Dawn Of The Dead At 20: Easter Eggs, Trivia, And References For The Zack Snyder Remake

It doesn't have the satirical heft of its original 1978 inspiration. But Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, released 20 years ago, is an exceptional horror movie. The opening stands out as particularly terrifying, introducing the idea of sprinting zombies. And although what follows that isn't high art, per se, it is compulsively watchable. It's visually engrossing; the blood that squirts out of people's heads—and the gore that spills out of people's guts—look very real thanks to an emphasis on practical effects over CGI.

The movie also has some wit about it. The writer is Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy mastermind and DC Studios co-head James Gunn. Back in 2004, he was best known for writing the script for Scooby-Doo (2002). Then Dawn of the Dead arrived, giving us an look at what Gunn could do outside of the kid-friendly circle.

As for director Zack Snyder, Dawn of the Dead was his directorial debut. And though he's gone on to have a very successful career, many would argue that this remains his best, most grounded effort. It's plain fun, and everything exists in the movie to serve that purpose; it has almost no pretension to speak of.

Get your running shoes on. Here, in celebration of its 20th anniversary, is our trivia and Easter egg round-up for Dawn of the Dead (2004).

During the shower sex scene, we see a Subaru WRX commercial playing on the television. Snyder directed this ad just a year prior in 2003.

The helicopter in the opening scene is the same type as the one featured in the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead, which the survivors used to escape from the roof of the mall.

In the opening scene, we see a truck skid into a gas station pump and explode. This is a recreation of an event that Ben describes in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), when he is telling Barbara about the events that led him to the house.

The song that plays over the opening creditsis "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash. It takes a lot of its lyrics from the Book of Revelations, and it is one of the last songs that Cash wrote in his lifetime.

The shots of riots and violence that play over the opening credits is actual newsreel footage. That it's hard to differentiate that footage from the fictional footage of zombies is a wry indictment of humanity's own brutality.

Director Zack Snyder cameos as a gunman during the opening credits. It's during the scene where the zombies attack the U.S. Capitol.

Snyder filmed the movie in chronological order. This was less out of artistic choice, and more due to his inexperience with making feature-length films.

The bulk of the film takes place in an American shopping mall. The actual location is the Thornhill Square Shopping Centre in Toronto, Canada. The mall had recently shut down, which made it a perfect filming location.

Rather than using green screens or CGI, Snyder cast amputees in the roles of zombies without arms or legs.

Wooley's Diner is a reference to Wooley, the racist SWAT team leader in the originalDawn of the Dead(1978).

The military general on the news is played by Scott Reiniger. He also played Roger in the original Dawn of the Dead (1978).

County Sheriff Cahill is played by Tom Savini. He played the character of Blades in the original Dawn of the Dead (1978), but he is best known as a makeup and special effects master, working on Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, and Friday the 13th. He also directed the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.

The scene where Ana stitches up Kenneth's arm is more real than you might think. Snyder hired a nurse to perform the stitchwork, and in a painful misunderstanding, she stabbed the actual needle into Ving Rhames' arm.

The televangelist is played by Ken Foree, who also played Peter in the original Dawn of the Dead (1978). Snyder gave Foree the original film's famous tagline: "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

One of the mall stores in the background is named Gaylen Ross. Ross is an actress best known for playing Francine in the original Dawn of the Dead (1978).

The massive bloated zombie woman who charges at Ana is played by stuntman Ermes Balarasin. He was also the stuntman and body double for Chris Farley in Tommy Boy (1995).

The zombie baby scene was entirely Gunn's idea. But Snyder would reuse the idea of a baby zombie when he wrote and directed Army of the Dead, released on Netflix in 2021.

The movie that Ana and Michael watch during their downtime is Animal House (1978), which opened the same year as the original Dawn of the Dead.

Michael Kelly, who plays CJ, adlibs the line "I like this song" when the group is escaping in the elevator. There was actually nothing playing in the elevator during the filming. During post-production, the filmmakers added the song "All Out of Love" by Air Supply.

The scenes that play during the end credits were filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood. You can ride through the working backlot via tram in the theme park's "Studio Tour" attraction.

The same year, Universal Studios distributed Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's zombie satire film. Shaun of the Dead opened two weeks after Dawn of the Dead in the UK, to ensure that both films had a bit of breathing room.