Did You Know?

The book Dr. Logan gives to Bub is Stephen King's "Salem's Lot." Romero and King have been friends for many years.

The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn't get budget for, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead

Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film.

The budget for George A. Romero's original script was estimated at $7 million, but he would only be given the money if he could film an R-rated film. He was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half to $3.5 million.

The underground facility was not on a soundstage. It was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for a underground storage facility. The 2,500,000 square foot mine is now operated as the Gateway Commerce Center who now called it a "subsurface storage facility".

In the scene change right after Logan tells the zombie that it needs to sit in the dark and think about what it did, and punishes it by turning off the light, a little bit of the "The Gonk" music from Dawn of the Dead can be heard in the scene change.

There is a debatable scene in the film where Bub the zombie may or may not have another line of dialogue. When Sarah enters Logan's lab, she is startled when Bub emerges from the shadows behind her. After this, he moans something that some fans believe is, "I'm sorry."

During a holiday break in filming, makeup artist Gregory Nicotero used the realistic and gruesome model of his own head (as seen in a laboratory scene in the film) to play a practical joke on his mother.

The blood and entrails used in the disemboweling of Capt. Rhodes were real. Pig intestines and blood were procured form a nearby slaughterhouse and used to make the scene. During filming the refrigerator housing intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff, and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick.

British band Gorillaz have sampled several audio clips from both Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead: portions of the music and some dialogue ("Hello? Is there anyone there?") from the latter feature in the track, "M1 A1", on their 2001 debut album; and some of Bub the zombie's grunts appear alongside sound-clips of the news reporters from Dawn of the Dead on one of their B-sides, "Hip Albatross". Furthermore, part of the score from Dawn of the Dead is used in the intro track on the 2005 album, 'Demon Days'. This album also features a track narrated by Dennis Hopper, who portrayed Kaufman in George A. Romero's sequel that year, Land of the Dead.

Dr. Logan figures that the ratio of the undead to the human survivors is 400,000:1. When the film was made, in 1985, the population of the United States in our universe stood at about 240 million. If Dr. Logan is right, and the US population of this universe stood at roughly the same, and this film took place in 1985, there are 600 living human beings left in the USA. However, since the history of the universe in the "of the Dead" movies had radically diverged from real world history even before the ghouls emerged (notice the Venus probe in the first movie), the timeline of the "Dead" movies remains unclear (the Stephen King novel 'Salem's Lost appears in this film, even though in the real world it came out in 1975; note that the first film in this series came out in 1968; Diary of the Dead, set simultaneously with the events of Night of the Living Dead, features technology not available in 1968 in our world), and we do not know how long after the ghouls emerged that this film takes place, one cannot easily presume that this film takes place in 1985 or that the US population would have remained the same.

The first film in George A. Romero's "Dead" series to begin a tradition of having a clown zombie, as also seen in Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead.

Pat Logan, who played Uncle Rege in Night of the Living Dead appears as a Bald Mustachioed Zombie shot by Steel in the mines.

The "Day Of The Dead" love ballad song, "The World Inside Your Eyes" which appeared at the end credits of the movie was sung by Sputzy Sparacino (who was the lead singer and guitarist of the R&B/Dance/Cover band Modern Man at that time) and Gospel singer Delilah.

Sarah, John, McDermott, Miguel, Dr. Logan, Bub, and of course Captain Rhodes were the only characters from George A. Romero's original script that made it to the final version.

During the end credits of the movie to the Love Ballad song "The World Inside Your Eyes", Sputzy Sparacino's first lead vocal part of the lyrics singing "Only you, only me. Here alone, all alone. It's our destiny. Plans were made. Now they've changed. Know what's right, know what's wrong. Life just rearranged. All we can do is to try and understand. I've given all I can. My future's in your hands. Come take my heart, my soul, my love, my life! Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes." never appeared on the end credits at the beginning of the song. It was instrumental for a minute until we heard Sputzy's band mates in Modern Man as the Chorus voices whispered singing "Eyes, Eyes, Eyes" and then co-lead Singer Delilah's vocal part of the song lyrics "Is it you? Is it me? Holding on for so long, trying desperately. Is it right or is it fair? Wanting more, so much more, and it's never there. I am with you when I feel like I'm alone. It's easy to pretend this world could never end. Come take my heart, my soul, my love, my life. Hold me tight, babe. Take me to the world inside your eyes. Take me to the world inside your eyes!" with the bandies of Modern Man singing their chorus parts "Tonight" could be heard near the very end of the song as the credits finally ended. But you can hear Sputzy's first lead vocal parts of the song on the soundtrack album itself. Then you can finally hear what the original recording sounds like.

Although never confirmed, it has been rumored by fans that the character Joseph Pilato played in Dawn of the Dead is in fact Rhodes as a cop. Fans believe that Rhodes started out as a cop then later joined the army and became Captain. Since no passage of time is given in the dead films, it is very possible that years lapsed between Dawn and Day, making this scenario possible.

Taso N. Stavrakis:  In 2 roles: Appears as a Cave Zombie who gets bashed on the head with wood by Sarah. Referred to as Knock-On-Wood Zombie. He also appears as a Biker Zombie as the Zombie battle begins.

Akram Midani:  The former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)

Howard Berger:  Spinaround Cave Zombie (shot by John).

John Vulich:  The last Zombie shot in the cave before our heroes enter the Silo.

George A. Romero:  As a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground during the final zombie feast, seen from the waist down and identified by his trademark plaid scarf wrapped around his waist.