A certain webmaster once joked "Pick any number between 85 and 140mins and there's probably a version of Dawn of the Dead at that length". Whilst that may have been a slight exaggeration, there have certainly been enough different versions of this film released to make the mind boggle.

There are in actuality 4 different cuts of the film in existence. But to confuse matters further, there are also several different versions of some of these cuts owing to some countries censorship restrictions, and the preferences of different distributors.

Having viewed several of these, and using information from other sources, I have tried to compare these in an attempt to make sense of the numerous different variations there are out there. I've included as much info as I can on run times and differences between prints, which are reviewed as follows.

Please note that celluloid films of this era ran at 24fps as did American NTSC format videos and DVDs, whereas Europan PAL format videos and DVDs ran at 25fps. So when comparing home video releases, there can often be a disparity between the run times of European home video releases their theatrical, or American home video, counterparts. So I have used the cinema run times for this comparison.

Although titled "The Directors Cut", this was actually an extended workprint, that George Romero had hastily cut together for showing at the Cannes Film Festival.

This version runs about 139min at 24fps (cinema run time) and was not originally released commercially, with it only surfacing onto the domestic home video market in the mid-late 90's.

The Director's cut is about 12 mins longer and slightly gorier than the version subsequently released theatrically. Although most of the extra run time is made up of additional/extended scenes of dialogue.

The soundtrack in this version was also comprised mostly of stock music from the DeWolf library as the score by The Goblins hadn't been finished in time for completion to show at Cannes, so only a couple of tracks are used, which play during the action scenes.

This was actually Romero's second cut of the film, which was the version released theatrically to all English speaking territories, and up until the late 90s was the most common version available on home video.

This release ran about 127min at 24fps (cinema run time) and is actually his preffered version, being somewhat shorter than his extended "Director's" cut

The soundtrack for this version was comprised mostly of The Goblins music, but retained several of the stock music cues used in the so-called "Director's" cut as Romero preffered them.

The original UK cinema release of this was titled "Zombies-Dawn of the Dead" as was the original pre-VRA video release. But later releases reverted to the original US title.

This was a completely different cut of the film, edited together by Italian director Dario Argento and was used for the films theatrical release in Mainland Europe and most other non-English speaking territories.

Renamed "Zombi", this version runs at 119 mins at 24fps (cinema run time) and is considerably shorter than the other releases. Retaining most of the gore (with the exception of the zombie decapitation at the airfield), but cutting down a lot of the dialogue.

This version is also paced differently, using different/alternate scenes and additional footage during several key sequences. Such as the apartment raid, which showed more activity on the rooftops and additional dialogue during the raid.

The soundtrack for this was comprised entirely of music from The Goblins, using none of the stock music that featured in Romero's cuts. But uses different tracks for several key scenes

There have been 2 attempts at releasing an extended composite version, that includes all known footage from the three different releases.

The first of these was by Astro Filmworks of Germany, later released by Red Edition/Laser Paradise, entitled "The Ultimate Final Cut". Which was a semi-unnoficial version, though it did enjoy a seemingly legitimate video and DVD release in Austria and Germany.

Clocking in at a whopping 156mins, this was basically Romero's Directors Cut, but with the additional/alternate scenes from the Argento European version spliced into it. Though the soundtrack appears to be from the Argento cut.

This was in German language only and the editing was not particularly good, as the difference in colour between the two different film stocks was VERY apparent. The music also jump cuts whenever switching between scenes from Romero's directors cut to Argento's European version.

The second version, entitled the "Extended Mall Hours" cut, was an unauthorised fan-edit and was essentially the same as the Ultimate Final Cut, but in English language and appears to have been put togethor using the versions from the 4-disc Anchor Bay box set from 2004

As a result, there's no real noticeable difference in picture quality when it switches between scenes from the 2 different versions and extra effort seems to have been made in smoothing over the audio, so the cuts between the 2 versions are less noticeable. But being essentially a "bootleg" is only available from various "download" sites (I managed to find a version on YouTube).

Of the two, I'd say the Extended Hours Cut is better, due to its English soundtrack and smoother transitions between scenes. Although in either case, this really is one for completists only.