Charles Band responds-from the 88films facebook page.
Most of the 35mm negatives of my early features have been in storage for years at various labs in Los Angeles. As we are able to afford it we have been taking the negatives out of the lab and making HD masters, then Blu ray masters and then replicating Blu ray discs. We have hired some of the best color correction experts we could find, have done audio commentaries and other special features when possible - all in an effort to bring the fans of our early works the best quality viewing experience possible. The issue of the 5 missing minutes of Tourist Trap is upsetting for all of us as we never touched the negative that has been in storage for 36 years. When the time came we simply had the lab deliver the negative to the color correction house who did their work and they then delivered an HD master back to us. We added the special features and then had the Blu ray master authored.
Tourist Trap was distributed in the US by a company called Compass International. I was not involved in the theatrical distribution of my films back in the late 70’s and there could be many reasons why those minutes were cut out by the distributor: maybe for a foreign delivery, maybe to save money when making 35mm theatrical prints or maybe for a TV delivery. It’s even more strange since the old video master that we’ve used over the years to make the regular VHS and DVD copies most people have seen apparently was the longer version. When all of this came up I copied the director David Schmoeller to see if he could shed any light on the subject.
He suggested that I possible had someone arbitrarily cut out 5 minutes to make the film play better. That's both an incorrect and unfortunate accusation, especially due to the fact that David personally did the audio commentary for the new HD remaster of his feature and never noticed or said a word to the effect that this was a shorter or damaged version.
Bottom line: people who know me know that I’m not even a fan of remakes let alone am I someone who would cut out 5 minutes of any film I’ve made – especially a film that is considered one of our best. The fact that we’ve stored and kept these negatives safe for decades, and are now spending considerable money bringing them out on Blu ray, I know is appreciated by most of our fans. Anomalies will happen as records regarding elements stored for decades can be lost or their history forgotten. There’s only one original 35mm negative on any film – and the one we used to make a beautiful HD master of Tourist Trap is apparently an alternate cut than the one widely circulated.
As I originally asked of David, if anyone out there can offer any insight, I urge them to contact us.
In the meantime, in my opinion, save for the missing or alternate scenes in question, this is the best Tourist Trap has ever looked and, especially after watching it again now, I believe it still has the power to affect and frighten its audience.
-CB
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