Dawn of the Dead: European Version (1978)

After playing SPI's DAWN OF THE DEAD boardgame I knew what I wanted to do next, watch the film. The version I picked was the European version, edited by Dario Argento. It is the shortest version of the film collected in Anchor Bay's Ultimate edition release of the film on DVD.

Before I start complaining I will say that Argento's cut works. If this was the only version of the film that existed I would have still been blown away watching it for the first time at a friend's house. And I'd still be watching it thirty years after my first viewing. The European version skips a number of scenes, extends a few scenes, has additional gore shots and more Goblin compared to the U.S. theatrical release.

Tom Savini's ground breaking special effects are certainly one of the major reasons I am enamored with the film. But it's also the characters, Fran, Peter, Roger and Steve. Bucket loads of blood and grue does not make for a classic. I want to see and feel and experience the world the characters inhabit. The characters are so well drawn and their interaction with one another so real that I want to spend as much time with them as possible. The European version, with its shorter running time, takes away from that. It also dispenses with the humour. The scene at the boat dock with the guy asking for a smoke and our heroes telling him the don't have any cigarettes and then promptly lighting up once he is gone is fantastic. It's a funny scene, it releases some built up tension and it's a good foreshadowing into why the characters defend the mall later in the film. I want those scenes. I want to spend those few additional moments with the characters.

And that also explains why I like the so-called director's cut. Just like the shoppers at the Monroeville mall, I want more.