Dawn Of The Dead Vhs – The project began as a high-quality Blu-ray recreation of my 2013 Dawn of the Dead 1995 BBFC Cut DVD, complete with cover and disc art, along with the video VHS of Dawn of the Dead. The tape included a 1995 UK Entertainment direct transfer, but no menus. 3 will be left blank. Another version of Dawn of the Dead that I think is worth saving is the 1981 UK intervention pre-cert VHS, although I don’t own it yet. The project was then expanded to a second disc to include more relevant material, and eventually a third disc.
I first saw Dawn of the Dead on VHS around 1993 as a rental from a video shop. BBFC’s censored 4 front video gold color cover of the VHS version. I remember having some long conversations with a guy who worked in a college library in 1996. As a horror fan, he went to several conventions in London where VHS bootlegs of uncut Nasties were available for free. He said he got a copy because I was a big fan, but unfortunately it never came.
Dawn Of The Dead Vhs
On 2 February 1997, BBC 2 showed a nearly uncut extended (AKA Cannes or Director’s Cut) version at 11:30pm. It was preceded by an eight-minute interview titled George Romero and The Dawn of the Dead. As reported in Radio Times; “…contains previously unknown additional material.” This version is twenty-one minutes longer than the current version you can buy on VHS, and includes a lot of previously censored violence and blood. It was a big deal to me at the time.
Day Of The Dead Vhs Video Tape Movie Film, Zombies, George Romero
It was shown as part of the BBC2 Forbidden season of films that “explore dark and disturbing places of the imagination”. On January 19, 1997, there was an interview with David Cronenberg followed by Videodrome. The rest of the films are introduced by famous commentators. February 9; Alex Cox with Giulio Questi’s Weird Western Django Kill, out February 16. Shinya Tsukamoto’s Japanese body horror Tetsu II: Body Hammer, February 23; Mark Cousins in George Franjo’s terrifying vision of Eyes Without a Face, and finally on March 22; Christopher Freling in Alexandra Jodorowsky’s surreal spaghetti western El Topo.
I finally tracked down the uncut version myself in 2001. Dutch Film Works DVD set (cat no: DVD0925) from Cinema Store in Central London. After being a regular on most weekends for a few months before that, the guy in the DVD department downstairs asked if I wanted to check out the ‘Horror Box’, where a box rolled out from under the counter with more than were cut. Import DVDs, the sale of which is illegal. Within a few months I had bought a bunch of titles like I Spit On Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, Men Behind the Sun, Naked Blood, Dr Lamb, Organ and Evil Dead Trap, all at ridiculous prices. (£30. – £40 I can’t remember) but what do I know? Something bad happened, when I went over the weekend and suddenly the guy “had no idea what a horror box was”, and since then, that’s the end of it!
In September 2022, I had the opportunity to do something special. A privately funded 35mm 5K scan of the US theatrical version print of Dawn of the Dead. Costing $918 to add to this set (including print rental, scanning, an HDD and postage), it is scanned from seven reels of film. This is a completely open matte at the edge of the film frame, which is rendered almost squarely, meaning a matte at 1.85:1 takes up about 45% of the frame. Zoom it in a bit to smooth out the left and right sides and you’ve lost more than 50% of the frame in the cropped Blu-ray release.
For a vintage print from the 1970s, it’s in surprisingly good shape, although it needs a lot of work to restore. Not only is there a noticeable red fade in the print, but there is variation in surface, exposure, saturation and color balance, from section to section, and even shot to shot in some areas. Due to the low-budget nature of the production and the various cameras and film stock used, it should have been in the original print for the most part, but I cut it down a lot. It’s still far from perfect, but it’s better than ever. You can see my very busy premiere timeline below.
Cult Films And The People Who Make Them: Interview: George Romero
Current Blu-ray releases are pretty poor in terms of color saturation, but I found after adjusting the reds, the 35mm scan matched the more natural-looking 1981 Intervision VHS pre-certification, so that’s what I wanted. was It is presented here in its original dual mono optical audio mix. You can see from the screenshots below that the Blu-ray was scanned from a camera negative so the frame is slightly wider than 35mm, but once cropped the top and bottom are pretty much lost.
The film plays here from start to finish on disc with no menus or extras, save a 35mm scan of the Dawn of the Dead US theatrical trailer playing earlier (shown below). This is due to several reasons. I’ve already included all the Dawn special features and extras I want to include on the other two discs, and at 125 minutes, I need all the disc space to give the film the best possible bitrate.
By the same token, I was also able to scan a 35mm print of the Argento Italian cut of Dawn of the Dead, along with a less desirable 16mm version of the extended cut. Either or both may upgrade this project in the future.
The US 35mm trailer scan required the same work as the main body. The quality is a bit tighter than the film, but it’s none the less a worthy inclusion.
Vtg Dawn Of The Dead George A Romero Beta Thorn Emi Video Betamax Not Vhs
A bit of background, the two VHS versions shown on the first disc of this Blu-Ray release are censored, either by the BBFC or pre-censored by the distributor. From the Theatrical, Argento and Extended/Cannes versions; The 1981 Intervision Pre-Certificate appears to be a direct transfer of the original US theatrical version of the film (which ran uncut, 2h 05m 25s). It was titled Zombies and was rated ‘X’ with 5m 05s of violence and gore from the BBFC, running at 2h 00m 20s. It was first issued in a cardboard box in 1981, and was reissued in 1983 with a clamshell box and sleeve (both cat numbers: A-A 0358).
While this VHS release is not one of the popular DPP list of 72 Video Nasties (known as ‘Section 1’ and ‘Section 2’), it is part of the wider 82-title ‘Section 3’ list. ‘Section 3’ titles cannot be prosecuted for obscene matters, but are less liable to seizure and forfeiture under a “less obscene” charge, and are ultimately destroyed. It hit Alpha/Intervision; Its distributor is difficult. After the Video Nasties scandal and the introduction of the VRA in 1985; The company went down.
In 1989 the rights were taken over by Entertainment In Video and they resubmitted the UK ‘X’ rated version to the BBFC. It was passed with additional deductions of 12s and issued in the same year (Cat no: EVV 1085). It was reissued three years later in 1992 on the Entertainment In Video Polygram 4Front label with a distinctive gold colored VHS cover (Cat no: 086 198 3), and reissued in 1995 with an additional distributor cut that Now runs in 1h 58m. 05s, with a total of about 7m 20s kits (Cat no: EVS 1027). These further cuts were caused by the media’s obsession with on-screen violence following the Dunblane massacre and the murder of James Bulger. All three versions replaced Zombies’ on-screen title, with the cue card reading Dawn Of The Dead. In 1997 BMG took over the rights, submitting an extended/Cannes version which was passed to the BBFC at around 139 minutes with only six seconds cut (Cat no: 74321 443663). It wasn’t until 2003 that BMG obtained the complete uncut Cannes version and released it on DVD (cat. no: 74321 443600).
So, just to summarize the above because it’s a bit hard to follow, this Blu-ray set contains the least censored Dawn of the Dead VHS release (the 1981 interlude) and the most censored V Includes transfer of HS release (1995 Entertainment in Video). Sold in British retail stores before 1997.
Little Shop Of Horrors: Dawn Of The Dead (1978) Thorn Emi Home Video Poster
Assembling the project itself is pretty straightforward. I already have a decent VHS copy of the UK 1995 Entertainment In Video VHS, and borrowed a copy of the UK 1981 Intervision pre-cert VHS from Scott. A British collector. While that tape is actually pretty good quality for a forty-year-old tape, I noticed that two parts of the tape were chewed through. As Peter shoots the zombie mall security guard, and the final part of the end credits. I was able to borrow another copy of the same tape from another collector. Oli said
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