DOTD (1978) Image Analysis

This scene from DOTD (1979) is a good example of the slow, gritty body horror that is used in the film. Tom Savini was able to create these graphic effects due to the Hays Code dying out in the late 1960s. However, Savini was still pushing the boundaries of acceptable taste in the context of the film, and this type of body horror would be very shocking and uncomfortable to audiences in the 70’s. This version of the film was released uncut in the USA, but also was “unrated,” meaning it couldn’t be shown in mainstream cinemas. Which can damage a film’s success, luckily DOTD had such a cult following it was still a big hit. In Japan DOTD (1979) the violent and body horror scenes were cut, while in the UK much less was cut but the head-explosion shot and the children zombie shots were cut from the film, as they were seen as too disturbing. In Norway the film was banned until 2000, and in Germany the film has been released but heavily cut to remove any body horror scenes much like in Japan. This shows that even though the Hays Code had been relaxed the audience was not ready for this much extreme body horror.