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Richard Stanley’s 1992 art-horror masterpiece had something of a turbulent post-production history, as noted on fan site Between Death And The Devil (http://www.everythingisundercontrol.org):
<span class=“Italics”>During this time the US release fell victim of The Silence of the Lambs boom, i.e. the tsunami of serial killer movies. Miramax, the overseas distributor, cut their version down to 87 minutes in order to make it more of a “mystical murder movie”, removing all dream and supernatural imagery. They also redubbed the narrative and regraded the film stock to deep red in the vein of Hardware. This cut, unfortunately, is the most seen one. Miramax premiered it at Cannes and released it on laserdisc (in pan&scan!).
Greatest differences between the two cuts are the following:
Scenes concerning Dust Devil’s origins and emotions have been reduced or scrapped altogether.
Wendy’s and Mark’s tumult relationship has been cut down.
Ben Mukorob’s screen time has been considerably reduced, nixing the dreams of his son and his otherwordly connection with Dust Devil.</span>
The film was recently released in a brilliant 5-disc set by Subversive Cinema, featuring both the director’s cut and an extended workprint. But what about the 87-minute Miramax hatchet job? Is it really as bad as Stanley claims? He is, after all, a visionary who is (understandably) very attached to his idea of what the film should be. But does the Miramax cut deserve to languish in such ignominy?
To find out, over the next few months I am going to attempt a preservation of the Miramax cut, using both the pan&scan Italian and American VHS releases - both basically identical - and a German bootleg DVD of the Final Cut (released by Laser Paradise) from which I’ll try to cut together a better looking version of the shorter cut. This latter print is pretty scratchy and has a few compression artifacts, but I’m going to use it anyway. Why this copy and not the Subversive HD master, I ask you? Well, my thesis would be it may actually benefit from a shoddier presentation, giving it some sort of gritty credibility. I’m also going to use the Italian title, Demoniaca, partly to set it apart from Dust Devil: The Final Cut (since as Stanley noted, “It’s almost another movie made from the same rushes as mine”), but also because it sounds pretty cool.
On a similar theme, I might also attempt preservations of the 112-minute Salem’s Lot: The Movie, the shorter cut of Richard Franklin’s Patrick (with score by Goblin rather than Brian May) and the 80-minute American theatrical cut of Andrej Zulawski’s Possession (<span class=“Italics”>forty-five</span> minutes missing!!!). I’m sure this might seem like anathema to some of you who like to have as much footage as possible, and I’m not necessarily saying these cuts are better, but I think at the very least they make interesting curios that shouldn’t be forgotten. Any other ideas?