31 TV Shows for 31 Days of Halloween Season: Day 12

Series: Tales from the Dark Side

Episode: “Halloween Candy”, in which a man, tired of washing eggs off windows every October 31, forces his Halloween Scrooge dad to hand out candy to Trick or Treaters. The old man not only refuses but he dumps a goop of Elmer’s glue and mayonnaise into a kid’s treat bag. What a dick. Well, he pays for his dickishness when he gets a visit from a very real goblin. Makeup whiz Tom Savini directed this episode with exceptionally high standards for the syndicated horror anthology. The monster looks great, the editing and angles are creative, and for those who get bugged out by crawly things, there are some of those, too. Still, the scariest thing in this episode is the scariest thing in every episode of Tales from the Darkside: those creepy, creepy opening and closing credits.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 34

The Date: November 3

The Movie: Day of the Dead (1985)

What Is It?: The villain in the last installment of George Romero’s original “living dead” trilogy is the military; the most likable character is a sweet zombie named Bub. Tom Savini’s gory makeup jobs go above, beyond, and above the beyond.

Why Today?: On this day in 1946, Tom Savini is born.

20 Things You May Not Have Known About 'Dawn of the Dead'

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 35^th 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.