Night, Dawn and Day: Quiz of the Dead 🧟♂️
Celebrating George A. Romero's original Dead Trilogy with a quiz fit for Vintage Geeks both alive and undead. Featuring questions from Guest Stars John A. Russo, Tom Savini and Howard Berger.
I was ten years old when I first learned of Dawn of the Dead. It was 1979 and the film had just been released in England. It had an X certificate, which is like an 18 today, only much more forbidden-sounding. It was the first night of Passover and a holy night for me, not because of the religious stuff, but because I got to stay up really late and hang out with my cousin Ronald, who was four years older than me, a fantastic nerd, and really just my hero.
Ronald had been trying for a few years already to get into X films. He once, famously, rocked up to a local cinema with his freckles covered in talc, and sunglasses on, in the hopes of appearing mature enough to see one. Alas, he was foiled on that occasion. At 14, though, he’d managed to sneak in to a showing of Dawn of the Dead, and on that fateful Passover night, his face flushed with the success of his venture, he described to me, in thrilling, gory detail, every last thing he remembered about the film.
Though I wasn’t sure I was brave enough at ten to see it, even if I’d somehow been able, I considered myself a fan from that moment on. And when, thanks to the magic of VHS, I finally caught up with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Romero’s earlier effort, Night of the Living Dead (1968), regardless of the years of anticipation that preceded them, I was totally blown away.
A low-budget, black-and-white shocker shot in Pittsburgh by filmmaker George A. Romero and co-writer John A. Russo, Night of the Living Dead changed the public’s perception of zombies from spooky, slavish drones reanimated by voodoo sorcery to relentless flesh-eating monsters halted only by a blow to the brain.
A decade later, with a larger budget, colour film and buckets of bloody animal organs, Romero stepped up the pace with Dawn of the Dead and finally Day of the Dead (1985), crafting a classic cult trilogy that set the current zombie standard, and though, yes, he ended up making a bunch more, it’s his original trilogy that I’ll be quizzing you about here.
If you have the time before taking the quiz, I recommend watching the trilogy again, not only because it’s a hardcore set of questions and you’ll fare much better if the movies are fresh in your mind, but also in tribute to the great George Andrew Romero, the founder of the flesh-eating trivia feast below. Then again, feel free to skip the quiz element entirely and just chow down on the behind-the-scenes goodness of my thrillingly lengthy answers.
Night, Dawn and Day - QUESTIONS 🧟♂️
Whose grave are Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O’Dea) visiting in Night of the Living Dead?
“When there’s no more room in Hell...”
What’s the headline on the newspaper that blows up against the trashcans in Day of the Dead?
Who is first to die in Night of the Living Dead?
What happens to the zombie (Jim Krut) that sneaks up behind Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) while he’s refuelling the chopper in Dawn of the Dead?
What animal is seen on the steps of the First National Bank at the beginning of Day of the Dead?
What does Barbara (Judith O’Dea) lose before making it to the relative safety of the house in Night of the Living Dead?
When Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) first go shopping in Dawn of the Dead, which two items are at the top of Peter’s list?
What is Dr Logan’s (Richard Liberty) nickname in Day of the Dead? Also, what is his mad dream?
GUEST STAR: John A. Russo - Co-writer of Night of the Living Dead.
How many “Ben’s Trucks” were used in Night of the Living Dead?
When the boys first head down into the mall in Dawn of the Dead, which iconic zombie heads up the stairs after Fran (Gaylen Ross)?
Who’s the only clean-shaven soldier in Day of the Dead?
What’s the first thing Barbara (Judith O’Dea) manages to say to Ben, in Night of the Living Dead?
Where is Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) bitten when he’s caught between the trucks, in Dawn of the Dead?
According to Dr Logan’s (Richard Liberty) calculations in Day of the Dead, what’s the ratio of zombie to human survivor?
What, according to TV reports in Night of the Living Dead, is likely responsible for corpses reanimating around the globe?
17. Which film in Romero’s Dead Trilogy was both the lowest grossing and the filmmaker’s favourite?
18. What book does Dr Logan (Richard Liberty) give Bub in Day of the Dead?
19. Though hired by Romero to create the make-up effects for Night of the Living Dead, why was Tom Savini ultimately unable to work on the movie?
20. What are the creatures called in Night of the Living Dead?
21. What does Bub (Howard Sherman) do to Rhodes (Joe Pilato) after shooting him and leaving him in the clutches of his zombie brethren, in Day of the Dead?
22. How many people are hiding out in the house in Night of the Living Dead?
23. After killing all the mall zombies in Dawn of the Dead, what do Stephen (David Emge) and Peter (Ken Foree) do with their rotting corpses?
24. In Day of the Dead, what does Rhodes (Joe Pilato) scream at the zombie horde who rip him in half and feast on his entrails?
GUEST STAR: Tom Savini - The Godfather of Gore! Actor and director, but above all else, make-up effects maestro whose credits include Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th (1980), Creepshow (1982) and Day of the Dead.
25. Whose head was blown off at the beginning of Dawn of the Dead when the SWAT team shows up?
26. What’s most important to Harry (Karl Hardman), according to his long-suffering wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman), in Night of the Living Dead?
27. Which actor’s hobbling, stumbling zombie walk did Romero single out as his all-time favourite?
28. What does Harry (Karl Hardman) call the TV aerial in Night of the Living Dead?
29. How do Peter (Ken Foree) and Fran (Gaylen Ross) accidentally attract the attention of the motorcycle raiders in Dawn of the Dead?
30. What’s the one thing that frightens Romero’s zombies?
31. Who played the first creature that makes it into the house, only to be bashed in the head with a tyre iron by Ben (Duane Jones), in Night of the Living Dead?
32. As shooting didn’t start till late most nights on Dawn of the Dead, made-up zombie extras often drank, sometimes heavily, at local bars. What alcohol-fuelled incident cost the production $7,000?
33. Regarding the main casts only, which film in Romero’s Dead Trilogy sees the most survivors at the end?
34. How do Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) die in Night of the Living Dead?
35. What’s the title of the polka, by British composer Herbert Chappell, that plays so dissonantly over Dawn of the Dead’s closing credits?
36. What did the filmmakers primarily use for blood in Night of the Living Dead?
37. What’s the real-life name of the mall featured in Dawn of the Dead?
38. How does Sheriff McClelland (George Kosana) respond to being asked by the reporter (Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille) if the creatures are slow-moving, in Night of the Living Dead?
39. From where in the mall, in Dawn of the Dead, does Stephen (David Emge) attempt to destroy the Starship Enterprise?
GUEST STAR: Howard Berger - Oscar-winning make-up effects legend whose credits include The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Day of the Dead (1985), Evil Dead II (1987), Hitchcock (2012) and lots more! Also the co-writer of the best book of 2022, Masters of Make-Up Effects.
40. What was Greg Nicotero’s nickname in Day of the Dead?
41. How does Harry (Karl Hardman) die, in Night of the Living Dead?
42. Which noted US film critic wrote that Dawn of the Dead was “one of the best horror films ever made”, adding that while it was undeniably “gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling, nobody ever said art had to be in good taste”?
43. Who grabs Barbara and drags her outside when the creatures finally make it into the house, in Night of the Living Dead?
44. How many times does Romero appear in his Dead Trilogy?
What’s Peter’s (Ken Foree) nickname for Stephen (David Emge) in Dawn of the Dead?
What’s the real-life name of the cemetery featured in Night of the Living Dead?
47. What’s unusual about the zombie kids who attack Peter in the airport hangar office, in Dawn of the Dead?
48. A huge fan of Night of the Living Dead, who helped Romero and producer Richard P. Rubinstein secure financing for Dawn of the Dead in exchange for international distribution rights?
49. What do Dawn of the Dead’s motorcycle raiders throw in the zombies’ faces?
50. Who’s the only character in Romero’s Dead Trilogy to use the word “zombies”?
Night, Dawn and Day - ANSWERS 🧟♂️
Q. Whose grave are Johnny (Russell Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O’Dea) visiting in Night of the Living Dead?
A. They’re going to visit their long-dead dad.
Q. “When there’s no more room in Hell...”
A. “...the dead will walk the Earth”. A great line of dialogue, sharply delivered by Peter (Ken Foree) in Dawn of the Dead, and also one hell of a poster tagline!
Q. What’s the headline on the newspaper that blows up against the trashcans in Day of the Dead?
A. “THE DEAD WALK!”
Q. Who is first to die in Night of the Living Dead?
A. After tangling with the Cemetery Zombie (S. William Hinzman), Johnny (Russell Streiner) takes a lethal tumble, cracking his skull on a headstone.
Q. What happens to the zombie (Jim Krut) that sneaks up behind Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) while he’s refuelling the chopper in Dawn of the Dead?
A. It gets rather closer than it should to the helicopter’s spinning rotor blades and loses the top few inches of its head.
Q. What animal is seen on the steps of the First National Bank at the beginning of Day of the Dead?
A. An alligator. The “well-fed” zombie who steps out of the bank behind it was herpetologist Bill Love, who brought the beast to the set.
Q. What does Barbara (Judith O’Dea) lose before making it to the relative safety of the house in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Her shoes (also her brother, her car and her mind).
Q. When Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) first go shopping in Dawn of the Dead, which two items are at the top of Peter’s list?
A. Lighter fluid and chocolate.
Q. What is Dr Logan’s (Richard Liberty) nickname in Day of the Dead? Also, what is his mad dream?
A. Everyone calls him Frankenstein. As there are more zombies than bullets, rather than kill the creatures, his goal is to domesticate them.
GUEST STAR: John A. Russo
Q. How many “Ben’s Trucks” were used in Night of the Living Dead?
A. There were actually two almost identical trucks. The first one, which we bought for $50, would not run when we needed it to be driven to the gas pump for the escape attempt. But we got lucky as a man down the road owned an almost identical truck. We used it for the driving part, then destroyed the other one in the explosion.
Q. When the boys first head down into the mall in Dawn of the Dead, which iconic zombie heads up the stairs after Fran (Gaylen Ross)?
A. The Hare Krishna Zombie (Mike Christopher).
Q. Who’s the only clean-shaven soldier in Day of the Dead?
A. Rhodes (Joe Pilato), who wants to at least look like a proper military man, though he behaves like a bully, a psycho and, ultimately, a coward.
Q. What’s the first thing Barbara (Judith O’Dea) manages to say to Ben, in Night of the Living Dead?
A. “What’s happening?”
Q. Where is Roger (Scott H. Reiniger) bitten when he’s caught between the trucks, in Dawn of the Dead?
A. His left arm, followed by his left leg.
Q. According to Dr Logan’s (Richard Liberty) calculations in Day of the Dead, what’s the ratio of zombie to human survivor?
A. 400,000:1
What, according to TV reports in Night of the Living Dead, is likely responsible for corpses reanimating around the globe?
A. High-level radiation from a detonated satellite that was returning to Earth from Venus. Though that’s the leading theory in the movie, the filmmakers never clarified the cause as it’s frankly irrelevant.
Q. Which film in Romero’s Dead Trilogy was both the lowest grossing and the filmmaker’s favourite?
A. Day of the Dead.
Q. What book does Dr Logan (Richard Liberty) give Bub in Day of the Dead?
A. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. The author and Romero were good friends who worked together on Creepshow (1982), a cracking horror anthology that King both wrote and appeared in. Romero also directed the 1993 feature adaptation of King’s novel The Dark Half. Though it’s perhaps anachronistic that a book published in the real world in 1975, would exist in a post-apocalyptic world that went to hell in 1968, the timeline of Romero’s Dead Trilogy is riddled with contradictions so really the best way to approach them is with the same relaxed attitude to logic and detail that Romero clearly had.
Q. Though hired by Romero to create the make-up effects for Night of the Living Dead, why was Tom Savini ultimately unable to work on the movie?
A. Savini didn’t work on Night of the Living Dead as he was called to duty by the US Army to serve in Vietnam just before filming began. “When I was in Vietnam I was a combat photographer,” said Savini. “My job was to shoot images of damage to machines and to people. Through my lens, I saw some hideous [stuff]. Now, if I’m creating a gory effect and I don’t get the same feeling as when I saw the real stuff, I’m not satisfied.”
Q. What are the creatures called in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Ghouls and flesh-eaters. “It was a weird evolution,” George Romero once told me. “At first I didn’t think of them as zombies. I thought of them as flesh-eaters or ghouls and never called them zombies in the first film. Then people started to write about them as zombies, and all of a sudden they were the new zombies, but I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Q. What does Bub (Howard Sherman) do to Rhodes (Joe Pilato) after shooting him and leaving him in the clutches of his zombie brethren, in Day of the Dead?
A. He salutes him.
Q. How many people are hiding out in the house in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Seven: Ben (Duane Jones), Barbara (Judith O’Dea), Harry (Karl Hardman), Helen (Marilyn Eastman), Tom (Keith Wayne), Judy (Judith Ridley) and Karen (Kyra Schon).
Q. After killing all the mall zombies in Dawn of the Dead, what do Stephen (David Emge) and Peter (Ken Foree) do with their rotting corpses?
A. They pile them up in one of the mall’s walk-in freezers, beside the other meat. Yum!
Q. In Day of the Dead, what does Rhodes (Joe Pilato) scream at the zombie horde who rip him in half and feast on his entrails?
A. “Choke on ’em! Choke on ’em!” Apparently the line was a gutsy ad-lib by Pilato.
GUEST STAR: Tom Savini
Q. Whose head was blown off at the beginning of Dawn of the Dead when the SWAT team shows up?
A. It was a fake head made from a cast of Gaylon Ross. I made it for the alternate ending where Fran kills herself by jumping up into the helicopter blades. We didn’t do that so I put an Afro wig on it with dark make-up and blew the piss out of it with a shotgun.
Q. What’s most important to Harry (Karl Hardman), according to his long-suffering wife Helen (Marilyn Eastman), in Night of the Living Dead?
A. “To be right”, and for “everybody else to be wrong”.
Q. Which actor’s hobbling, stumbling zombie walk did Romero single out as his all-time favourite?
A. David Emge’s in Dawn of the Dead. Seeing him stumble from the elevator near the end of the movie is a thing of twisted beauty. Emge’s zombie moves were reportedly inspired by Lon Chaney Jr in Universal’s vintage Mummy sequels.
Q. What does Harry (Karl Hardman) call the TV aerial in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Rabbit ears.
Q. How do Peter (Ken Foree) and Fran (Gaylen Ross) accidentally attract the attention of the motorcycle raiders in Dawn of the Dead?
A. When Peter gives Fran a flying lesson. Good job she learned how to fly the chopper though!
Q. What’s the one thing that frightens Romero’s zombies?
A. Fire.
Q. Who played the first creature that makes it into the house, only to be bashed in the head with a tyre iron by Ben (Duane Jones), in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Co-writer John A. Russo. Russo also played the ghoul who was set on fire in the Molotov cocktail sequence. “I said to George that we were going to look silly if none of the ghouls caught on fire from those exploding cocktails,” he recalls, “so I volunteered to do the stunt. Real gasoline was used and we got three takes, and they are all in the movie – the three different angles. I risked my life but the other people there were all delighted that we were getting such a great stunt for our low-budget movie – and so was I!”
Q. As shooting didn’t start till late most nights on Dawn of the Dead, made-up zombie extras often drank, sometimes heavily, at local bars. What alcohol-fuelled incident cost the production $7,000?
A. A zombie couple stole a golf cart and crashed it into a marble pillar inside the mall.
Q. Regarding the main casts only, which film in Romero’s Dead Trilogy sees the most survivors at the end?
A. No one survives Night of the Living Dead. Peter (Ken Foree) and Fran (Gaylen Ross) fly off in the chopper at the end of Dawn of the Dead. But the winner with three survivors is Day of the Dead, which sees Sarah (Lori Cardille), John (Terry Alexander) and McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) all sunning themselves on the beach in the film’s final moments.
Q. How do Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley) die in Night of the Living Dead?
A. When the truck explodes during their botched escape attempt.
Q. What’s the title of the polka, by British composer Herbert Chappell, that plays so dissonantly over Dawn of the Dead’s closing credits?
A. The Gonk.
Q. What did the filmmakers primarily use for blood in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Bosco Chocolate Syrup.
Q. What’s the real-life name of the mall featured in Dawn of the Dead?
A. The movie was shot in Pennsylvania’s Monroeville Mall, at night, while it was closed. Shooting would start around 10.30pm, but even though the mall wouldn’t open again before 9am the following morning, the crew had to wrap up at 7am every day as that’s when the music came on in the building, and no one knew how to switch it off.
Q. How does Sheriff McClelland (George Kosana) respond to being asked by the reporter (Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille) if the creatures are slow-moving, in Night of the Living Dead?
A. “Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up.”
Q. From where in the mall, in Dawn of the Dead, does Stephen (David Emge) attempt to destroy the Starship Enterprise?
A. In the arcade! Though not officially a Star Trek game, Atari’s Starship 1 was an arcade shooter, released in 1977, featuring spacecraft that were strongly reminiscent of the Enterprise and Klingon Birds of Prey. Incidentally, Starship 1 contains the first known example of a videogame Easter Egg, predating Warren Robinett’s hidden Adventure credit by three years. To activate it, players had to feed the machine a coin while holding the “phasor” and start buttons down. This triggered a message that read “Hi Ron” – a reference to game designer Ron Milner – and rewarded the player with ten free games!
GUEST STAR: Howard Berger
Q. What was Greg Nicotero’s nickname in Day of the Dead?
A. Gut Boy, as he handled all the real guts and entrails used by the make-up department for killing humans and feeding zombies.
Q. How does Harry (Karl Hardman) die, in Night of the Living Dead?
A. He’s shot by Ben (Duane Jones) for being an insufferable dick.
Q. Which noted US film critic wrote that Dawn of the Dead was “one of the best horror films ever made”, adding that while it was undeniably “gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling, nobody ever said art had to be in good taste”?
A. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the film four out of four stars.
Q. Who grabs Barbara and drags her outside when the creatures finally make it into the house, in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Zombie Johnny (Russell Streiner).
Q. How many times does Romero appear in his Dead Trilogy?
A. Four: In Night of the Living Dead he plays a journalist reporting on the troubles from Washington; In Dawn of the Dead he plays a director in the TV studio and, later on, the Santa-suit-wearing motorcycle raider. Finally, in Day of the Dead, when the bunker’s overrun by flesh-eaters, he plays a cart-pushing, scarf-wearing zombie.
Q. What’s Peter’s (Ken Foree) nickname for Stephen (David Emge) in Dawn of the Dead?
A. Flyboy.
Q. What’s the real-life name of the cemetery featured in Night of the Living Dead?
A. Romero shot the movie in Evans City Cemetery, Pennsylvania. Partly because it was remote and secluded, allowing them to work without attracting the attention of too many nosy bystanders. Ironically, thanks to the movie’s notoriety, the cemetery is now a busy tourist attraction.
Q. What’s unusual about the zombie kids who attack Peter in the airport hangar office, in Dawn of the Dead?
A. They’re the only zombies in the Dead Trilogy who run rather than shuffle. The kids in this scene were played by Tom Savini’s niece and nephew, Donna and Mike Savini.
Q. A huge fan of Night of the Living Dead, who helped Romero and producer Richard P. Rubinstein secure financing for Dawn of the Dead in exchange for international distribution rights?
A. Italian director Dario Argento, of Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977) and Tenebrae (1982) fame. Argento also invited Romero to write the movie in Rome, which he did, free from distraction, in three weeks. In addition, Argento collaborated with four-piece Italian band Goblin to produce much of the movie’s music.
Q. What do Dawn of the Dead’s motorcycle raiders throw in the zombies’ faces?
A. Custard pies! While writing the script for Night of the Living Dead, Romero and Russo debated how best to kill their flesh-eating creations. Marilyn Eastman, who played Helen in Night of the Living Dead, jokingly suggested they should throw pies in the monsters’ faces! That surely was the inspiration for Dawn of the Dead’s wacky pie-throwing scene.
Q. Who’s the only character in Romero’s Dead Trilogy to use the word “zombies”?
A. “I didn’t use the word zombie,” explained Romero, “until Dawn of the Dead, when Peter [Ken Foree] says in the film, ‘There’s gonna be a thousand zombies in here’. I guess that’s when I surrendered to the idea of the creatures being called zombies. But I don’t care what they are. It’s not important.”
How did you do? Let me know in the comments below!
On me hols but will try this fiendish quiz later. Questions, quite frankly at my age from hell.