Dead Alive - Rated/Unrated

[Tom White]

After searching for close to forever, I finally found a copy of Dead Alive to rent and I was strangely excited about it. However, I noticed the badmovies.org review said "Unrated version" and "Beware the cut R version"
I checked the movie I had just brought home and it says "Rated version" and "Rating: R"

I haven't started it yet, but, am I going to miss out on a lot of fun parts? Is the "Things to look for" list going to be way out of sync with the version I have?

[Drezzy]

Things edited out for the R version:
Opening sequence gore
Rat monkey's head squished in
FULL "your mother ate my dog" scene
Longer kill of Nurse McTavish
Vera eating her own ear
The party at the end

I'd just bring it back, and then go out to Suncoast or Sam Goody and buy the unrated DVD (if you have a DVD player).

[Chris K.]

The R cut is 85 minutes, therefore 12 minutes of fantastic gore and other elements are removed for the benefit of the MPAA. The joke lies in the gore and the reactions are the punchline. With the removal of the gore in the R rated cut, you basically have the puchline which will leave you in UTTER CONFUSION as to what the joke is. You really need to see the 97 minute 'unrated' cut of DEAD ALIVE.

However, if you really want to go the extra mile I suggest you get a hold of the full 104 minute cut that was released under it's original intended title BRAINDEAD. It contains 7 minutes of good chartacter devlopment and additional moist gore not in the American 'unrated' or 'R' versions. It's 104 minute version is available in England in the PAL format, but your best bet would be theJapanese release that is completely uncut (only drawback to the Japanese release: it has burned-in Japanese subtitles).

So forget the R rated cut.

[Tom White]

Well, this sucks.

But thanks for the detailed answer, both of you.

[Offthewall]

I bought Dead Alive and it was the R version, my local blockbuster has the unrated version, think there is anything wrong with Renting that version and just u know, switching tapes "By Mistake".

[Brother Ragnarok]

Brother Fistula did this very same thing to get a copy of the uncut "Jason Goes to Hell" and it worked beautifully.  The funny thing about it was, it got a wide release only a few weeks after he went to all the trouble and I scored a copy of the very same movie for ten bucks at Sam Goody.
As for "Dead Alive", I'd only seen the uncut American version until last winter.  The video store I work at has the R cut, so out of curiosity I popped it in and almost hung myself before the movie was over.  I couldn't believe how bad it was.
Brother R