Monroeville: Mall Of The Dead
|
The most iconic character in George A. Romero's 1978 zombie movie Dawn Of The Dead isn't a person at all, living or undead. It's the mall the survivors hole up in, that most people remember from the movie. And ever since, the idea of seeking refuge in a shopping mall during the zombie apocalypse, has become part of zombie folklore.
The idea of setting the sequel to the cult classic Night Of The Living Dead (1968), came to Romero some six years after the release of the ground-breaking zombie genre movie. He was invited by a friend to go to the Monroeville Mall, which was close by the location used for the original movie, and at the time one of the largest shopping malls in the United States. |
|
The Night Of The Living Dead had been mostly shot around Evans City, Pennsylvania, 25 miles north of Pittsburgh. The famous opening scene of the movie had used the Evans City cemetery. Romero, often used locations in and around Pittsburgh for filming. And Monroeville Mall was only a few miles east of Pittsburgh. While wandering around seeing abject consumerism in full-swing Romero's friend remarked that someone would be able to survive in the mall if a disaster were to happen. Romero instantly came up with the story of Dawn Of The Dead and its commentary on consumerist culture in America.
Production took place in the Monroeville Mall during closing hours, starting in the October of 1977. With shooting going on most nights until dawn, it led to a lot of off-time for the actors playing the retail-hungry zombies. Many would spend their down time at the Brown Derby Pub, which the main characters run by often in the film. The make-up/effects artist for the film Tom Savini (who also starred as one of the bikers) recalls in the DVD commentary that a few inebriated zombies drove around the mall in a golf cart and caused some damage to a marble pillar in the process. Others would take pictures in the photo booth and leave images of their pale, mangled faces around the booth for the next day's patrons. |
|
External shot of the Monroeville Mall parking lot.
|
"They're after the place. They don't know why; they just remember. Remember that they want to be in here."
The Monroeville Mall is located on U.S. Route 22 near the junction of Interstate 376 and the Monroeville interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Construction of the mall was completed in 1969. The mall contained 125 stores on two levels and featured a J.C. Penney and the Ice Palace, a skating rink, both featured in the movie. The businesses in the mall cooperated with the production, allowing them to use their stores. One bank even loaned the film-makers $20,000 in notes for the scene where now-useless money flutters through the air. |
Shooting of the movie was suspended after Thanksgiving, when the mall put up its Christmas decorations, and resumed in the January of 1978. It was during that break from filming interior shots of the mall that much of the mall's exterior shots were filmed, as well as filming at other locations. For example the rooftop hideout on-top of the mall was an empty warehouse in down-town Pittsburgh.
JC Penney store today.
|
Penney's in Dawn Of the Dead, 1978.
|
Due to the massive international success of the movie, and its cult status as a classic of the zombie horror genre, fans come from all over the world to visit the mall. The mall does play to the hundreds of fans that turn-up throughout the year, and hosts an annual zombie walk that attracts hundreds of would-be zombies. The mall now features a large mural, that pays homage to famous people from the Pittsburgh area, and includes Romero and his zombies. On one of the upper floors of the mall near to Macy's, they have a collection of photographs taken during the shooting of the movie. And up until 2013 the mall housed Monroeville Zombies, a museum and gift-shop dedicated to zombie movies and culture, with particular focus on Dawn Of The Dead. It contained artifacts, memorabilia, scale models of the mall as depicted in the movie and a boiler room walk through with various life sized replicas of movie zombies.
|
When the museum relocated in 2013, it moved to Evans City, the location of Night Of The Living Dead. The museum renamed itself The Living Dead museum and gift shop, and features a Celebrity "Maul of Fame" of the Living Dead, with bloodied hand-prints and signatures of celebrities.
So a trip to Pittsburgh is a must for any fans of Romero's zombie movies, with a trip to the Monroeville Mall and Evans City, to see the museum and the cemetery. And for die-hard fans you can visit the location of the farmhouse (which has since been demolished) at 260 Ash Stop Rd, Evans City, Pennsylvania. |
Bokor Hill Station: Holiday Resort, Torture Chamber & Movie Set - The story of the ghost town on a mountain top in Cambodia. Now lost to developers, but captured in the movie R-Point.
|
Hype & Hysteria: The Gory Story Of Video Nasties - Early 80s UK, as home video machine became popular, there was moral outcry at the horror titles that were hitting the shelves.
|