (it was an original screenplay by director Hal Masonberg and co-writer Teal Minton) and Barker, personally, had very little to do with the making of the film. 

However, after having been removed from the film, director Hal Masonberg took it upon himself to finish the film with the materials available to him (the film's dailies on dvd and a Macintosh computer-turned post-production facility) The film was originally shot in Super 35 by veteran cinematographer, Bill Butler (JAWS, THE CONVERSATION, FRAILTY), who was also not invited to partake in the film's post-production process.

The response to the Writers & Director's Cut by those who have seen it has been through the roof. However, without further support, this film may never see the light of day as the film's current distributor, Screen Gems, has no plans to release this cut.

I ask that you take a look at this site. On it you will find an hour-long documentary containing interviews with not only director, Hal Masonberg, but many others including Dee Wallace and other cast members, film authors/ journalists.

There is also a link to a petition and much more info on what happened to this film.

The link is:

http://www.spreadingtheplague.com/

[AndersLange]

I have been one of the fortunate ones, and have seen the Writer's and Directors cut. It should be released...I think Clive Barker's name and reputation would be golden if this version of the film made it's way out there for the public to see.

Obviously, someone in the middle must have interfered with his vision and that of the writers' and director's, too, because they're not even the same film, and he has been quoted as saying the end result (of the official release) doesn't match the script...but didn't the guy who wrote the script also direct the film? Hello?

I haven't seen the script but the Writer's and Director's cut is an excellent horror film. It would be tragic for it not to be released.