A decade after dropping the first, full-blown zombie
apocalypse on our heads with Night of the
Living Dead, George Romero got around to showing us what happened next.
This time the thrills were more graphic, thanks to makeup legend Tom Savini and
a full-color presentation, and the satire was sharper. But you already knew
that. In celebration of the 35th anniversary of its U.S. release,
here are 20 Things You May Not Have
Known About Dawn of the Dead!
1. A tour of the
Monroeville Mall by his friend Mark Mason, who managed the establishment, was
most inspirational to George Romero. When Mason mentioned that his mall would
be a good place to hole up during a disaster, Romero started formulating the
plot of his second Living Dead picture. He also ended up filming Dawn of the Dead in the Monroeville
Mall. Other movies with scenes shot there include Flashdance and Zack and Miri
Make a Porno.
2. The mall
scenes in Dawn of the Dead had to be shot between 2 and 5 AM. 2 AM is when the
mall’s final establishment, a tavern, closed for the night. 5 AM is when
cardiac patients were admitted to exercise.
3. The
Monroeville Mall would once again serve as a horrific setting in Stephen King’s
Christine in 1983. A year before that novel
was published, Romero and King collaborated on the portmanteau Creepshow with Romero directing and King
writing and acting. The two horror icons would also meld minds on Romero’s big
screen adaptation of King’s The Dark Half,
though the original plan for Romero to direct King’s It for the small-screen as a seven-hour miniseries fell apart
because of scheduling problems (Tommy Lee Wallace directed the half-as-long
version in 1990 instead). From a Buick 6
was another Romero/King union that withered on the vine, though Romero adaptations
of The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon and Gerald’s Game might still happen. Romero
has already completed scripts for both possible films.
4. While the
political implications of Night of the
Living Dead were essentially an unintended factor caused by the casting of
a black actor, Duane Jones, in the lead, Romero was fully conscious of the
anti-consumerism message of Dawn of the
Dead and continued to infuse all subsequent Living Dead movies with
political themes.
