How Scream Factory Was Able To Include The Lost (Now Found) Uncut Friday The 13th Part 2 Death Footage

It was announced yesterday that Scream Factory has found and included the long sought after unedited death scenes from Friday The 13th Part 2 for their new mega Blu-Ray box set being released next month. This is huge news for fans who will finally get to see these scenes as they were intended by make-up effects artist Carl Fullerton. Speaking of Mr. Fullerton, he is the reason why the scenes were found!

Stories of Carl possessing these scenes go way back to the book and documentary Crystal Lake Memories. There are many accounts documented, but specifically fellow effects man and genre legend Greg Nicotero recounted a time when Carl invited him over to see the footage. It is was even noted that he had it on a VHS tape. Fast forward to 2020 where producer and director Edwin Samuelson was preparing to interview Bill Randolph (Jeff from Part 2) for the Scream Factory release. During his research for the interview, he stumbled upon the talk of Carl Fullerton owning the VHS with these unedited death scenes. Excited to find out if Carl still had the tapes, he reached out to the effects man and eventually touched base with him to see if he had the tape. He did, and arranged to have the tape shipped out to have it included in the box set.

However, Edwin was skeptical of having the tape shipped via mail:

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

I have seen the cut footage and it is a sight to see. All of the death scenes are extended with a number of scenes running longer by more than a few seconds. Alice's extended death is a shocker and the one that really surprises me. Mark's wheelchair death is prolonged and looks great, and even Scott's extended death is much bloodier.

I was concerned the quality of the frames would be hard to make out, and even Edwin was afraid of what state the cassette would be in:

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.

So there you have it, the story on how fans will finally be able to enjoy these lost, unedited scenes after almost forty years. Make sure to check out Samuelson Studios on Facebook to get more information on this story and to see their other projects.