Doctor Butcher M.D./Zombie Holocaust Blu-Ray

If you are a fan of old exploitation/grindhouse cinema, then you know that many of these movies were retitled, re-edited, and sometimes rescored when released in different territories.  Some were trimmed to eliminate some of the gorier or more disturbing moments and some were re-edited to change the pacing of the story or to incorporate new elements in an attempt to make the films more marketable in a given territory.

Zombi Holocaust was one that received some fairly noticeable changes when picked up by Aquarius Releasing in the U.S.A. in the early ‘80s.  The distributor put together a new opening, including the new title, Doctor Butcher M.D. – Medical Deviate, with footage from an uncompleted anthology movie, a new score, and even a new scene.  Zombi Holocaust (as Zombie Holocaust) has been available on both DVD and Blu-Ray for some time now, but the Doctor Butcher M.D. cut was only available on old VHS copies or film prints.

Something Old
 

Until now, thanks to Severin Films.

This new Blu-Ray release features both the Zombie Holocaust version and the Doctor Butcher M.D. version, complete with a reversible cover featuring each version’s respective artwork on either side.  This release is clearly putting an emphasis on the Doctor Butcher M.D. cut, as that is the artwork displayed and the first 5,000 copies also come with a barf bag featuring the same artwork, in a monochrome red.  

Something New
 

Being a big fan of both versions of this movie, I was very excited when I first heard of this release.  I have an old VHS of Doctor Butcher M.D. and have wanted to see a DVD or Blu-Ray release of that version for some time.  In fact, I would like to see more releases of these old movies released in this fashion, with different versions in the same release, like this release or the Ultimate Edition collection of Dawn of the Dead Anchor Bay released some years ago, which featured the early rough cut Romero did, as well as the final shorter version released theatrically, and the European cut that Dario Argento put together. Perhaps the near future will bring more releases such as these.

As for this release, in addition to the reversible cover, the two separate versions, and the limited barf bag, there are several featurettes with various people involved in the production and release of the movie.  The Doctor Butcher M.D. disc features interviews specific to the American release, discussing topics such as the re-editing of the film and the infamous "Butcher Mobile" publicity stunt.  One interesting inclusion is a song called "Down By the River" sung by the film's lead, Ian McCulloch, which is actually quite enjoyable.

It is a rather impressive release altogether, although the scene that follows Peter driving a boat motor's propeller through a zombie's face in which he and Lori are making their way back to the old mission and happen across a bamboo trap hidden in a clearing is included in both versions, even though I do believe this scene was created for the Doctor Butcher cut (as mentioned earlier in this post) and should not be in the original cut.  Some other editions of Zombie Holocaust have included the scene as a bonus, generally calling it a deleted scene, which is inaccurate, and I do believe at least one other release includes it in the movie itself, but that release does not have the two different versions of the movie included, so it make a bit more sense in that case.  The scene is clearly from a different shoot, as the location is no longer a jungle, but a forest, presumably in Europe somewhere and the actors' hair and costumes are just a little bit different; Ian McCulloch's costume, for instance, appears to be a darker shade of the same color than the costume he wears in the surrounding scenes. This is a minor thing, however, and doesn't really detract from the release overall.  Severin, as usual, has done quite a good job here.