Walmart has bought a piece of movie history in western Pennsylvania. The Monroeville Mall, in the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville, was the set for the 1978 George Romero classic, Dawn of the Dead. The mall still stands, for now, but in true Walmart fashion, the box store corporation is already planning on demolishing it.
Many of the Romero zombie movies take place in Pennsylvania, starting with the original, Night of the Living Dead. The choice of a mall as the set for Dawn of the Dead was a statement at the time about mindless consumerism, but the second movie in Romero’s famed series stuck close to its roots. Monroeville and its mall have both grown a lot since the movie was filmed, and visitors to the mall might not recognize it compared to the structure that was featured in the movie.
Today’s mall has familiar mall staples, like Auntie Anne’s and Macy’s, but also features a storefront museum celebrating the Living Dead franchise and its Pennsylvania roots. A bronze bust of George Romero also decorates the mall near the museum. Both the museum and the mall itself draw horror fans on pilgrimage to one of the genre’s most famous sites. It even has an annual “Living Dead Weekend” event…