The Karen in the ending we've been watching all these years is NOT the Karen that was blindfolded throughout the movie. That's why her hair did not match. But since the ending had to be refilmed, the original Karen was not available and they used another girl!!! We've seen her for so many years blindfolded, she doesn't look the same without the blindfold. It's definitely NOT a guy in drag! Speaking of the refilming, Bette Davis refused to film anything more than "you're home" in the chapel doorway for the new ending - the shot of her walking up to Karen and hugging her is a stand-in. She told them the director had already finished the film!!! Good for her!
As for the original ending - it is definitely the longer alternate ending but minus the Other World sequence. That Other World footage is WHY TWITWoods failed at the premiere - it wasn't finished yet. Eye witnesses at the premiere will tell you that the audience was scared and very moved by the film AND The Watcher itself. John Hough thought it looked silly, but the audience didn't react that way. (He wasn't involved in the special effects of The Watcher and actually started the legend that the audience laughed at it with some remark he made to an interviewer.) Unfortunately though, without the Other World scene, the ending made no sense. This alien picks Jan up, then a few seconds later she steps out of a hole of light with Karen. She explains it a little to Ellie at the very end, but without the visuals people were pissed off. Especially when they heard that a scene was missing and still being worked on.
Di$ney rushed the film out for it's premiere to coincide with Bette Davis' 50th Anniversary in films. If they had just held out until all effects were finished.....we would have a much longer and better film today.
The original film ran 100 minutes......so there is quite a bit more extended scenes here and there than just the missing original opening and ending. I purchased a copy of the script (i think it was from Script City) and found quite a lot of longer scenes. To verify they were actually filmed, the clip shown on Siskel & Ebert matches the script but does not appear in full in the film today.
The original opening was quite a chiller and perfect mood setter for the film: a little girl playing in the woods with her doll. The Watcher (camera point of view) coming up behind her. The girl turns and screams in the camera. She runs away leaving her doll. The doll is levitated and thrown against a tree. Then the blue lightning strikes it and it begins to burn. The opening credits roll over the melting face of the doll..........God, I wish I could see that!!! And it almost made it to the Anchor Bay DVD if it hadn't been for one person at Di$ney who butted in and said it made Di$ney look bad. Why should they care? The Di$ney name was removed from most bonus features and the DVD was released by Anchor Bay!
Anyway, everyone should really read the disgusting story behind the politics of this film and why we don't have the original film today. Here's the link:
http://www.oocities.com/ditcin4/watchermystery.html
Now with Blu-ray - a new format - maybe Di$ney will come to their senses and allow John Hough to reconstruct this film. Let's hope some new blood at Di$ney will make this a reality for us.
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