Return To Oz (1984 Unreleased Cut)

Ok. You wanna hear a story? I'll give you one.
First off, my name is Henry Wayne. I'm...what? 34 years old? About to be 35 later on in the year? I don't know.
I've been working at the Regal Cinema in West Town Mall in Knoxville, TN since the summer of 1998. I still work there today, but I'm now the manager. Back then, I used to do the usual: Concessions, ushering, ticket stands. You know the whole thing if you ever worked at a theater. 
Outside of the theater job, I was just an ordinary High School student. The only interests I had outside were watching World Wrestling Federation (which we now know as WWE), Powerpuff Girls, and Toonami.
But this isn't why you're reading this.
You all remember the cult 1985 film Return To Oz right? Yeah. That Disney film. It was said to be one of the scariest films of all time, mainly because of the Wheelers and that head scene. I've seen the film, and surprisingly, I wasn't scared at all, though the Wheelers did haunt my dreams. I always thought that the film wasn't scary at all.
Until Now.
It was June 21 2005, 10 years since the film was released in theaters, and three days before my birthday. Yeah I was born June 23 1982 by the way.
Anyways, It was around 8 PM and I was on break with a few other employees. We were talking about Batman and stuff, since Batman Begins was released recently. As we brought up Return To Oz, we talked about if there were any scarier cuts of the film. Fortunately, we had an answer. 
One employee, who was from the UK, got a shocked expression when we brought up the scarier cut question. He proceeded to explain that there was indeed a scary cut, but was only shown in one UK cinema where he previously worked at before coming to the USA.
He said that before it was released in the UK in July 1985, a test screening was held on June 19 1984. He then told us about 9 minutes into the screening, people came running out the door, crying and screaming in fear. His manager then threw away the original reel cause it was too scary, but he then managed to grab it out of the trash with nobody watching and kept the reel since then. He even brought the reel with him to the Regal cinema.
Another employee then suggested that we watch the reel. The UK employee, his name's Jason by the way, warned him that he has seen the reel, and couldn't sleep at all after seeing it. He warned us that if we see it, we would suffer the same fate like he did. Nevertheless, he and our manager gave us permission to watch the reel.
When looking at the reel, it said "Oz". Odd enough. But when I looked at the back, it said "DO NOT WATCH OR PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK." I asked the manager if this was a good idea, and he said that it's ok with him and Jason, as long as its appropriate for audiences.
A Private employees-only screening was held in Auditorium #10 around 9:45 PM. About 10 employees, including my manager attended the private screening. The only one who didn't attend was Jason, who said that he never wants to see the cut again. I didn't care. It's Return To Oz! How can a scary film have an even scarier cut?
Well, what I watched was not what I expected it to be.
The lights dimmed down, and the film starts. I was expecting the classic Walt Disney Pictures logo since Return To Oz was a Disney film, but instead we got the MGM Logo. Makes sense since MGM made The Wizard Of Oz. Only difference about this logo is that there was no Leo the Lion roaring. Just an empty logo that lasted for 5 seconds.
Then the normal opening titles played as the scene zooms out to Dorothy's room. Then the madness happened. After we see Dorothy, it cut to black. At one point we though the projector broke, but then it cut to Dorothy staring right at us. From what I understand, this Dorothy is not played by Fairuza Balk like in the movie. She's instead played by an unknown actress.
She just kept staring, and staring, and staring right at us. It started to get a little creepy. One employee wondered if this is the entire film. Just her staring right at us. Then this happened.
About 3 minutes later, blood started coming out of her nose before cutting to black. I was a little disgusted by this. Again, we thought the projector broke, but then a low demonic voice says, "Oz is not real. It's just my imagination." It was odd to hear demonic voices in an Oz film, but I digress. I thought It couldn't get any scarier than blood drooling out of Dorothy's nose or that demonic voice.
I was wrong.
All of a sudden, we cut to the Emerald City where a huge explosion occurs on one of the buildings. We actually got jump-scared by this. But it doesn't end here. It pans down to see all of it's residents, rather than getting turned to stone, getting MURDERED in cold blood by the wheelers, only they were scarier looking and looked like a mix between Gargoyles and Marilyn Manson, and they were holding large knifes. 
It was disgusting. The screams of the residents, the blood coming out, the remains of it's residents. It was actually depressing to see all these innocent people get murdered by wheelers. The Tin Man and Cowardly Lion's deaths are the worst. The Tin man gets ripped to shreds while pleading for help before one of the wheelers stomp on his heart. I wanted to puke. Like right now. We then see The Cowardly Lion getting stabbed to death by the wheelers, as he is hysterically crying for help. We were frightened, scared, and completely disgusted. One employee even puked in an empty popcorn bucket.
But it didn't end there. Once the wheelers finished killing the cowardly lion, they stared right at us and came closer with their knifes in hand, but it cut to static. I sighed in relief as we thought they were going to kill us next. Then it cuts to an asylum room where Dorothy, seen from the legs down and is tapping her feet, is sitting in the bed looking out the window.
A few minutes later, it slowly pans up her body and does a 360 turn before stopping at her head, seen in back view. And it just stays there for 3 minutes. Again, we thought this was the end of the film.
Then all of a sudden, BAM! Dorothy turns her head around Exorcist-style, revealing her face to be all bloodied up, her eyes's pupils are red, and she is grinning wickedly. She stared at us as we were frightened by what we just saw. Hell, even the Return To Oz music was playing backwards! Jason was right. This was much scarier than I thought it would be.
Then Russian text pops up. We don't know what it means, but we know it isn't good. There's also brief 1 second flashes over the screen. I don't recall what they were, but I think they were extreme close ups of the body parts belonging to the actress that played Dorothy in this cut: her eye, her fist clenching, her mary jane shoed feet, her hair, her leggings, her dress, etc. I don't know, I think that's what they were.
But as I was saying, you think it's finished here right? No. It gets even worse.
We cut to Tik-Tok's severed head, blood dripping out of it's neck, and the camera pans forward to find even more disgusting images. Bilina's charred body, The Gump's dead body, Jack Pumpkinhead's remains. The employee puked again. It was that gruesome. We then see The Nome King, but instead of being a Ray Harryhausen animation, he's more of an animatronic of some sort. I couldn't tell. 
When he turned around, he was holding Scarecrow's severed and bloodied head, eyes gouging out. Wow. I never seen the Nome King go this far. Eating the Scarecrow!? You got to be kidding me.
The Nome King then dropped Scarecrow's head and stared at the camera, grinning widely, before rushing toward the camera as if he was about to eat us. Then it cuts to white.
A few seconds later, we cut to Dorothy on the electrocution bed, and this is where it all falls apart. The backward music plays again, murmurs are heard, the brief 1 second flashes of her body parts return, and Dorothy still stares at us, but isn't grinning this time and there's no blood coming out of her. Electric headphones are then put on her as the murmurs grow louder. We were scared for what is about to come to us. Once the switch flips, it cuts to black. Plain silence.
We sighed in relief as we thought the film was over. As we got up, classic footage from the 1st Oz Movie began to play, where the Tin Man, Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion were about to sing the classic "We're Off To See The Wizard" Song. But as soon as they got to Off...
BAM!
We cut back to Dorothy on the Electrocution bed, screaming loudly, high-pitched, and ear-raping. We covered our ears. It was loud as ever. But that was just the beginning. She was getting electrocuted, the screen was flashing, her eyes started to gouge out, and her skin was starting to melt. Oh. My. God.
And then her head exploded and the screaming stopped, and it stayed on that shot for a while. We unplugged our ears after what seemed to be minutes of screaming. After a few minutes of that same shot, we cut to black and see the Ruby Slippers landing on the floor, shattering in the process. I couldn't believe it. The most iconic things in the movie are now in pieces. The title Oz then fades in, all white and creepy-looking, as the screams and murders of the Emerald City residents are heard in the background as well as, for some reason, the sounds of fire truck sirens. The brief body closeup flashes are also shown again. And just when we thought things are about to get worse, the film ends.
We were shell-shocked. Especially my manager. Jason was right all along. Why did they actually do something like this!? Was the director drunk or something?! When we came out of the auditorium, there were people in the hallway confused and concerned, obviously they heard the loud ear-raping scream. When one movie goer asked what the hell was that noise, our manager, holding the film reel, replied, "Oz. It's just pretend." He then smashed the reel and threw it in the trash to the concern of the movie goers and yelled out "IT'S JUST PRETEND!" before walking away.
While others chose to stay to work for the rest of the night, me, my manager (his name's Paulie by the way), and about 10 employees who watched the movie took the rest of the night off. But I wasn't done with what I've seen. I decided to contact the director of the movie, Walter Murch, about the scary unreleased cut, demanding to know answers on why it was made.
Murch responded 3 hours later, saying that the cut was directed by someone else before he took over. Murch explained that a newcomer director by the name of Peter Collins, known for his low budget horror films from the 70s. He further explained that Collins and MGM had an agreement to make a new Oz film based on the books, but Collins had other plans. He wanted to make it edgier and more horror-style, which led to the cut being made without any executive, not even the CEO at that time, of MGM noticing. The actress that played Dorothy in Collins's cut was Theresa Smith, who was killed on set during the electrocution scene.
Murch then told me that the cut was shown to a test audience in the UK and, like Jason said, people ran out of the theater in fear and complained that this is the scariest thing ever seen in the UK. That is until the famous Cold War Film Threads came out that same year of 1984. Because of this, MGM and Collins were fired from making any future Oz films and Collins soon committed suicide, leaving a suicide note saying, "Oz will soon be real." After this incident, Disney and Murch took over the movie and Fairuza Balk was cast as Dorothy.
Murch advised me that if I or anyone else sees that cut, he requested that the viewer destroy it before or after they see it, and that they have been warned if ignored. Sure enough, we destroyed the cut earlier. But I found out on a forum that there are other copies of the cut out there, waiting to be seen. Waiting for people like me to get haunted by it. Waiting. And Waiting. And Waiting.
So this is a warning to anyone who's seen or has found the cut: Destroy it. Don't view it. Destroy it with everything you got. Don't let it traumatize you the same way it traumatized me and anyone who watched it at West Town Mall's Regal Cinema.
This is Henry Wayne signing off.
Category:Bad Creepypasta
Category:Lost Episodes
Category:Pointless Violence
Category:Suicide
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