Did You Know?

Filmed in Monroeville Mall, Monroeville, PA.

The weapons store featured in the film was never a part of the Monroeville Mall. George A. Romero shot those scenes in a gun shop in downtown Pittsburgh and edited the footage in to make it look like it was a shop in the mall.

Tom Savini chose a friend to play the helicopter zombie because he was notorious for having a low forehead.

The two zombie children who attack Peter in the airport chart house are played by Donna Savini and Mike Savini, the real-life niece and nephew of Tom Savini. Incidently, these are the only zombies in all of Romero's "Dead" films that spontaneously run and never do the trademark "Zombie shuffle".

The skating rink shown in the film was part of the Monroeville Mall. It has since been replaced by a food court.

When the film was first released, the shooting budget was reported to be $1.5 million. On his commentary track on the "Ultimate" DVD release, producer Richard P. Rubinstein admitted that amount was inflated for foreign buyers, and the actual budget was around $500,000 (including deferred lab fees and Rubenstein and director George A. Romero deferring much of their salaries).

There was originally a scene during the biker raid involving a zombie getting an arrow in the head from a crossbow. It was filmed but never featured in the final cut.

In the Extended Edition (available on both laserdisc and Anchor Bay's "Ultimate Edition"), the music that is heard when Peter and Stephen are closing the gates of the mall in an effort to keep the bikers out is Pierre Arvay's "Ice Floe 9 (Five Deadly Venoms)", which was also the music piece used for the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as it was taken from the DeWolfe music library.

EASTER EGG: On disk 4 (Document of the Dead) of Anchor Bay's "Ultimate Edition" DVD set, there is a hidden menu (shape of one of corpse on screen) item which can only be selected after seeing all items.

Joseph Pilato, who played Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead, appears as a policeman at the boat dock.

Tom Savini, head of makeup effects, was unhappy with how the blood mix (produced by 3M) photographed; it looked fluorescent. Director George A. Romero felt it was perfect for the film's comic book style.

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.

In order to save on production costs, director/editor George A. Romero had all the 35mm film stock developed into 16mm, and used that as his work reel. After choosing the scenes and takes he wanted, he had those alone developed into 35mm prints for the master reels.

The narration for the USA radio and TV commercials for this film was provided by Adolph Caesar.

Dario Argento was an admirer of George A. Romero's work, and vice-versa. When Argento heard that Romero was contemplating a sequel to Night of the Living Dead he insisted that Romero come out to Argento's native Rome to write the script without distractions. Romero knocked out the script in 3 weeks and, though Argento read the script as it came out, he left all the writing to Romero. Argento also provided most of the film's soundtrack and, in return for the rights to edit the European version of the film, assisted in raising the necessary funds.

Some of the actors playing zombies in the movie would frequently get drunk at a late-night bar called the Brown Derby, which was in the Monroeville Mall. One night they stole a golf cart and crashed into a marble pillar, causing $7,000 worth of damage.

Many of the extras cast in the film (especially the zombies in close-up shots) were friends and relatives of the production crew.

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 scenes between Stephen, Peter, Roger, and Frannie in the helicopter were filmed with the helicopter never running or leaving the ground. A shell was painted blue for the day scenes and black for the night scenes and interspersed with real helicopter footage.

The bit in the movie where Roger slides down between the escalators was Scott H. Reiniger's idea.

The helicopter used in the film was a Bell Jet Ranger II. The registration number was N90090.

J. Clifford Forrest Jr. (who played Father Zulemas in Martin) and Ingeborg Forrest (who played Mrs. Anderson in the same film), parents of Christine Forrest and Cliff Forrest, make appearances as zombies.

With such a shoestring budget, the film couldn't afford professional stunt people outside of drivers, so makeup artist Tom Savini and assistant and friend Taso N. Stavrakis volunteered for the task. They are responsible for almost every stunt seen in the film, though not all went perfectly as planned. When filming a dive over the rail of the mall, Savini almost missed his pile of cardboard boxes, with his legs and back landing on the ground. He had to work from a golf cart for several days. The shot where Stavrakis swung down from a banner was poorly planned and he wound up continuing on and slamming into the ceiling.

Gaylen Ross refused to scream during the film. She felt that Fran was a strong female character, and if she screamed, the strength would be lost. She told this to George A. Romero once, when he told her to scream. He never asked her again.

There is great dispute over the film's alternate ending, where Peter shoots himself in the head and Fran commits suicide by sticking her head up into the blades of the copter. Some, such as makeup artists Tom Savini and Taso N. Stavrakis, maintain that the scene was filmed, while director George A. Romero used to be adamant that it wasn't. However, in the documentary Document of the Dead which was shot during the making of this film (and is included on some DVD copies), Romero clearly states to Frumkes, as they walk around the mall set, that they did indeed film the alternative ending, although he never filmed the effects shot. Gaylen Ross had a head mold made for the effects scene, and Savini did not want to see it go to waste, so he dressed the head up as a bearded African-American man, and that is the head that is blown off by a shotgun blast at the beginning of the film. To create the exploding head effect, Savini cleared the set and had the head shot at with an actual shotgun. Romero decided that this conclusion would be too depressing (after the horrors that have occurred) and, partially at the suggestion of his future wife, Christine Forrest, gave Peter and Fran a little bit of hope.

Peter is the first person in the franchise to refer to the undead as "zombies". The term is never used in Night of the Living Dead.

The Monroeville mall used as the site of much of the action was once the largest mall in America. Now it is almost a inconsequential mall compared to other larger sites.

Noted rock and country music journalist Chet Flippo wrote about the making of this movie for 'Rolling Stone'. His article "When There's No More Room in Hell, the Dead Will Walk the Earth" was published in the March, 1978 #261 issue. Moreover, Flippo appears in the film in an uncredited bit role as the zombie with a nasty gash across his cheek who's wearing a cowboy hat and a leather jacket with fringe hanging off the sleeves.

Some of the cast were made physically sick by the makeup work.

It took up to three hours in makeup to transform someone into a zombie.

The biker invasion was shot over two nights.

Romero's favourite film in the "Dead" series. It was also his favourite audience experience when it was first released into cinemas.

Folk Singer-Musician/Songwriter Vincent Vok appears as a TV Station Employee (wearing a white collared shirt and black necktie) at WGON-TV Studio. You can see him right next to Jim Edemensen's Cameraman character at the beginning of the movie just as the credit "Written & Directed by George A. Romero" appears on the screen. He is also friends with David Crawford who plays Dr. James Foster, the government scientist in the TV Studio scene.

Christine Forrest:  (wife of George A. Romero) director's assistant in the television studio.

John Amplas:  In 2 roles: Zombie whose arm is pulled off and Zombie thrown over the mall balcony by Peter.

Joe Shelby:  Zombie in car.

Ken Nagin:  Mustachioed Biker (wearing pendant headband and holding Axe).

George A. Romero:  the director in the television studio.

Real cow intestines were used in the scene where Sledge (Taso N. Stavrakis) gets his guts ripped out. Tom Savini said that he lived near a slaughterhouse and that's how he got the idea to do the effect.