American Werewolf - cut?

[J M]

Just watched this on R4. I had an old UK VHS version, and there are at least two scenes which i reckon have been trimmed a little.

When the werewolf first attacks Jack on the moors, a clip of the wolf savaging his throat as he lays on the ground seems to be missing.

Also, in the dream sequence with the family getting shot, I think a shot of the children lying on the floor being sprayed with bullets has been removed.

Anybody able to confirm this? I'll try to dig out my old video copy as well and compare the two. Rewind says there are no cuts.

[RichB]

I guess it could be but I've never heard of any cuts being made to the film, is there a commentary on your version? If not that may indicate cuts

[Rhys]

I have the original VHS release from 1986 and I think you're right from memory about the scenes.

The running time on the case is 93 mins if that helps.

[J M]

The cuts in question were only two very quick shots, so wouldn't have affected the running time, only by a few seconds.

I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but that may give a clue. When have time I'll try the VHS and compare them.

[LouBarlow]

On the R1 DVD there are no shots of the kids being shot. You see the pig-demon dudes aim the guns at them and fire, but nothing graphic.

Though comparing this R1 to my old UK VHS, the savaging of Jack is toned down on the UK edit considerably, also the scene mentioned before has Davids throat slicing trimmed, whereas the R1 is intact.

[GregB]

It was recently passed by the BBFC for the R2 DVD release with a time of 93mins 20secs. This compares to the original film having a time of 97:16 (I assume that's to do with PAL speedup). It states that no cuts were made.

Interestingly there was a video version passed in 1986 with a timing of 92:44. Again there were no cuts made by the BBFC so I can only assume a slightly edited version was put up for classification

Don't know if helps at all