Australian Beta Holds Key To Lost Footage?
All fans relish the opportunity to get their hands on deleted or lost scenes from the earlier Friday the 13th films. Tales of scenes shot on film but lost forever have haunted the Friday the 13th faithful. Could two Beta tapes from the 80’s, stored in Australia, hold the key to watching these lost scenes?
An Australian seller recently posted Beta tapes on eBay stating that the tapes for Friday the 13th Part 3 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter were uncut and given out as preview tapes to critics that did not have access to 35MM prints for viewing. Apparently, the films that were released on CIC video in Europe and abroad were heavily censored. Yes, even more censored than what we saw in the states. So, the question is, do these tapes contain any of the cut scenes from Part 3, such as Able confronting Chris and Rick or the altermate ending with the beheading of Chris by Jason?
If anyone knows for certain, please enlighten the fanbase as it would be something special to find these scenes on film!
Scream-Trilogy Headlines
Does anyone know the running times for the North American version of the films? These have a running time of 95 mins for part 3 and 93 mins for the Final Chapter. Should these run times be greater than what we got over here in North America, then it’s entirely possible these are legit. Lets hope so! Does anyone have a Beta cassette player anymore?
Interesting… Amazon lists TFC at 91 minutes and this guys’ saying his is 93 minutes. 2 minutes could make all the difference in gore shots.
Will definitely keep an eye on these and try get hold of them!
Keep in mind folks the difference between runspeeds of PAL and NTSC can make up to several minutes difference. I have access to PAL BETA machines, which is what you would need to check these. But not the tapes, obviously.
Had I known I probably would have won these. As a video editor I do have access to a beta player. Oh well.
Whoa. What a find!
you can not rely on running time listed on videoboxes or on the internet, like one said there is a difference between the pal and ntsc and also this approximately calculation can be dubious.
and finally i have seen different running times on the exactly same movie version. So to confirm this someone has to watch the movies and know every frame of it. But i would love to see a miracle like this come true one day that there is a print of the friday the 13th´s that include unseen footage.
Lets hope so
at this point, its doubtful but i also came across these on ebay and found them very fascinating to say the least.
if some one buys them from here I hope they enlighten us to their contents.
Regardless, this was a much deserved read. Especially, considering that F13 part 3 had lost footage. It would be nice if someone could dig deeper into the mystery.
If only i had a beta player, then i’d try win these, as i live in Sydney Australia.
I’m pretty sure these are legit full uncut versions of the film too…
Unlike the later versions released by CIC and Universal studios…
Even the later versions by CIC/Universal had diffirent versions, i had 2 identical copies, but one was heavily cut while the other had way more in it…
You must realised Friday the 13th Part 4 had never been offically released in Australia Uncut until early 2024’s. The first time I watched my imported region 1 dvd, I could not believe the amount of gore during Jason’s death scene. Before that, we Aussie’s only saw the machete strike then he was on the floor……the end.
This video is the uncut international version. Same as the Region 1 DVD.
The time difference is only due to the PAL to NTSC conversion.
I have been lucky enough to fast forward through this video and it does not contain any new or lost footage.
If it did..
#1. I would have brought it their and then.
#2. Why isnt screenshots of the new footage shown on the auction?
All the extra deleted footage was on the DVD for part 4 already.
The audio was never found for the alternate ending, because it was never fully realised.
There have to be people out there who have the lost footage to these movies. I just wish they would hurry up and realize it. Seriously, how long do we have to wait?
Ah Man I hope all the lost footage is on those tapes, and I hope someone finds it and posts the footage.
I’d love to see the scene where Able confronts Rick and Chris. I never knew about that. God, that would be wicked cool!
Colin,
I wrote about this last October. Check out the link below to read more about it.
http://fridaythe13thfilms.com/blog/friday-conversation-should-abel-have-been-featured-later-in-part-3/
I’m surprised none of the studios would want to investigate this because that lost footage would be worth some money to them.
Reminds me of the issue with the BBC throwing away a lot of old Doctor Who films prior to the 3rd Doc. If anyone finds any of them, they hit the goldmine because people are paying a lot of money… the BBC included, for those…
I guess they (The studios) value their time all too well, because otherwise they’d be digging in to it alot more than they have.
Joe Blow, you are half right when you said -
“You must realised Friday the 13th Part 4 had never been offically released in Australia Uncut until early 2024’s. The first time I watched my imported region 1 dvd, I could not believe the amount of gore during Jason’s death scene. Before that, we Aussie’s only saw the machete strike then he was on the floor……the end.”
There was 2 versions, both identical released at the same time
onto video, one is as you said, you see the machete strike then jason is on the floor and it’s over, the other one you see the machete strike, then jasons head slides all the way down it and hits the floor… I had no idea there was 2 versions untill i got them both on video, the ONLY reason i got a second part 4 was becaue it was in a bundle on ebay with parts 1, 2 and 3 so i bought it, watched it and was like wow that’s a lot extra, so i chucked away the original copy i had because it was so badly edited haha, but yeah there is 2 copies and i had em both.
By the way i meant to say in my earlier post CIC and Paramount, not CIC and Universal…