Glossary
Cut and uncut
Why the running time on the back of the box does not match the one on the site.
Horror films exist in more versions than any other genre, and the differences are frequently substantial rather than cosmetic.
Reasons a cut exists:
- Censorship. A national board required removals as a condition of certification. British releases of the 1980s and 1990s are the worst offenders.
- Territory. Italian and English-language cuts of the same film routinely differ by ten minutes or more, with different scores. Dawn of the Dead has two significantly different versions and both are legitimate.
- The director. Some cuts are the film-maker's own second thoughts.
- The distributor. Running time was reduced to fit more screenings into a day, which is why several grindhouse-era releases are shorter for purely commercial reasons.
A film that says "uncut" on the sleeve is making a marketing claim, not a legal one, and the claim is frequently false.
Where a version difference matters, the entry on this site says so in the blurb. The Descent is the clearest case: the UK and US cuts have different endings, and the American one removes ninety seconds that the whole film is built toward.
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.