31 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS WITH DAWN OF THE DEAD: DAY 24

Today’s post is a fantastic one with a great story behind it, literally. This story starts many years ago. 

As you may know by now, I like to find the exact spot where scenes from DAWN OF THE DEAD happened and then I try to re-create the shot in modern day. You know this from my recent shot re-creations and comparisons that I have posted from this fall and winter. I actually began doing these much earlier than recently though. I began doing them as far back as 2012. That’s where it all began. 

In the summer of 2012 I did an extensive amount of research on the Monroeville Mall from DAWN OF THE DEAD. I figured out where most of the scenes and the things you see in the movie happened. During a sort of informal tour of Romero filming locations that I put together in September of 2012, I decided that I really wanted to try and re-create the shots that you see in the movies, to compare them to what you see in the movies, all these years later. 

I’ve always wanted to do certain iconic ones. One of the main ones that I wanted to pinpoint the exact spot for, was where the Machete zombie, played by Leonard Lies, met his end. Many times, while at the mall, I tried to match the floor patterns in the shot seen here, to the modern day floor. Here’s a screen capture of this scene from the movie from the Anchor Bay DVD.

In case you don’t remember the scene, I’ll refresh your memory with words and pictures. I’ll set the scene. The bikers and looters have entered the mall and started to take the things they need or just want. Tom Savini plays one of those looters, he plays a character named Blades, because he wielded a machete. At one point he’s riding on the back of a motorcycle through the mall and a zombie sort of grabs him or bumps into him, knocking him off the back of the motorcycle. That zombie was played by crew member Leonard Lies, who was a grip on the DAWN film crew. 

Savini gets up and turns around, reaches for his machete in his boot, and goes to kill the zombie that knocked him off the motorcycle. He walks up and says “Say goodbye, creep!” He swings his machete and it hits him square in the head. He pulls out his machete and runs off.

I tried to find this exact spot for a long time, it took a number of years, and a number of trips to figure it out. There are a few reasons why it was hard to figure out. The major reason was that the shot, as seen in the movie on DVD, and Blu-ray was never clear enough to see the patterns on the floor to get an exact match. I tried to find the exact spot on many trips to the mall, but I was always unsuccessful. There is another reason that it was hard to find the exact spot, but that’s a story for another day. Here’s a picture of the scene from the Anchor Bay Blu-ray.

Then in 2018, Nicolas Winding Refn supervised a restoration of the European version of DAWN OF THE DEAD in Italy. It was released by Midnight Sun and Koch Media. It’s the clearest that the movie and that scene have ever looked up to that time. I took a screen capture of that scene from the full frame edition of the restoration that was included in that set with the restoration of the European cut and the other cuts of the film. I could clearly see enough of the floor to get an exact match, and it became my mission to find that exact spot, during my next visit to Pittsburgh. 

My next visit to Pittsburgh was for the Living Dead Weekend: Monroeville in June of 2019. I picked up my buddy Daz Sargeant from the airport, he had just arrived from England, and I brought him to the mall. I told him that I was going off to find this spot and he came along. I think that we had even looked for it together on a previous trip, that time we could not find it, but this time we did. Armed with the newest, clearest, screen shot of this scene, we found it in no time at all. 

It was amazing to find the exact spot, especially after looking for it for so long. You can match the rock patterns on the floor in both of the shots. It was a great moment. 

Of course we had to re-create that shot. You see the result here and the reason for this post. I got in front of the camera and Daz took the photo. I’ve wanted to talk about this for a long time, but I never had the time to create this post. I’m glad that I finally did though. It was fun finding it with my buddy Daz, he’s one of my best friends, we have done a lot of location finding and visiting over the years. It’s always a blast hanging out with him. He hasn’t been over here to the states since 2019, I hope that he makes it out again for the Living Dead Weekend in 2022. 

I hope that all of you can enjoy and relate to these moments of mine where I’ve “nerded out” at the Monroeville Mall because of my love of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Happy Christmas Eve.

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 enjoy this holiday look at DAWN OF THE DEAD.