10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dead Heat (1988)

Spooky season seemed like the perfect time to finally crack open my Vinegar Syndrome release of 1988’s Dead Heat.

I have raved about Vinegar Syndrome’s work in the past and I am going to do it again with their Dead Heat release. The 4K presentation is beautiful and then they went and loaded it up with plenty of special features, both new and old.

I must admit it was the archival commentary track featuring Director Mark Goldblatt, Writer Terry Black and Producers Michael L. Meltzer and David Helpern that I was most looking forward to and it did not disappoint. It was the first time all four had been together since they made the movie and in addition to telling plenty of behind the scenes stories, they even managed to agree on the best scene of the movie (The Chinese Deli!)

Now courtesy of what I learned from the commentary track, here are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dead Heat…

1. The aerial views of Los Angeles at the start of the film were stock shots as there was no room in the $5.4 million budget for a helicopter. The budget breakdown for Dead Heat was $4.5 million for below the line expenses and $900,000 for the cast salaries.

2. Shooting got off to a rough start when Mel Stewart, who played Captain Stewart, could only remember 1 or 2 lines at a time. This caused a lot of stops and starts and pick up shots were required for coverage. The editing skills of Harvey Rosenstock came into play and watching Captain Stewart’s scene you would never know there were any issues due to Harvey’s seamless editing.

3. Treat Williams’ then fiancée, Pam Van Sant, had a small role as a lab technician in Dead Heat. Treat and Pam were married on June 25, 1988 and are still married to this day.

4. Joe Piscopo, who plays Doug Bigelow, was really getting into his “muscle phase” when Dead Heat was shooting. Joe had weights on set and would work out every day. Piscopo also wanted to be sure his wardrobe showed off his guns.

5. Steven R. Bannister, who played the grotesque double faced monster known as The Thing, required oxygen on set between takes because he was so out of breath from the fight scenes.

6. Writer Terry Black noted that 1950’s D.O.A. starring Edmond O’Brien was the inspiration for Dead Heat. In fact, the movie that is playing on the television when Randi James (Lindsay Frost) and Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) discover Doug Bigelow’s dead body at Randi’s place was D.O.A.

7. The movie was submitted a total of nine times to the MPAA (that’s Motion Picture Association of America for those in the know) in order to receive its R rating. The MPAA was referenced in the archival commentary so that’s why I chose to reference it here too, but in today’s world they are the MPA (or Motion Picture Association for those in the know).

8. There were two cut scenes of note… one involved a zombie at the Glendale Library. The other featured the legendary Dick Miller as a night watchman at the cemetery. For whatever reason, New World wanted Miller’s scene cut from the film.

9. Speaking of New World, the studio actually commissioned a Dead Heat sequel. However the combination of Dead Heat underperforming at the box office and the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike put the kibosh on that project before it ever got off the ground.

10. Vincent Price was only contractually obligated to be on the set a total of three days. However when it became obvious that all of his scenes were not going to be finished in three days, Price volunteered to do the extra work at no additional cost. Mark Goldblatt also shared a story about Price discussing his 1951 movie, His Kind of Woman, with him. And that’s because the soundstage that Dead Heat was being shot on was the same soundstage that RKO Pictures used to shoot His Kind of Woman.