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YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
Cast and characters:
Laurie Lapinski … Joanne Murray; Stephen Sachs … Craig; David Snow … Brian; Pamela Holland … Patti; Dennis Ely … Bobby Lee Tremble; Woody Roll … John Hemmit; Daphne Zuniga … Debbie; Jake Jones … Bill Edgar; Robert Fredrickson … Tim; Chris Morrill … Jack
Chandre … Alice; Billy Criswell … Rick; Richard Cowgill … Debbie’s Father; Kay Beth … Doris, Debbie’s Mother; Jimmy Betz … Officer Lewis
Filming:
The film was shot primarily on the UCLA campus in and around the film school building, and in the University Cooperative Housing Association. The cinematography was completed using the university’s equipment, and the film was shot primarily on handheld Eclair cameras on 16 mm film, which had to subsequently be blown up to 35 mm.
As it is set, the bulk of the film was shot over Christmas vacation at the university for three weeks in December 1980 and January 1981, and additional photography was completed over the ensuing six months. The original title of the film was The Third Night and later became Death Dorm after the production wrapped.
Theatrical distribution:
In the United States, the film was released by its distributor under the title Pranks in 1982. After the distributors found the title unsatisfactory and non-conducive to box office sales, the film was re-released as The Dorm That Dripped Blood on September 23, 1983, in forty U.S. locations.
Censorship:
To avoid an X rating, the film was cut substantially by the MPAA in the United States.
Originally cited as a ‘video nasty‘ in the UK, Pranks was subsequently removed from the list of banned titles but remains cut most probably because of the drill killing sequence, and for the cover artwork which depicted the spiked bat. It was assumed that the BBFC had worries that because the killing weapon was depicted clearly, it was imitable. It was eventually re-released on video in 1992 with ten seconds of cuts to the aforementioned drill murder.
It was eventually released by Synapse Films under its better-known title on Blu-ray Disc (in a combo pack, containing a DVD copy as well) on April 26, 2011. This Blu-ray release features the original uncensored directors’ cut that had previously never been seen by the public, featuring additional and extended gore and exposition sequences
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