February 1978: If you’re a Pittsburgher and you haven’t seen George Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ then shame, shame on you. We at the Digs recommend you quickly find a copy and spend Halloween night watching zombies romp through the Monroeville Mall. Romero, by the way, is a 1960 Carnegie Mellon University graduate who redefined horror and made zombies cool. ‘Dawn’ is his second zombie flick — the first, ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ released in 1968, is a classic in its own right.

‘Dawn of the Dead’ is so gory it would make your eyes hurt if not for the cartoonishly red blood. It’s also a clever satire on consumerism, according to critics who, for the most part, loved the movie. Dawn was listed #27 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of top cult films, but we knew it was great cinema the moment was saw a hopelessly confused zombie stumbling down the mall’s “up” escalator.

(Photo by Katherine Kolbert, Dawn Associates)

— Steve Mellon