Most people would not even think about this other car in DAWN OF THE DEAD, it is never driven, it is barely seen, yet there it is if you look quick. It's red, but what is it? This is the question that I asked one night. Yes, I love DAWN OF THE DEAD so much, I research every bit of minutia that I can when it comes to this movie. Here's how I figured out the mystery of the "red car".
Sure, most people fixate on the car that our heroes drive around the mall when they lock the doors so that no more zombies can come in. That car is a 1978 Volkswagen Scirocco MK1. Some people even think about trying to find one just so they can have a car like the one you see in the movie. It does figure prominently in the movie, so I can't blame them for thinking like this, being a superfan myself. It would be absurdly cool to own one.
Like I said though, superfans have known what kind of car this was for a long time, but no one talks about the other car, the red car also in the mall.
This is what I did to start. I looked up cars made in 1978. After a short search through Google images, I found one called a Chevy Monza Spyder that looked similar. Pictures of it did not match though in many spots, but nothing else was close, so I felt I was headed in the right direction. I kept running into many Chevy Monza Spyders like this one below. While similar, many things were off. The Spyder edition of the Chevy Monza is known for it's Spyder Emblem Package with the name Spyder on the doors and most of the time they would have a huge Spider on the hood. Plus they all had a spoiler, a soft fascia front, a large stripe, and blackened headlight wells. It seemed like the car but not exactly, so I dug deeper.
I am not a car guy, so I don't know a lot about cars and I had never even heard of this car before, so I really had to do some research here. So I look for more information. I then find a full promotional brochure for the 1978 Chevy Monza. It turns out I am on the right track, there are 5 different versions of this car. Who knew? Now I just have to narrow it down to which one, because it has to be one of these. There is no other car like it that year. It turns out all these models for 1978 are different in slight ways than even the preceding year or the following year's models. That actually helps narrow it down so that I could figure out exactly which model this car was.
Here is the full brochure:
Like I said, in the movie you can barely see this car. Here it is again.
I just have to figure out which of the 5 versions of this car it is.
First I notice that there is no way that it can be the base level Coupe or Sport coupe with full trunk because this car does not have that, it is a hatchback, the back of the car is not long at all.
Only three more versions to choose from. Then, remember I noticed that it was different than all the Spyder versions that I saw. The headlight wells are not blackened, they are red.
Also there is no hood emblem nor spoiler on the rear.
There is no way that this is a Spyder Edition of the Monza. There are only 2 versions left to choose from now. The 2+2 Sport Hatchback Coupe and the 2+2 Hatchback Coupe.
Looking closely at the brochure gives away the rest of the details which helped me narrow it down to the exact model in the movie. Here it is again, we are looking at the two middle ones.
Looking closely at the brochure gives away the rest of the details which helped me narrow it down to the exact model in the movie. Here it is again, we are looking at the two middle ones.
The 2+2 Hatchback has a chrome or metal bumper, the 2 +2 Sport Hatchback has a painted bumper, the same color as the car and it's a bit rounder than the non sport model. This is key. Now looking at the picture of Roger next to the car, we can clearly see that the bumper is painted red and slanted versus more flat in the 2+2 Hatchback, so that eliminates the 2+2 Hatchback and leaves us with the Monza 2+2 Sport Hatchback Coupe.
Mystery solved. I new present to you the second car from DAWN OF THE DEAD in the Monroeville Mall. It's the 1978 Chevy Monza 2+2 Sport Hatchback Coupe. How go find one and add it to your DAWN collection...
Just kidding...or am I?
One last thing.....
Here's a side by side comparison of the Chevy Monza 2+2 Sport Coupe on the left and the Spyder Edition of the Chevy Monza 2+2 Sport Coupe on the right.
