papapauly

Anyone else see Last House upon opening back in 1972?
Watched all of Arrow’s new release. PART of the famous disemboweling Scene is shown in small parts , BUT from what I remembered there was much more to the scene than presented here! Also I remember there was more to the scene of the “biting” of weasel’s privates and a shot of David Hess’s head rolling after the chainsaw attack! Does anybody who did see the initial release of the film remember these scenes before they were pulled and cut and where are they now and not here on the blu ray?
Thanks

orangerunner

I remember reading an article about how the original release prints back in 1972 were physically cut and re-edited by independent theatre owners due to complaints of graphic content.

By the time the release prints were sent back, almost all of them were cut to various degrees. I'm not sure what specific scenes were edited but I suppose some scenes or clips could have been lost and never recovered.

nemein

Welcome to DVDtalk... always good to see fresh names.

Please take a moment to look around the various forums and check the place out. In particular there is still a separate forum for BluRay discussions. There is talk of merging them but that hasn't happened yet. In this case since you are specifically talking about the BR version you might get a better response by putting it in there since sometimes people don't check all the forum.

Moving it for you...

DWilson

If there's one thing the Arrow set is missing, as complete as it is, -is a general rundown of what's in the missing footage from the original first run. The late Wes Craven makes a general comment but I'd have liked something more specific. It's mentioned that Craven created the 84-minute cut, but I'm not sure if he was working with the complete 94-minute original release.

PhantomStranger

Wasn't Craven supposedly embarrassed or something by the earliest cut that made it out into theaters and edited it down himself? I don't think anyone has seen all of it outside of a few early moviegoers and Craven himself. Then Craven went back to the film in the early 2000s, giving us what we now have as his "master" cut. There's a belief that material doesn't exist anymore, or that producer Sean Cunningham respects the wishes of his departed friend and won't allow that early footage out.

Goonies85

My understanding is that Sean Cunningham also did NOT like that footage and has no desire to let it out. When I see him in interviews, while he is somewhat happy with the impact the film had, and how it really helped him and Craven's careers, he's not overly enthused with the film...Sounds like it was just a way to make a quick buck so he could move on to other things...

Of course he later started up the Friday the 13th series of films, which I love but are also very graphic at times...Even though by today's standards they're pretty tame...

papapauly

Agreed about the arrow set- Again my parents , who were avid movie goers, took me to see this the first day it came out in CT. As mentioned above, those were things I remember seeing in that original cut, that’s Ive never seen again.!
I Do remember about half the audience getting up and leaving, some looking quite sick and horrified after the prolonged disembowling scene!!! It was funny to me to see them run😄 Also very much agree and have heard about Craven’s and Cunningham’s embarrassing feelings about those scenes. Still glad to have the Arrow set though and it looks really good-