Alternate versions for
The Evil Dead (1981) More at IMDbPro »

• When originally released to theaters in Britain, the UK censors removed 49 seconds of footage including an ankle stabbing, Shelley chewing off her own hand, an eye gouging, Shelley's body being dismembered, body blows with a poker and a wooden post, and shots of blood spurts, and it was this version that was released on video originally. Despite the cuts, it became one of the most notorious of the UK video nasties and was subject to many obscenity trials before being withdrawn on video in 1984, when mandatory video censorship was introduced to the UK. It was not until 1990 that the film surfaced on video in the UK again, due to wrangles between the distributors and the BBFC over how much footage should be cut from a legal video release. In the end, a further 1m 6s was removed, in addition to the previous theatrical version cuts. Most of the scenes depicting excessive gore were shortened or removed, with the tree rape scene being particularly targeted for cuts. The fully uncut version was finally released on DVD in 2001.
  
  
• Forty-eight seconds are missing from the German version. There are 2 German versions on the market:
  • Tanz der Teufel (banned/uncut)
  • Tanz der Teufel 1 (heavily cut)
  
  
  
• The Swedish version, originally cut by several minutes was re-released in 1997 completely uncut, including the infamous tree-rape scene
  
  
• The 1998 Anchor Bay Video collector's-edition and limited-edition (35,000 copies) releases have a stereo soundtrack.
  
  
• In March 2001, the BBFC decided to release it completely uncut in the UK.
  
  
• The Anchor Bay releases are complete and uncut.
  
  
• A small scene was cut from the U.S. release:
  • After all of Ash's friends have turned into demons, he goes outside and begins to panic. Frustrated and angry, he kicks in one of the front windows. Eventually settling down, he re-enters the cabins and again confronts the monsters.
  
  
  
• The uncut UK and US Anchor Bay DVD releases in 2001 had a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a 6.1 DTS-ES remix. The image is also matted to 1.85:1 aspect ratio from the original 1.37:1 frame, by the request of 'Sam Raimi (I)' .
  
  
• The German version for people under the age of 18 (FSK 16) misses 17 minutes of footage compared to the uncut version.
  
  
• In the old Swedish sell-through VHS version, the decapitation of Ash's girlfriend with the shovel, the scene are cut about a full minute. First the deadite launches herself at him, the screen flicks red, and Ash wipes of some dust and returns to the cabin.
  
  
• The Anchor Bay Edition is missing a brief shot of lightning hitting a tree that was removed at the behest of the director, as he thought it looked too fake to retain. This shot is on the old HBO tape, however.
  
  
• The shot of lightning hitting a tree is intact in the German DVD from Astro (The Ultimate Edition). However, this is also missing from the US DVD from Elite.
  
  

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