Tim Ritter’s “Killing Spree” is set to hit Blu-Ray for the first time ever this Sunday night from SRS Cinema/Sub Rosa Studios. This time tho, there’s a twist… this will be an all new remastered version from Tim’s original rough cut of the movie.
Back in 1986-ish, Tim delivered a VHS rough cut of his movie to his editor, Robert Williams. Only Robert ended up making some major alterations to that blueprint – rearranging scenes, breaking scenes up, omitting shots or moments (one, for example, was a major key moment that further explains the return of the “certain” characters near the end of the movie), changing the flow of the movie Tim scripted and shot. The end result was still an entertaining, fun-filled, gore-packed, comedy/horror movie, but overall it wasn’t the movie Tim intended. All these years since, through numerous VHS releases and 2 DVD releases, fans have only seen this editor’s version… but not any more.
A couple years back, Sub Rosa released a VHS of that original rough cut Tim made… but as the title implies, it was rough – no music, rough edits, glitched edits, missing audio, etc. It was meant as a completest item for diehard fans of the movie – “see the version Tim intended”. But now the folks at SRS Cinema have gone back to the original raw footage betacam tapes and are in the process of mastering the movie like it’s never been seen before. The first polished cut is done and will soon be seen by Tim for notes. All the dialogue and music (which includes tracks never before heard) are being transferred. And the movie, which is pretty blotchy in parts due to low end film stock and below average transfer means, is being cleaned up as much as possible (unfortunately the original film stock is long gone, but we are working from the best materials possible, ie the Betacam tapes the film was transferred to). And all the footage is being upscaled to HD. All in all, we hope to deliver the sharpest looking feature possible!
SRS Cinema will present the movie on Blu-ray for the first time. The plan is for a dual Blu-Ray/DVD release, and tentatively the blu-ray disc will include: 1) The all-new Director’s cut; 2) The original release cut; 3) Never before seen bloopers; 4) All-new commentary from Tim Ritter (and maybe others); and 5) Blinded by the Blood, a doc about the making of “Killing Spree”. There may even be more. The DVD will include as many of these things that we can fit on there as well – but no promises on anything beyond the new cut of the movie tho. There will only be 666 pressed copies released (in honor of the address of the main location house in the movie, “666 Peerless Lane”), EVER, and once they are gone expect them to skyrocket in value. You’ll want to get them as SOON as they come out! A lot of people missed out on Tim’s “Day of the Reaper” and are paying twice the original retail price (or more) to grab one now – WHEN/IF they come up for sale.
There will also be two VHS release of the movie under the Sub Rosa banner, one will be the all new cut, the other will be the original cut. These will be limited to 30 units each as well…. again, EVER. This is the last time they will be made available on this format.
All versions go up for pre-sales this Sunday night, 4/12, at 7pm EST. Please note: it will take 5-6 weeks before they ship. We are starting pre-sales early to help pay for some of the costs in remastering the movie and we will wrap it up as soon as possible – may end up taking just a few weeks. But again, for safety’s sake, figure 5-6 weeks before we have our copies back from replication. Please be patient as well prep the best possible release for you.
Once live, get your copies HERE:
VHS releases HERE (SOLD OUT)
And thanks, as always, for the amazing support of SRS and Sub Rosa. Without you all we couldn’t have done anything remotely like this, and it’s been our pleasure bringing this cult classic back to life!
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