BBFC report on Day of the Dead (1985)

[MonkeyFarm]

Incase anyone is interested, this is the original report compiled by the BBFC (British board of film classification) on the Original Day of the dead http://www.bbfc.co.uk/wp-content/upl...yOfTheDead.pdf

[Neil]

Very interesting!!

[Rancid Carcass]

this is the original report compiled by the BBFC (British board of film classification) on the Original Day of the dead Goddamn butchers!

[MinionZombie]

Here's the specific cuts made (with screenshots): http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=922323 29 seconds were trimmed from the flick, but after the first VHS release (which was cut), all subsequent releases were uncut. It's interesting reading the very personal takes on the film from the examiners. It's kind of strange in a way that they allowed so much subjectivity, rather than clinical objectivity ... but I don't know, maybe that's part of the point, but then again an examiner isn't like the normal everyday punter who watches movies. Examiners watch movies, with eyes to specific elements and ratings, as their job. Fortunately I've only seen Day of the Dead in its uncut form. Dawn of the Dead on the other hand, I saw initially in a slightly trimmed form (6 seconds - trims to the infamous headshot, the arm bite, and the zombie kids) on VHS when the "Director's Cut" (the Extended Cannes Cut) was released on video at the arse-end of the 1990s.

[Neil]

I'm just amazed the BBFC review didn't mention THE BEST F***ING SCORE OF ANY ZOMBIE FILM EVER!!! (OK Dawn was good too!)

[kidgloves]

Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for the link

[MinionZombie]

I'm just amazed the BBFC review didn't mention THE BEST F***ING SCORE OF ANY ZOMBIE FILM EVER!!! (OK Dawn was good too!) hehe, while yes the score is excellent (the best of all of them, with Dawn in second place), no doubt it had no bearing on whether the film was going to 'deprave and corrupt' the viewer.

[shootemindehead]

Interesting reading and a good insight into how the minds at the BBFC worked. I've always sort of looked at 'Day of the Dead' as a sort of benchmark for the censor in the UK. With what was left intact in Romero's picture, it was a constant wonder, why other stuff was cut of other films, or why they weren't released at all. For a period of over a decade, from the late 80's through the 90's, buying a horror film on video was next to pointless, with the amount of scenes missing here and there. I remember buying the second release of 'Dawn of the Dead', from Entertainment in Video in the early 90's and nearly everything was cut out of it. The heart an soul was ripped from the film. They're first video release was cut bad, but this one was even worse. It was no wonder I started buying pirate copies through the mail. I suppose with the advent of DVD and multi-region/hackable players, the power of the BBFC was itself cut, which really was a great thing to happen. People could buy the likes of 'Dawn of the Dead', or 'Zombie Flesh Eaters' uncut from the States on Amazon and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. Their minds could be freely corrupted and they could go out an rape dogs bums, or whatever. British society was therefore free to collapse. When I eventually bought an uncut copy of 'Day of the Dead' from America, I was surprised at how little was cut out. In fact there's a shot I would cut myself, not because I think it shouldn't be seen, but because I thought it was silly looking. But 'Day of the Dead' survived the UK censor's knife relatively complete and i always found it remarkable at how little was gone.

[bassman]

Interesting. After all the horror stories i've heard about the censors over there, I figured Day would have been a chopped up mess.

[MinionZombie]

Interesting. After all the horror stories i've heard about the censors over there, I figured Day would have been a chopped up mess. Particularly with Night and Dawn behind it, Day was probably seen as "smarter fare", therefore it was more acceptable as the "purient" parts were outweighed by the intelligence of the script etc, whereas other films were seen as just gut-munchers or slashers with nothing about them except barbed boobs 'n' butts with some gore chucked in - now, in some cases that's true, but oftentimes very good films were falling foul of the censors just because the censors didn't like (or understand) that type of filmmaking. In 1999 there was a change of leadership at the BBFC (James Ferman left), and that signalled an entirely new direction for the BBFC as their attitudes greatly liberalised to such content. As I've said in another thread somewhere, sexual violence is still a sticking point with the BBFC, and in terms of pornography they're still working to the 1959 Obscene Publications Act (a bit out-dated, wouldn't you agree? ) There were still very gory films getting released either barely touched - or completely unscathed - Braindead (Dead Alive) for example went through totally uncut, even though it's full-to-the-brim with gore. However, because there's a lot of comedy involved, and that it's so over-the-top (and features fantastical elements like zombies), the relentless gore and violence wasn't seen as a real problem - it's when it comes to something like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (seen as being too harsh in any form), or New York Ripper (a rather nasty "video nasty"), that the BBFC pricked up their ears and got their ban hammer out. Fortunately it's very different today, and there are only pretty rare cases of bans/heavy cuts (A Serbian Film, Human Centipede 2).

[krakenslayer]

Incase anyone is interested, this is the original report compiled by the BBFC (British board of film classification) on the Original Day of the dead http://www.bbfc.co.uk/wp-content/upl...yOfTheDead.pdf Hey, not much I can add to what's already been said here, but I just wanted to chime in to say thank you for posting this here. I've always been interested in the process of film censorship/classification, and this is a fascinating piece of film history. The first VHS versions of both Dawn and Day that I owned were cut. Day was indeed missing the eyelid-peeling and finger-biting shots, as well as the shot of McDermott leaning on the spade to slice through the zombie's head (the scene was edited to make it more of a clean, swift decapitation), and when Sarah amputated Miguel's arm, the shot of her leaning on the blade was again reduced (cutting, I think, to a shot of John's reaction). It always felt that the cuts were pointless as they did nothing to reduce the overall level of gore (e.g. finger-biting cut but ripped-off heads, evisceration, and whatnot left uncut in the same scene). It's interesting to see the censors felt the same, but were beholden to the arbitrariness of the rules.

[AcesandEights]

Pretty damned interesting. I will say, as someone who first saw a highly edited version of Day, albeit on U.S. basic cable in the late 80s, I still found it damned scary. The characters did seem less comedic and more frantically desperate when I finally rented an unedited version, though.

[MagicMoonMonkey]

I remember as a kid stories being told by the usual movie know-it-all that there was a longer version of the movie where Major Cooper was alive and in command. A pile of piss and wind, but it did excite me at the time that there was 6 other killings that had been chopped and would appear one day in a directors cut. Anyhoo, The terrestrial TV channels took the broadsword to this movie off their own back. Almost all use of the word 'fuck' was removed. Even John's famous "...bite off your ass, man." remark was replaced by a sound-a-like saying, "take a bite out of you, man" The gore also was gone and was presented very similar to the unfulfilling human eating scenes from Survival of the Dead. For example, the guy who got hung upside down and the scene ends with zombies walking towards him, then the scene cuts away to some other lame almost splatter kill that doesnt materialise. (70s and 80s Romero would have shown us that guy getting pulled apart with a final scene of a severed led dangling from the rope as a swarm of gouls fed on the carcass below.) The deaths of all the soldiers were the same. Grabbed... Zombie pawing close up as the soldier screamed in terror... Scene ends.

[krakenslayer]

I remember as a kid stories being told by the usual movie know-it-all that there was a longer version of the movie where Major Cooper was alive and in command. A pile of piss and wind, but it did excite me at the time that there was 6 other killings that had been chopped and would appear one day in a directors cut. Anyhoo, The terrestrial TV channels took the broadsword to this movie off their own back. Almost all use of the word 'fuck' was removed. Even John's famous "...bite off your ass, man." remark was replaced by a sound-a-like saying, "take a bite out of you, man" The gore also was gone and was presented very similar to the unfulfilling human eating scenes from Survival of the Dead. For example, the guy who got hung upside down and the scene ends with zombies walking towards him, then the scene cuts away to some other lame almost splatter kill that doesnt materialise. (70s and 80s Romero would have shown us that guy getting pulled apart with a final scene of a severed led dangling from the rope as a swarm of gouls fed on the carcass below.) The deaths of all the soldiers were the same. Grabbed... Zombie pawing close up as the soldier screamed in terror... Scene ends. There might be a grain of truth to that bullshit about an extended cut. I do seem to recall Romero talking in an interview at one point about how much both Martin and Day had much longer workprints (a longer version as-shot, not to be confused with the original "epic" Day script, none of which was shot). I submit this only as a vague recollection of something I found interesting in an interview, I make no guarantees about its accuracy, especially since I can't seem to find the interview now. Maybe one of the Romero scholars on here can confirm or deny. In any case, there's no way such scenes would involve Major Cooper or the other dead men, or anything happening prior to Sarah's dream and the helicopter recon scene; you can tell the film is structurally supposed to open where it does from the nature of the exposition and the fact that the dream ties in with the ending. If anything it was probably just extra dialogue scenes in the bunker, maybe some lab scenes or more character development for the less-featured soldiers that was deemed unnecessary. For a long time, Day was quite poorly thought-of amongst fans, as some may recall, due to its comparative lack of action and the lighthearted camaraderie of Dawn. Extra scenes that add extra kills and action scenes sounds like wishful thinking to me. Of course, its star has risen a lot in recent years, it's been amazing to see it fo from the black sheep of the series to the most loved entry in such a short time.

[Neil]

There might be a grain of truth to that bullshit about an extended cut. I do seem to recall Romero talking in an interview at one point about how much both Martin and Day had much longer workprints (a longer version as-shot, not to be confused with the original "epic" Day script, none of which was shot). I submit this only as a vague recollection of something I found interesting in an interview, I make no guarantees about its accuracy, especially since I can't seem to find the interview now. Maybe one of the Romero scholars on here can confirm or deny. In any case, there's no way such scenes would involve Major Cooper or the other dead men, or anything happening prior to Sarah's dream and the helicopter recon scene; you can tell the film is structurally supposed to open where it does from the nature of the exposition and the fact that the dream ties in with the ending. If anything it was probably just extra dialogue scenes in the bunker, maybe some lab scenes or more character development for the less-featured soldiers that was deemed unnecessary. For a long time, Day was quite poorly thought-of amongst fans, as some may recall, due to its comparative lack of action and the lighthearted camaraderie of Dawn. Extra scenes that add extra kills and action scenes sounds like wishful thinking to me. Of course, its star has risen a lot in recent years, it's been amazing to see it fo from the black sheep of the series to the most loved entry in such a short time. Day has always been one of my favourites, if only as it's the darkest of them IMHO. And the effects are stunning too. As regards more footage, I'll swear I've hear Romero stating what you see is basically everything shot. Which is a shame of course, because it would be great to see some extended scenes added to it.