the mall from dawn of the dead is located at san antonio, texas.
where is the mall from dawn of the dead?
san antonio, texas
principal photography for dawn of the living dead (its working title at the time) began on november 13, 1977, at the monroeville mall in monroeville, pennsylvania. use of an actual, open shopping mall during the christmas shopping season caused numerous time constraints. filming began nightly once the mall closed, starting at 11 pm and ending at 7 am, when automated music came on. as december arrived, the production decided against having the crew remove and replace the christmas decorations—a task that had proved to be too time consuming. filming was shut down during the last three weeks of the year to avoid the possible continuity difficulties and lost shooting time. production would resume on january 3, 1978. during the break in filming, romero took the opportunity to begin editing his existing footage.
dawn of the dead (1978 film)
monroeville mall is most famous as the filming location for the movie "dawn of the dead", the 1978 cult horror classic, directed by george a. romero. in 1977, george a. romero began filming "dawn of the dead" on location at the monroeville mall. all filming inside the mall took place at night after the mall had closed, with filming often continuing until dawn. filming inside the mall began in october 1977, but had to be suspended when christmas decorations were hung shortly after thanksgiving. filming resumed in january after the decorations were removed. it was during that break that much of the mall's exterior shots were filmed, as well as filming at other locations. in the film's storyline, the mall was used as a fortress to protect four human survivors from a world taken over by the walking dead. the movie went on to become a huge hit worldwide. fans travel far and wide, sometimes from other countries, just to have a chance to visit the location. several pictures taken during the filming are on display in a room on the upper level near macy's. in addition, monroeville zombies, located on the lower level near macy's, features an in-store museum and gift shop that is dedicated to celebrating zombies in film and pop culture. the museum's main focus is "dawn of the dead" and contains artifacts, memorabilia, scale models of the mall as depicted in the movie and a boiler room walk through with various life-sized replicas of movie zombies. in 2013, the museum was relocated to evans city, pa, home of the original film "night of the living dead".
monroeville mall