Yesterday, Scream Factory announced the full details for the twelve film, sixteen disc FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise box set they'll be releasing on October 13th (pre-order it HERE), and within that announcement came the jaw-dropping revelation that this set will allow fans, for the first time ever, "to see the infamous deleted gore footage from 1981's FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2!"
The company noted that the footage was sourced from a vintage VHS tape, but still, we'll finally get to see the FX work that was cut out of the film, footage that seemed to be lost up until this point. So how did Scream Factory dig up this VHS tape? As it turns out, the answer to the question "Where is the Part 2 gore footage?" has been staring us in the face for the last seven years, ever since the documentary CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES included a moment in which Greg Nicotero said he had seen the footage.
Samuelson Studios is working with Scream Factory to put together the box set bonus features, and the production company's founder Edwin Samuelson took to Facebook to reveal exactly how the footage was unearthed and transferred to Blu-ray:
The upcoming FRIDAY THE 13 boxed set from Scream Factory will include the uncut footage from Part 2. How it was found after being lost for almost 40 years is a great story! As many fans of the series know, several minutes were trimmed because of a crackdown by the MPAA on slasher movies. A few stills have surfaced over the years that gave a hint to what was missing, but despite many efforts over the years to find the footage, it was believed to have been lost or destroyed.
While prepping to shoot an interview with Bill Randolph for Part 2, I decided to re-watch the CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES documentary in order to avoid repeating stories that have already been discussed in depth for years. As expected, there was talk about the footage that was shot, but not included in the final cut due to ratings board. Greg Nicotero mentions that FX artist Carl Fullerton showed him the footage in question. I wondered if anyone had reached out to Fullerton to see if he may still have the scenes that the fans have been dying to see for years. Bill Randolph (who wanted to see his scene as much as anyone else did) and I reached out to Fullerton to see if he still had it. We left a few voicemails and hoped for the best. With less than two weeks before our deadline, I received a call from Carl saying he had a VHS tape with all the material that was trimmed. However, he couldn’t remember exactly what was on it, but was kind enough to loan it to us for inclusion on the set.
Because I was terrified that if it was shipped via postal mail, it might get lost in transit, so I made arrangements to get the tape in person through my co-producer and pal, Peter Bracke. I joked with Peter that I should have gotten him a suitcase with handcuffs and a bodyguard as this most likely was the only copy in existence. Peter met up with Carl, who handed him the old cassette with a typewritten date of April 24, 1981 — about a month before the film opened in theaters! What could be on the tape?
Now came the fun part, seeing if the tape was still viewable after all of these years. It's possible because of its age, it could have been blank or no longer viewable. We wouldn’t ’t know until we got it transferred. Shout Factory's Cliff MacMillan made arrangements to get it transferred at a top-notch facility. However, there was an issue: the lab indicated that the tape was stuck together. If pulled apart, the magnetic information could be stripped, which would mean that we would lose everything. The only solution: baking the tape in an oven overnight to separate the reels. The VHS would have to be taken apart, the reels would have placed into an oven and baked overnight to in order to make it playable. After waiting almost 40 years for this footage, we would have to wait another couple of days to see if “Operation: Baking With Jason “ was successful. So after the careful dismantling and baking operation, the tape was then put back into the cartridge so it could be transferred to a digital format.
Now for the moment of truth — what’s on the tape and is it watchable? Eureka! “It’s alive!” After hearing so much about this footage over the years, I was astonished when viewing the contents for the first time. It appears that Fullerton knew the film was going to be trimmed, so he asked the editor to assemble the trims, and make a copy so he would have a them for his portfolio. The first thing you notice is that nearly every death is considerably longer! There are also few scenes that I didn’t even realize that were that trimmed, ie, Adrienne King’s death.
Even more surprising was the quality. At nearly four decades old, the tape gave me cause to worry, but what I discovered was that the older vintage of the tape actually worked in everyone’s favor. The VHS cassettes used back in the day were of a much higher quality than the ones used a few years later. In fact, I was surprised at how good the image quality was, especially considering the source.
I must have watched the footage found ten times, as I was in utter disbelief that I was finally seeing this material that was considered forever lost. Viewing it confirmed that it was no longer lost, but found. I want to thank Carl Fullerton for going the extra mile to get us the tape; Bill Randolph for reaching out to Carl; my co-producer, Peter Bracke for transporting the holy grail; and to Shout Factory's Cliff MacMillan and Jeff Nelson for keeping the faith. Every Friday the 13th fan owes them a big round of applause and their eternal gratitude.
I can't wait to dig into all of the bonus features this box set has to offer, and I'm especially excited to see the extended death scene footage from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2. Thank you, Samuelson Studios!