31 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS WITH DAWN OF THE DEAD: DAY 18

Today's post features a bit more trivia concerning our favorite film DAWN OF THE DEAD. Seen here in the original shot from DAWN OF THE DEAD, you see one of the scope zombies, you can see several scope zombies in the movie. These are zombies seen in the rife scope sight by one of the main characters in the movie. This scope zombie is played by Nick Mastandrea. You might be asking yourself, what do this zombie and the movie THE BREED have in common. Well, let me tell you a story. 

Nick Mastandrea who played this scope zombie, went on to have a major career in Hollywood and he directed the movie THE BREED, which I just watched last night. The first time you see his zombie in the movie is outside of the gates in the view out of the gun store. Peter and Stephen see him clawing outside the gate, trying to get in. He is seen one more time later in the film. After the guys have taken the car inside the mall, they begin to lock the doors to keep the zombies out. They arrive at a second set of doors, they get out of the car, and Peter and Stephen look at the zombies advancing and Peter says: “We’ll get it all locked off, then we’re going on a hunt.” Peter then takes aim and shoots Nick’s scope zombie in the head, killing it. 

Nick has had a very interesting career since he was a zombie in DAWN OF THE DEAD. In fact, Nick got his start in the film and TV industry working with George Romero and his crew, recording sound, and acting as a grip on the series of sports documentaries that George made in the mid 70’s called THE WINNERS. These were made to spotlight the biggest athletes of the day and they were broadcast on national television. Nick was a Key Grip on many of Romero’s films, including KNIGHTRIDERS, CREEPSHOW, and DAY OF THE DEAD, until he graduated to Assistant Director on MONKEY SHINES and First Assistant Director on TWO EVIL EYES and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1990. After working with Romero and company for so long, Nick then decided to branch out and he started a long and ongoing career as a First Assistant Director, working with some of the biggest names in the industry, people like John Landis, James Mangold, Ted Demme, Andrew Niccol, Rian Johnson, and Wes Craven. He’s worked on movies such as STRIKING DISTANCE, SCREAM 1-4, BLOW, WALK THE LINE, 3:10 TO YUMA, LOOPER, and SOUTHPAW. He still works to this day on huge movies and TV shows, on things like the HBO series WESTWORLD and THE NEW MUTANTS. He’s in demand and working steadily. 

I just watched his directorial debut THE BREED last night, which was produced by his buddy Wes Craven. I really liked it, I recommend checking it out if you have never seen it, it was highly entertaining. Don’t pay attention to the reviews out there, it’s a fun flick. As you can see, Nick has come a long way since he was in DAWN OF THE DEAD, and it all started with George Romero. And way back when, he was a zombie in DAWN OF THE DEAD. How about that? Pretty cool huh?

Each day this month I will be showing you something cool, rare, or even noteworthy concerning DAWN OF THE DEAD as a Christmas Present to the fans from me. I hope that you are enjoying this holiday look at DAWN OF THE DEAD.