 |
| |
| The voice of Christine Forest ('George
A. Romero' 's wife) can be heard on a pre-recorded announcement
in the mall ("Attention all shoppers...") |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| The narration for the USA radio and TV
commercials for this film was provided by Adolph Caesar. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| In the scene where Roger hits the
zombie (played by Tom Savini) with the truck and it leaves a bloody smear on
his windshield, the effect was created by Savini
throwing himself on the non-moving truck and spitting a
mouthful of blood on the windshield. |
| |
| The airstrip used in the film, the Harold W. Brown
Memorial Field (aka Monroeville Municipal Airport), is
still in operation as of 2002. The privately run
airfield is approximately 10 miles from the Monroeville
Mall, where the bulk of the film was shot. |
| |
| Some of the zombies (notably one in the
tenement scene) were actual amputees. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| Extras who appeared in this film were
reportedly given $20 in cash, a box lunch, and a Dawn of
the Dead t-shirt. |