Dawn of the Dead: Complete Cut (1978)
Five years ago, I wrote about a fan edit of George Romero’s horror classic Dawn of the Dead that attempted to recreate the original rough cut of the movie. The so-called “Extended Mall Hours” cut was composed of the 139 minute Cannes edit of the film and the 117 minute Dario Argento version. It was a very interesting project but as it consisted of DVD quality material (including deleted scenes) it was not an optimal presentation. Being a fan edit, there were obvious issues regarding legality, so I never really expected to see anything comparable to this version being officially sanctioned or released. So I was therefore most surprised to learn that a recent Blu-ray boxset release by Austrian distributors XT Video included a “Complete Cut” which similarly combines all available material. This is presented in 1080p, at a ratio of 1:85:1 and runs 155 minutes. It is superior in quality to the “Extended Mall Hours” cut and is most likely the nearest any fan is ever going to get to seeing Romero’s initial edit of the film.
Read More