Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.

“Night Of The Living Dead” was a huge surprise hit, especially in the drive-ins, who’d have thought it’d take a DECADE to make a sequel.

It may have taken ten years but Romero actually started writing for this film during 1974 when he visited the Monroeville Mall and was shown the hidden parts of the mall and it was suggested to him that someone would be able to survive in the mall should an emergency ever occur.

This film also saw the iconic Tom Savini make his debut as a special make-up effects artist.Savini had been offered the chance to provide special effects and make-up for N.O.T.L.D. before being drafted into the Vietnam War, which ultimately inspired a lot of his work.

Savini mesmerised me with his work in this film, I remember when I first saw it and I was afraid to blink in case I missed something. I watched it over and over just to see his amazing work, it was ultimately the film that started a love affair between Horror fans and Savini.

This feature maybe viewed as a classic today, but believe it or not, a-lot of people don’t like this film upon its release. This was put down to the fact that this film has more comedic aspects than N.O.T.L.D. which some viewers didn’t like, I say they missed the point.

“Dawn Of The Dead” is a true Horror classic in every sense, and never forget – “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth”.

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Miscellaneous facts about the film:

Extras who appeared in this film were reportedly given $1 in cash, a donut, and a Dawn of the Dead T-shirt.

Tom Savini chose the gray color for the zombies’ skin, since Night of the Living Dead (1968) was in B&W and the zombie skin-tone was not depicted. He later said it was a mistake, because many of them ended up looking quite blue on film.

Zombie actors took photographs of themselves dressed up in full zombie makeup inside a photo booth on the second floor. They then replaced the sample pictures on the front of the booth with the ghoulish ones.

Dario Argento was an admirer of George A. Romero’s work, and vice-versa. When Argento heard that Romero was contemplating a sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968) he insisted that Romero come out to Argento’s native Rome to write the script without distractions. Romero knocked out the script in 3 weeks and, though Argento read the script as it came out, he left all the writing to Romero. Argento also provided most of the film’s soundtrack and, in return for the rights to edit the European version of the film, assisted in raising the necessary funds.

The outdoor scene where hunters, emergency crew and soldiers are shooting at zombies was done using local volunteers. Several local hunters arrived on-scene with their own weapons, the local National Guard division showed up in full gear, and local emergency crew (police, fire and ambulance) were present, all voluntarily.

Joseph Pilato has a cameo as a policeman at the boat dock. Pilato had auditioned for the role of Stephen, and would play Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead (1985).

John Amplas plays 3 roles: Rico, the last Puerto Rican bandit to be shot on the ghetto apartment rooftop, Mall Parking Lot Zombie whose arm is pulled off and Zombie thrown over the mall balcony by Peter.

Christine Forrest (wife of George A. Romero) cameos as the director’s assistant in the television studio and the Elf Zombie.

Randy Kovitz cameos as Biker (wearing blue beret)

George A. Romero plays both the director in the television studio, and “Old Nick” the Santa Claus biker (briefly visible in biker raid).

Three members of the theatrical, space-themed rock band Fluid from Homestead, Pennsylvania appear as bald Zombies. Saxophonist John Paul is the plaid-shirted Zombie in the airport chart house (who also appears on the film’s posters, video, DVD, and soundtrack album covers, and some of Day of the Dead (1985)’s releases), keyboardist Mike Christopher is the Hare Krishna zombie, and bassist Michael James is a red-sweatered zombie in the Monroeville Mall battle scene where Roger’s arm and leg are wounded.

Filming at the Monroeville Mall took place during the winter of 1977-78, with a three-week reprieve during the Christmas shopping season (during which other footage, e.g. the TV studio, was shot). Filming at the mall began around 10 p.m., shortly after the mall closed, and finished at 6 a.m. The mall didn’t open until 9, but at 6 the Muzak came on and no one knew how to turn it off.

Gaylen Ross refused to scream during the film. She felt that Fran was a strong female character, and if she screamed, the strength would be lost. She told this to George A. Romero once, when he told her to scream. He never asked her again.

The two zombie children who attack Peter in the airport chart house are played by Donna Savini and Mike Savini, the real-life niece and nephew of Tom Savini. These are the only zombies in all of George A. Romero’s “Dead” films that spontaneously run and never do the trademark “Zombie shuffle”.

The scene between Roger and Peter in the trucks when they are kidding each other about their height was entirely improvised by the two actors.

Zombie actors took photographs of themselves dressed up in full zombie makeup inside a photo booth on the second floor. They then replaced the sample pictures on the front of the booth with the ghoulish ones.

Much of the fake blood used in the blood packets was a mixture of food coloring, peanut butter and cane sugar syrup.

The Monroeville mall used as the site of much of the action was once the largest mall in USA.

Some of the actors playing zombies in the movie would frequently get drunk at a late-night bar called the Brown Derby, which was in the Monroeville Mall. One night they stole a golf cart and crashed into a marble pillar, causing $7,000 worth of damage.

Scott H. Reiniger’s grandmother, despite his warnings, insisted on seeing the film at the theater. Reiniger accompanied her to the showing. Reiniger said she made it through part of the tenement scene. Reiniger asked her if she’d like to leave and she told him yes, so they did.

The weapons store featured in the film was never a part of the Monroeville Mall. George A. Romero shot those scenes in a gun shop in downtown Pittsburgh and edited the footage in to make it look like it was a shop in the mall.

With such a shoestring budget, the film couldn’t afford professional stunt people outside of drivers, so makeup artist Tom Savini and assistant and friend Taso N. Stavrakis volunteered for the task. They are responsible for almost every stunt seen in the film, though not all went perfectly as planned. When filming a dive over the rail of the mall, Savini almost missed his pile of cardboard boxes, with his legs and back landing on the ground. He had to work from a golf cart for several days. The shot where Stavrakis swung down from a banner was poorly planned and he wound up continuing on and slamming into the ceiling.

Gaylen Ross said that the brief scene where she is skating in the ice rink was a near-disaster. She had stated on her resume that she could ice skate, but hadn’t done so in nearly 20 years. She admitted in an interview that she was being shouted instructions on how to skate by the rink manager (who was out of camera shot) and stayed on her feet barely long enough to complete a single loop.

The MPAA had threatened to impose the X rating if George A. Romero didn’t make cuts. Romero did not want to cut the film, and he was adamant against an X rating, due to its stigma of hard-core pornography. In the end, Romero was able to persuade his distributors to release the film with no rating, although on all advertising and trailers, there was a disclaimer that in effect read that while there was no explicit sex in the film, the movie was of such a violent nature that no one under 17 would be admitted.

Pam Chatfield’s Lead Zombie character, The Nun Zombie trapped in a door was originally supposed to die. But Romero liked her and had her released from the door instead.

The voice of Christine Forrest (George A. Romero’s wife) can be heard on a pre-recorded announcement in the mall (“Attention all shoppers…”).

Tom Savini used the same dummy throughout the course of filming. During that time it was blown up, burnt, shot, and beaten, among other things.

The most profitable film in the “Dead” series.

George A. Romero was initially hesitant to cast Scott H. Reiniger as Roger, despite the fact that he loved Reiniger’s audition, as he had already cast Ken Foree as Peter and was worried about the height disparity between the two actors. Reinger told Romero bluntly that after the first 15 minutes, no one in the audience would be paying attention to that detail. A short while later, Romero found Reiniger and told him he got the part.

Tom Savini, head of makeup effects, was unhappy with how the blood mix (produced by 3M) photographed; it looked fluorescent. Director George A. Romero felt it was perfect for the film’s comic book style.

When the film was first released, the shooting budget was reported to be $1.5 million. On his commentary track on the “Ultimate” DVD release, producer Richard P. Rubinstein admitted that amount was inflated for foreign buyers, and the actual budget was around $500,000 (including deferred lab fees and Rubenstein and director George A. Romero deferring much of their salaries).

Several members of the marauding band of bikers were played by members of the local chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle Club. The elaborate motorcycles they drove were their own.

Some of the cast were made physically sick by the makeup work.

When Stephen idly uses the typewriter roughly 2/3 of the way through the movie, he types ‘NOW IS THE TIME…’. These are the first few words of an exercise widely used in touch-typing classes when typewriters were first introduced into the workforce. The entire sentence reads, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.”

Much of the fighting done by Fran was at the behest of Gaylen Ross, who refused to play a character who would not fight the zombies on her own.

Peter is the first person in the franchise to refer to the undead as “zombies”. The term is only used by a reporter on the radio once in Night of the Living Dead (1968).

While writing the script for Night of the Living Dead (1968), George A. Romero and John A. Russo contemplated how they should have the zombies destroyed. Co-star and makeup artist Marilyn Eastman joked that they could throw pies into their faces. This is undoubtedly the basis for the pie fight scene in this film.

Many effects were thought of on the spot. Tom Savini created many effects (such as the arm in the blood pressure tester) with no preparations whatsoever.

In addition to the lead biker Blades, Tom Savini plays the zombie who breaks window of the truck and is shot by Roger with a revolver. This scene leaves a bloody smear on the windshield, the effect was created by Savini throwing himself on the non-moving truck and spitting a mouthful of blood on the windshield.

Tom Savini chose his friend Jim Krut to play the helicopter zombie because he was notorious for having a low forehead.

There was originally a scene during the biker raid involving a zombie getting an arrow in the head from a crossbow. It was filmed but never featured in the final cut.

The living quarters where the four heroes shacked up in wasn’t located in the mall. It was a set built at George A. Romero’s then production company The Latent Image located in Pittsburgh. The elevator shaft was located there as well.

In an interview, Scott H. Reiniger says his favourite moment of his in the film was the spontaneous idea to slide down the escalator. The part that made him most nervous was driving the VW Sirocco around the mall.

Shooting at the mall was suspended over the Christmas season because it would have been too costly to nightly remove and then later re-hang all the seasonal decorations.

Many of the extras cast in the film (especially the zombies in close-up shots) were friends and relatives of the production crew.

In order to save on production costs, director/editor George A. Romero had all the 35mm film stock developed into 16mm, and used that as his work reel. After choosing the scenes and takes he wanted, he had those alone developed into 35mm prints for the master reels.

It took up to three hours in makeup to transform someone into a zombie.

The biker invasion was shot over two nights.

Some of the zombies (notably one in the tenement scene) were actual amputees.

David Emge speculates that Scott H. Reiniger’s slide between the escalators was a motivation for putting bumps at the bottom of the escalators, to discourage other people from trying the stunt. He refers to them as “The Reiniger Bump”.

J. Clifford Forrest Jr. (who played Father Zulemas in Martin (1977)) and Ingeborg Forrest (who played Mrs. Anderson in the same film), parents of Christine Forrest and Cliff Forrest, make appearances as zombies.

Final film for Rudy Ricci, Ron Gibson, Michael James, J. Clifford Forrest Jr., and Ingeborg Forrest.

The novel reveals the surnames of all the characters. Peter’s last name is Washington, Roger’s is DeMarco, and Francine’s is Parker. In addition, Dr. Foster’s first name is James and Berman’s is Sidney.

The late Ralph Tallo, Father of Nick Tallo (who plays Jack, The Biker with Seltzer Bottle in the movie itself) appears as the Grey Suited Zombie who attacks Stephen outside the abandoned airport chart house, who Stephen ends up wrestling with, and then Stephen defeats him by hitting him on the head with a sledgehammer.

Butchie also appears as the Biker calling out to his friend Timmy, “Hey Man, what the Hell you gonna watch on that thing?!”. And who also then throws the football over to Jeff Paul’s Biker character.

The owner of the restaurant where actor David Emge was working introduced Emge to George A. Romero, who was casting at the time. Emge says Romero told him that if he could fit into the coat, he would get the part. Emge jokingly said the other actor was far too big to wear the coat, so he got the job.

Cliff Forrest, younger brother of Christine Forrest appears as Tony, the Copyboy who shakes Fran awake during the opening scene at WGON-TV Station. He also worked grip for the movie at the same time.

A Behind The Scenes still from the Extended Version of the Ultimate DVD boxed set indicates George A. Romero had a third cameo in the picture. The still shows the director standing to the side of the camera, his sleeve rolled up, holding a pistol upwards. Behind him a part of the mall can clearly be seen, indicating it was shot on site. Near the end of the picture, a similar shot exists: a POV from a man holding a pistol firing up past a fenced in area on the upper floor where Peter is running across.

The scenes between Stephen, Peter, Roger and Frannie in the helicopter were filmed with the helicopter never running or leaving the ground. A shell was painted blue for the day scenes and black for the night scenes and interspersed with real helicopter footage.

Sixteen Singers/Musicians appear in the movie. John Paul, the former saxophonist of the local cover rock band Changes and space-themed rock band FLUID appears as the bald plaid-shirted zombie in the airport chart house (who also appears on the film’s posters, video, DVD, and soundtrack album covers, and some of Day of the Dead (1985)’s releases), John Harrison (former bassist of the rock band Homebrew and who also was known for playing bass for the late legendary Blues/Rock Singer-Guitarist Roy Buchanan) appears as a janitor zombie in a jumpsuit who later gets a screwdriver stabbed in his left ear, Blues/Rock/Jazz Singer-Musician Donald Rubinstein (who composed the music for George A. Romero’s Martin (1977) and Knightriders (1981) soundtracks) appears as a bloody faced zombie (wearing a denim shirt and green shirt under it) who attacks Roger in the mall parking lot scene, Folk Singer-Musician/Songwriter Vincent Vok appears as a TV Station Employee (wearing a white collared shirt and black necktie) at WGON-TV Studio, Mike Christopher, the former keyboardist of the space-themed rock band UFO, Changes and FLUID appears a Hare Krishna zombie, Michael James, the former and late bassist of both Changes and FLUID appears as a bald red-sweatered zombie in our four heroes’ Monroeville Mall battle scene during the scene where Roger’s arm and leg are wounded (but his bald zombie character can be seen twice only for a brief moment in a crowd), Tommy Lafitte appears as Miguel the Afro zombie in the projects apartment who comes out of a room and ends up biting his surviving wife Miguellita’s neck and arm, the late Clayton Hill appears as a white sweater vested zombie who goes up and down the mall escalator, Sharon Ceccatti appears as a Nurse zombie, Jeannie Jefferies appears as a Blonde Glamour Model zombie who attacks Roger in his truck and later gets half of her face blown off, Maxine Lapiduss appears as a Redheaded zombie clawing at the JC Penny Door, Nancy Friedman appears as a Bandana Girl zombie with one arm, Joseph Pilato appears as the Head Cop (wearing black knit cap) at the police boat dock, Randy Kovitz appears as the cop who asks our four heroes for cigarettes at the police dock and then as a bearded biker wearing a blue beret and sunglasses, Mark ‘Whitey’ Cooper (who was known for being the lead singer of the local R&B band Whitey & The Blind Venetians) appears as a long blonde haired, bearded white collared shirted zombie who gets shot in the bikers’ battle scene, and Greg Besnak, former lead singer of the goth rock band Without Tears appears as a long brown haired and Fu Manchu mustachioed zombie hit by Sledge the biker in the side of his head with a sledgehammer, and he turns, full-face, into the camera. Later, when Sledge gets eaten, he has another close-up, descending upon him. But it appeared on the Director’s Cut only. It was edited out in the US release.

On disc 4 (Document of the Dead) of Anchor Bay’s “Ultimate Edition” DVD set, there is a hidden menu (shape of one of corpse on screen) item which can only be selected after seeing all items.