10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dawn Of The Dead

Can you believe the Zack Snyder/James Gunn Dawn of the Dead remake came out ten years ago today? To celebrate the anniversary of one of the greatest remakes of all time, here are 12 things you probably didn’t know about the film.

1. The mall where most of the movie takes place had to be completely renovated because Starbucks and numerous other companies refused to let their brands or names be used in the movie.

2. In the scenes where zombies are missing limbs, actual amputees were used to make it more realistic.

3. Originally the zombie baby was supposed to kill her mom after being birthed, but the scene was changed.

4. Writer James Gunn denies that the zombie outbreak in the film was the result of a virus and suggests that a bite from a zombie is like a bite from a vampire.

5. Denise Cronenberg was the costume designer for the movie. She’s the sister of David Cronenberg who directed such legendary horror films as The Brood, The Fly, and Videodrome.

6. You may recognize the sleazy character Steve from another popular role. It was played by Ty Burrell who plays Phil Dunphy on Modern Family.

7. This was the first film directed by Zack Snyder. Since then he’s gone on to direct such films as 300, Man of Steel, and Watchmen.

8. In the scene where Kenneth gets stitches in his arm, the director brought in an actual nurse for the close-up shots. She ended up going too deep with the needle and sewed the prosthesis to Ving Rhames skin. Rhames just went along with it and didn’t tell anyone until the scene was over.

9. In order to make the zombies look as realistic as possible, most of their make-up design was based on crime scene and forensic photos.

10. The budget for the film was $28 million and during its opening weekend it brought in $26.7 million. This was a huge relief to Universal because they had drastically cut the film’s budget. They felt that there might not be a market for zombie films after the a poor box office for their previous zombie film House of the Dead.