Alternate Versions
Originally released in the USA as 'Dead Alive' in an unrated 97-minute version, which later cut down to 85-minutes to ensure a R-rating. Both versions are available on video and DVD.
The Japanese laserdisc version is 104 min. long. Additional footage contains significant character development and gore.
Hong Kong release is 103 minutes long.
UK version is the complete original version which left British film critics stunned as the censors let it through uncut. Differences between British Braindead (uncut) and the unrated American Dead Alive include:
Braindead opens with a closeup of the New Zealand flag, which then changes to the Queen riding accross a courtyard, finishing with a close up her on horseback. God Save The Queen is playing in the background. The opening sequence in Sumatra that begins Dead Alive follows.
After Lionel agrees to let Les have the money and the house, we see the music for the party get turned on and Void breaking free from his bonds. In Braindead a party guest lets Void out of the basement, and for his trouble gets headbutted.
During the party Void enters the living room and attacks a guest. Lionel intervenes by hitting Void around the head with a Jack Daniels bottle and then pours the contents down Voids throat.
After the Zombies have been let out of the basement, there is a short sequence where a guest with glasses is chased around a room by 2 zombies before he is finally caught and bitten. (In Dead Alive you can see the very end of this sequence just before the camera switches to Paquita stabbing a bag of tomatoes in the airing cupboard.)
After Lionel has bitten through the intestine and falls onto a zomies head, in Dead Alive we move onto Les killing zombie by "rolling" it to death in a clothes press. In Braindead Lionel is confronted by the vicar & nurse zombies who impail each other on a pitch fork and continue to have sex.
In Braindead there is approximately 16 seconds of extra gore in the lawnmower sequence where we see Lionel hack up numerous zombies, see the demise of the vicar and the nurse (whilst still in the middle of making love) and see Lional kicking body parts towards Paquita to be put into the food mixer.
Braindead also contains the following scene missing from both versions of Dead Alive:
- Just before Lionel makes his entrance with the lawnmower, Paquita and friend (the one with glasses) are attacked by Voids legs (cut off in the bathroom scene) and a horde of zombies. Paquita and the girl grab a leg each and rip them apart. They then use these limbs to attack any zombie that comes near them.
In the original New Zealand release when the zombie baby first apears it attacks Lionel but is unsuccesful as its umbilical cord gets caught up on a nail. This scene is not present in the unrated american version.
The Australian version is also titled 'Braindead', and like the British version, is complete and uncut. The shorter running time for the Australian version, as listed in the IMDb, is due to technical factors based on the transference of film to video. The time of 100 minutes refers to the video version. The Australian cinema version ran for 104 minutes.
There are a lot of different DVD versions of 'Braindead' on the German market. On all of them, a different running time is printed on the box (99 to 107 mins), but all run 100 mins and are uncut. One version released as 'Dead Alive' features both the German and the English audio track
The old German Video from IMV was cut by a few minutes (violence/gore) to get a "Not under 18" rating. Although the tape was over 10 years available and heavily cut, it has been banned now.
At the mother's funeral, uncle Les is seen walking down the church isle and sits down behind Paquita. A conversation in which Les tries to hit on Paquita follows, which is unsuccessful. Paquita then stands up and sits away from Les.
In some Australian cinema prints the "God Save The Queen" opening is missing.
When the film was picked up for U.S. distribution, there was a delay when another company asked the distributor to change the film's title so as to avoid confusion with another film of the same name (hence the "Dead Alive" title for the U.S. release). Director Peter Jackson decided to use the extra time to apply some additional spit and polish to the film, resulting in a new cut approximately seven minutes shorter than the original (97 minutes vs. 104 minutes). This cut premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was eventually released in the U.S. (along with an emasculated, 85-minute R-rated version). Although the 104-minute version remains the most commonly seen (at least outside the U.S.), Jackson has gone on record as saying the 97-minute cut is his preferred version.
