The original British cinema print was also the pre-cut version. However, it did restore the ending. The footage was obviously from a different source and cut back into the film.
Although the UK cinema version was never cut by the BBFC the print used was culled from the US R-rated version, though it contained an additional closing shot of an arm being ripped off which was not present in any later releases. The 1989 CIC video and 2003 DVD versions contain the original heavily cut R-rated US print.
An unrated region 1 DVD was finally released in January 2009 by Lionsgate/Paramount. The DVD gives viewers the option to watch the R-rated version of the movie or with the original violent scenes spliced back into the film. Despite this, three scenes play in their unrated form regardless of which version is being watched: the flashbacks of Axel's father's death, and Harry Warden with the arm.
The following scenes were trimmed or re-edited to avoid an "X" rating from the MPAA:
- Gore was cut from the pre-credits sequence where the woman is pushed backwards onto a pickax.
- Mabel's mutilated body was originally on screen for much longer.
- In the flashback, Harry Warden is shown cannibalizing a severed arm, in the edited theatrical release, he is simply shown picking the arm up.
- The scene where the bartender is playing peek-a-boo with the Harry Warden dummy was edited so that no blood is shown. He was pickaxed up his chin and out his left eye, then dragged along the ground with his eyeball hanging out.
- The face-boiling of Dave was shortened so you don't see the after-effects while he is dying.
- Graphic head-on shots of Sylvia's shower impalement were deleted.
- A stock footage close-up of the miner's light being shown at the camera replaces the bulk of a shot of Hollis' bleeding face after he has been nail-gunned. In the widely-seen release, the scene picks up after Hollis has mostly turned away.
- Howard's hanging is shortened. In the original print, he was decapitated. The decapitation was cut out, so it looks like his body just falls, stops short when the end of the wire is reached, sprays blood all over Patty and Sarah, and then resumes falling. Not only do the cuts imposed render the scene senseless, but they also make it so there's no payoff to Hollis' earlier comment that Howard would lose his head if it weren't attached.
- The girl killed by the pick ax near the end was edited of all blood.
- The flashback of Axel's father being murdered originally showed the miner ripping out his father's heart. In the "R" rated version, all we see is a brief, non-bloody shot of the pick ax going in.
- Axel's left arm gets trapped under rocks in the cave-in at the end. He rips it off to get away, leaving his limb behind to horrify everybody else. But since the key footage of the arm removal all had to be removed itself, it is hard to see exactly what happened.
Michael's and Harriet's death was originally on screen. The killer enters and shoves a drill bit into his back. The "R" rated version only shows the killer entering and the aftermath later.
