Scream Factory has announced that they’re giving Wes Craven’s troubled and compromised 1986 film Deadly Friend (watch it HERE) the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray treatment. The North American street date for the disc is October 12th, and copies are available for pre-order at THIS LINK.
While announcing this good news, Scream Factory also had to break some disappointing news to Deadly Friend fans hoping to see a director’s cut:
We anticipate being asked if we found any alternate footage from the film (as seen in the original theatrical trailer) or Craven’s more milder original feature-length cut. Unfortunately, we could not locate any lost footage after investigating. Sorry, we tried. As fans of the film ourselves we wanted to see that too!
Based on the novel Friend by Diana Henstell, Deadly Friend was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and has the following synopsis:
Lonely teenage genius Paul, a specialist in brain research, has two best friends: his remarkable robot and the beautiful girl next door. When tragedy strikes both of his friends, he desperately tries to save them by pushing technology beyond its mortal limits into a terrifying new realm. Like a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, Paul discovers too late that he has created a rampaging monster!
Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett, Anne Twomey, and Anne Ramsey star.
The film’s Wikipedia page explains the trouble that Craven ran into while trying to bring the story to the screen:
Originally, the film was a sci-fi thriller without any graphic scenes, with a bigger focus on plot and character development and a dark love story centering around the two main characters, which were not typical aspects of Craven’s previous films. After Craven’s original cut was shown to a test audience by Warner Bros., the audience criticized the lack of graphic, bloody violence and gore that Craven’s other films included. Warner Bros. executive vice president Mark Canton and the film’s producers then demanded script re-writes and re-shoots, which included filming gorier death scenes and nightmare sequences, similar to the ones from Craven’s previous film, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Due to studio imposed re-shoots and re-editing, the film was drastically altered in post-production, losing much of the original plot and more scenes between characters, while other scenes, including more grisly deaths and a new ending, were added.
The Blu-ray won’t contain that cut footage, but Scream Factory did provide the following details on the release:
– This will be presented as a Collector’s Edition and will come guaranteed with a slipcover in its first three months of release. The newly commissioned artwork pictured comes to us from artist Colin Murdoch. This art will be front-facing, and the reverse side of the wrap will feature the original theatrical artwork.
– Extras will be announced on a later date, but we can confirm today that there will be a new HD transfer of the film (same runtime & content as the prior “Twisted Terror” DVD) and interview with actress Kristy Swanson!
– Pre-orders on our site begin today which includes the Blu-ray plus a rolled 18” x 24” poster of the new art. The poster is exclusive to us and will be made at a limited run of 700 pieces.
The cover art can be seen right here:
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