I had already visited the Monroeville Mall dozens of times before I moved to Pittsburgh.
This was because, as a young horror fan, I watched George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie horror film “Dawn of the Dead,” which was filmed there, over and over again. I watched it so many times, I knew that the elevated perch outside the department store was the best strategic vantage point; that supplies necessary to survive a zombie apocalypse could be found in the gourmet grocer shop and the guns and ammo outlet; and of course, the best (and worst) escape routes if I were being pursued by a slow-moving but insatiably hungry mass of the living dead out to consume my flesh.
Mr. Romero is one of America’s most influential independent filmmakers, who created the zombie as we know it, with its relentless undead shuffling, terrifyingly infectious bite and vulnerability to a bullet in the brain. The mall may look unassuming at first glance, but thanks to Mr. Romero, it’s become a pilgrimage site for horror fans.
It won’t be one for long. The mall, which opened in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in 1969, has transformed over time from a state-of-the-art shopping mecca to something closer to a zombie mall. In the coming years, it will be entirely demolished and replaced by a Walmart-owned mixed-use space.
In late October, fans from all over the world gathered there for what could potentially be one of the last Living Dead Weekends held at the mall, to pay our respects to “Dawn of the Dead,” Mr. Romero and the horror genre. I’ve been wondering what our mall’s impending demise says about the zombies that made it famous. What does it mean when a cultural epicenter is poised to be little more than a dearly departed corpse?
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