For decades, fans of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood have lamented one of horror’s greatest lost treasures: John Carl Buechler’s notoriously bloodier original cut, which was heavily trimmed after repeated battles with the MPAA before the film’s 1988 release.
While bits and pieces of those deleted kills have surfaced over the years through low-quality VHS workprint footage included on various DVD and Blu-ray releases, a Reddit user is now claiming to possess two previously unseen post-production VHS tapes that could offer the most complete look yet at the film before MPAA censorship, reshoots, and final editorial changes.
The post, which appeared on Reddit within the past week, shows photographs of two labeled VHS tapes that the user says once belonged to composer Fred Mollin, who scored the film during post-production.
“These tapes were used by composer Fred Mollin during post-production,” the Reddit user wrote. “One tape is a window dub that contains early rough cuts of certain reels from the movie that are mixed with older Manfredini cues from the previous movies. The other tape is an entire early rough cut of the movie with no score or sound effects.”
According to the Reddit user, what’s most significant isn’t simply the return of the infamous uncut gore.
“What’s unique about both tapes is that they contain alternate takes, extended scenes, and some original sequences before reshoots (including Robin’s original death and the alternate ending). Both include the uncut gore effects.”
If accurate, that would make these tapes considerably different from the degraded deleted scenes fans have already seen on home video. Rather than isolated censored moments, the tapes reportedly preserve an earlier stage of post-production before ADR, final sound design, music, reshoots, and even some editorial decisions had been completed.
The Reddit user later clarified that one tape is a “window dub” containing reels two through five, while the second is an entire rough cut of the film.
“The quality on the full workprint, while still rough, is a little better,” the user wrote. “It doesn’t have music or sound effects though. Nor does it have any ADR work. But it’s a great glimpse of an early version before reshoots and MPAA cuts.”
Another intriguing revelation is that this rough cut reportedly opens differently than the finished film.
“I forgot to mention that the workprint doesn’t include that prologue before the main credits that’s in the Final Cut. It starts right away with the young Tina sequence.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise came when the Reddit user uploaded a clip from the workprint showcasing the film’s legendary sleeping bag kill, long considered one of the franchise’s most heavily censored moments. In the theatrical cut, Jason slams the victim against a tree once before dropping the body. The newly shared footage instead shows Jason repeatedly smashing the sleeping bag against the tree as blood begins soaking through the fabric before the victim is finally dropped to the ground.
While fans have previously seen portions of this sequence through muddy, heavily duplicated VHS footage included as bonus material on older home video releases, this newly shared clip appears noticeably brighter, cleaner, and easier to make out, suggesting it may have been sourced from an earlier-generation tape than what has circulated publicly for years.
The Reddit user says they cannot publicly screen the full tapes due to an agreement regarding how they were obtained.
“I don’t want to confirm where I obtained these, but my agreement prevents me from screening these tapes publicly,” the user explained. “That doesn’t mean I can’t (or haven’t) digitized for further safekeeping. I hoped (maybe naively?) that fans would appreciate knowing that a decent quality uncut work print of Part 7 isn’t lost to the world.”
Whether these tapes ultimately become available remains to be seen. Even if they do, fans probably shouldn’t expect a seamless “uncut” restoration of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. For years, filmmakers and historians have maintained that many of the original film elements containing the excised gore were lost or discarded, meaning any future reconstruction would almost certainly rely on standard-definition VHS inserts rather than newly restored camera negatives.
Still, if the Reddit user’s claims prove accurate, these tapes may represent the earliest surviving version of Buechler’s film that fans have ever seen—one that preserves not only the infamous MPAA-trimmed violence, but alternate takes, pre-reshoot scenes, and an entirely different snapshot of the movie before it became the version audiences have known for nearly four decades.
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