8 Best Directors Cuts Of Horror Movies

Key Takeaways

• Director’s cuts can enhance horror movies by adding gore, character development, and deleted scenes to the original vision.
• Movies like
  Mimic
  and
  Nightbreed
  were improved when directors had the chance to release their preferred versions after studio interference.
• Alien and Aliens saw their extended cuts add depth to characters and scenes, making them more complete and enriching the viewing experience.

A lot can go into the making of a horror movie, but due to various issues from pacing to simply keeping within a certain runtime, scenes get removed in the editing room. In some cases, entire portions are reshot, for better or worse, which has led to the release of different director’s cuts on home video.

From monster movies to iconic slashers to horror movies that were already good, director’s cuts have become just as famous as the theatrical cuts. Not only do they give an insight as to what the director originally had in mind, which could lead to drastic tones and styles, but some director’s cuts manage to be superior to what came before.

8 Saw 3

What Could Have Been An Epic Finale To The Franchise

• Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
• Release Date: October 27, 2006
• Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus McFayden, Bahar Soomekh

Initially intended to be the epic finale for the gore-fueled horror franchise, Saw 3 already features a lot with multiple plots going on at once. As a result, certain things were cut down by the studio but were later included in Darren Lynn Bousman’s director’s cut, which was only slightly longer, but enough to make a difference.

The extended cut of Saw 3 featured more gore and disturbing shots, thus extending every trap sequence to be even worse to witness. New scenes, including the return of a legacy character from the first Saw film, were added to give the story more fan service, and it remained the longest Saw movie in the entire series before Saw X came out.

7 Mimic

Guillermo Del Toro Hated The Theatrical Cut

• Director: Guillermo Del Toro
• Release Date: August 22, 1997
• Starring: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Charles Dutton, Josh Brolin

While it was a mostly successful horror movie of the 90s, Mimic was despised by one important person: Guillermo Del Toro, the director. Del Toro expressed that he was not happy with how Mimic turned out because producer Harvey Weinstein clashed with him, forcing certain choices, and denied the director any say on the final cut.

However, in 2011, Del Toro was allowed to come back and splice Mimic closer to how he would have wanted it. Deleted scenes were added, some scenes were reduced, others were extended, and the color grading was changed, and the result is a monster movie that Gullermo Del Toro as well as fans appreciate far more.

6 Friday The 13th (2009)

Jason Voorhees Is More Deadly And Developed

• Director: Marcus Nispel
• Release Date: February 13, 2009
• Starring: Derek Mears, Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Danielle Panabaker

Also known as The Killer Cut, the Friday The 13th reboot was not loved by critics, which is common with slasher horror movie franchises, but it has become a beloved entry in the series thanks to its dark and gritty return to the classic style of slasher killer while updating Jason Voorhees to be at his most terrifying, and that is only enhanced with the extended cut.

As the name of the cut suggests, the Killer Cut of Friday The 13th features more of the kills that Jason is known for, especially in the already gruesome prologue sequence. However, there are also new scenes that develop Jason Voorhees as a character, showing that he is more than just a mindless killer.

5 Stay Alive

A Movie About A Cursed Horror Game Should Never Be PG-13

• Director: William Brent Bell
• Release Date: March 24, 2006
• Starring: Jon Foster, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Samaire Armstrong

It is not required for a movie to be R-rated to be good, but editing a movie like Stay Alive, which was made to be R-rated as a love letter to horror video games to have a PG-13 rating is not wise. The movie is about a group of friends who play a cursed horror game and begin to get killed in the real world as they were killed in the game.

In the PG-13 version, nearly all the death scenes are cutaways and are blatantly watered down, relying more on the tension and scares. However, Stay Alive is considered far superior in the Unrated cut, featuring more gore to make for a darker and more fitting tone, whereas the theatrical cut’s tone was inconsistent.

4 Alien

Ridley Scott Created The Definitive Version Of The Movie

• Director: Ridley Scott
• Release Date: June 22, 1979
• Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto

Ridley Scott revolutionized sci-fi horror with 1979’s Alien and the creation of the terrifying Xenomorph. In 2003, Ridley Scott was able to restore deleted scenes, including the now-beloved Xenomorph lair scene that helped generate multiple theories in the fanbase about what it was doing with its victims.

Other scenes in the Alien extended cut showcase more of the crew and flesh them out a bit more. More scenes with the Xenomorph are present, such as the extended death of Brett. Even the cat Jonesy gets extra time when he goes face-to-face with the perfect organism, and it may not be a lot of new, but it’s enough to help the movie feel expanded without slowing the pace.

3 Doctor Sleep

Three Hours Of Pure Stephen King Horror

• Director: Mike Flanagan
• Release Date: November 8, 2019
• Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyleigh Curran, Bruce Greenwood

Adapting Stephen King’s novels into movies is no easy task as his stories are as long as they are complex, and Doctor Sleep is no different, while also being a legacy sequel to The Shining. While the theatrical cut was already praised as a strong adaptation, director Mike Flanagan’s cut is also praised for over half an hour of extra content.

Focusing on character development, Doctor Sleep features more scenes throughout that flesh out characters like Ewan McGregor’s Dan Torrence, Kyliegh Curran’s Abra, and Rebecca Ferguson’s Rose along with some extra fan service in the last act. It is longer at three hours, but the extended and extra scenes give Doctor Sleep a streamlined pace that never feels too fast or slow.

2 Aliens

More Action And Suspense Brought By James Cameron

• Director: James Cameron
• Release Date: July 14, 1986
• Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Lance Henriksen

James Cameron’s Aliens was already considered a master class in how to make a sequel, with many considering it the best of the entire Alien timeline. However, in 2003, Cameron gave the same treatment to his film that Ridley did to the original, adding new scenes that flesh out certain aspects better.

Ellen Ripley’s story is given more depth, especially in the opening, which delves more into why she becomes so protective of Newt throughout the film. Newt is also introduced far earlier in the film with a sequence showing the colony before the Xenomorph infestation and there is more tension added by the now-famous auto turret scenes.

1 Nightbreed

Clive Barker’s Cut Proves That Only He Should Control His Movies

• Director: Clive Barker
• Release Date: February 16, 1990
• Starring: Craig Sheffer, David Cronenberg, Lori Winston, Dough Bradley

Clive Barker is an unorthodox storyteller, but that’s also what makes him so memorable, creating beautifully graphic horror tales such as Hellraiser and Nightbreed. However, Nightbreed initially was released as a version that Clive Barker was not happy with, stripping away much of his nuance and style for something akin to a slasher movie that was more satisfactory to the studio.

However, in 2009, Clive Barker released his cut of Nightbreed with over twenty minutes of new and alternate footage that transformed what was an unwatchable mess into a far more coherent story. It was what Clive Barker originally wanted, with a better tone, development of the titular monsters, and an alternate ending.