Dawn Of The Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut
by OfficiallyUnofficialWhat is it about? This takes the epic “zed word” classic and extends it to its maximum possible running time.
member ratings:
(27 votes, average: 9.67 out of 10, rated)
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tagline: When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth
Original film name: George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead
New film name: George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead: The “Extended Mall Hours” Cut
Film studio name: Anchor Bay / United Film Distribution
Edit crew name: Officially Unofficial
Date original film was released: 1978
Date edit was released: January 2008
Original Runtime: 126 minutes (Romero’s theatrical cut) / 139 minutes (Cannes cut) / 117 minutes (Argento cut)
New Runtime: 155 minutes
Amount of time Cut/Added: 16 minutes added (to Cannes cut)
SCENES CUT/TRIMMED/EDITED: None
SCENES ADDED:
Countless extra snippets throughout the Argento cut were added to the 139 minutes Cannes cut. These include a few extra headshots in the mall sequences, as well as various dialogue extensions, such as the bikers in the finale planning their “attack strategy” (“One by one, they’re gonna knock you off your little bikes”).
One full scene which was previously cut and added back in is a bit of dialogue between Peter and Stephen after they return from “shopping” the first time. Stephen acts cocky while Peter wants him to realize just how lucky they were. This scene contains the line “Let’s say the lady gets killed… you’d be able to chop off her head?” which was used in the English language Italian trailer.
DVD Details:
- NTSC
- Audio is AC3 2 channel mono
- Animated menus including scene select
- Extra: Fanedit.org teaser trailer
- 7.4 GB (dual layer) / 4.33 GB (single layer)
Your intention for this fanedit:
To create the longest possible cut closest to Romero’s shooting script.
Your way to achieve your intention:
By taking the longest official cut (the 139 minutes Cannes cut), and adding roughly 16 minutes of footage that was exclusive to the Argento cut.
Hardware and software information (what did you use to create your fanedit):
- SmartRipper
- Vegas 6 and Vegas 7
- Adobe PhotoShop
- DVD Architect 3
- DVD Rebuilder
- Cinema Craft Encoder
Additional Comments:
This is an idea I’ve had for a fan edit for years. I first heard about the Argento cut having exclusive footage around 1999. It wasn’t until 2004 with the release of Anchor Bay’s “Ultimate Edition” that I finally saw Argento’s version. I finally started working on this in fall of 2007 on a whim. Principal editing began around September/October, and was put on hiatus. Production resumed around December 2007 through January 2008. Like I’ve also said, while Romero’s 126 minute cut is my preferred version, I still wanted to create this cut to piece together somewhat of a “glorified workprint”.
Time needed for this edition: 4 months, on and off.
Trailer:
- Download the teaser trailer from Rapidshare: http://rapidshare.com/files/81860887/DOTDteaser.mpg (MPEG)
Additional Download links:
- Menus montage video: http://rapidshare.com/files/82132723/DOTDmenusmontage.mpg
Buy the original DVD and support FANEDIT.ORG by shopping via these links:
IMAGES:
cover art by OfficiallyUnofficial (download HERE):
3 cover art variations by David (DOWNLOAD ALL 3 HERE):
Disclaimer: You must own the original movie before acquiring any FanEdited movie. We here at FanEdit.org respect the company’s copyrights, and don’t want to infringe on any company’s rights. Thank you, FE!
Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info through Rapidshare and bittorrent (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
Downloading it on this moment.
I already bought both versions, and the plan to make this edit I also have for years!
Idea is not original, there is already a 156 minutes German version, but badly edited and German spoken.
My plan now is to make a dutch subtitle version and spread it here.
It would be a help if I can get a list where how much is added? (exactly every second to be precise).
Review by mariusjr — February 10, 2008 @ 7:59 am
This is an absolutely excellent version of Dawn of the Dead, in fact I think it’s vastly improved over the Cannes cut. All the footage has been blended in with the original. It’s obvious one or two times when there’s something added, because the colour shifts, and this is especially noticeable during the opening sequence with repeating titles, but honestly it doesn’t matter – it’s not at all distracting from the film itself.
Technical: 4 out of 5
Entertainment: 5 out of 5
Overall: 5 out of 5
Review by Ghostcut — May 21, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
I had wished to see the complete edit of DOTD (and in english, unlike the german dvd) for a very long time, so thank you for your hard work! The concept is great, so is the edit technically – It’s indeed the BEST version of DOTD available anywhere. Fantastic stuff, 5/5 overall!
Review by dr.sapirstein — October 26, 2008 @ 10:51 am
This is an amazing piece of work.
I tried to do this years ago on VHS but it was a headache, with all the different music scores on each version.
I have 23 different VHS copies, 6 laserdiscs and about 8 DVD’s and as far as I’m concerned this is the only way I’m gonna watch this film now.
I thank you so much for this, it’s something I’ve always wanted to see done but have never had the know-how to pull off.
I encourage everyone to check this one out.
Review by KimiAndRitz — November 2, 2008 @ 10:06 am
I am an extended edition buff and have a big collection of original ones and all the fanedits from here.
Many extended editions do not add anything to the movie, just add more useless scenes. I will rate the ones here.
Rating criteria: image quality, sound quality, 3x improvement, overall.
Image Quality: 9 of 10
Sound Quality: 10 of 10
Improvement: 10 of 10
Overall: 10 of 10
Review by col.hutty — July 30, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
fantastic.
Review by joebshmoe — July 30, 2009 @ 10:41 pm
I was never a huge Dawn Of The Dead fan and will always like Night Of The Living Dead the most out of all of Romero’s movies, but I do like it more than I did before viewing this edit.
It is quite a long cut, and sometimes it lulls, but oddly enough, it worked for me because when things did pick up, it really got my attention perhaps more than if it was the faster paced versions.
Like the editor, perhaps my preferred version is the quicker paced theatrical version, but this is still a fantastic version with high quality.
If you’re a Dawn of the Dead fan, don’t miss it.
Review by zeppelinrox — December 19, 2009 @ 1:54 am
Dawn Of The Dead was always a raw film in terms of direction, acting and most certainly, editing. Considering Romero is the credited editor, the opening of the theatrical version, with all that forced chaos inside a television studio, always struck me as being very poorly cut. It seems this resulted from shots being constantly removed from the film until we were left with the version I grew up with.
Where Dawn Of The Dead succeeds where most apocalyptic movies fail, is in creating an utterly convincing atmosphere of doom.
Having heard such great comments about Officially Unofficial’s Extended Mall Hours cut, I thought I would give it a try over the holiday season because as you know, this is the perfect festive movie for all the family.
The longer credit sequence is not any smoother than the original but with all the added material the reactions of the TV studio workers become far more plausible. This opening now works as intended. The newly added credits are noticeably more new/digital when compared to the original ones and some even repeat with two credits for the score by Goblin.
The added visuals work great but this throws up numerous audio issues. This is mainly because of integrating the new shots with the existing score, so every so often a bar of music repeats. As a result the soundtrack has become slightly awkward with repeated musical bars, poor syncopation and at times odd audio jumps. Editing this audio must have been a major nightmare, considering the source material but at times I did find it distracting.
Dawn of the Dead is a film that desires to be “fleshed out” because any new material simply adds to the overall chilling atmosphere. Officially Unofficial has improved the original theatrical cut with this Extended Edition. If the audio issues and some fine tuning or distressing to the opening credits could be fixed, this would be the best extended version ever FanEdited. 8/10
Review by Rock Savage — January 14, 2010 @ 1:10 am