Horror has a special relationship with locations. Often, monsters are as iconic as the places they wreak havoc in. In fact, they can become inseparable from the terrors they house. For The Exorcist it’s the long steps right next to the MacNeil’s house in Georgetown. For Friday the 13th it’s Camp Crystal Lake. Then you have Dracula’s castle, one of the first iconic horror locations in the field. And the list goes on, wildly branching out to include the house on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, made infamous by The Amityville Horror, and the Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland, where three students were killed by a malicious witch in the found footage classic The Blair Witch Project.
What’s special about these locations is that you can visit them (within reason, to avoid being charged with trespassing in some cases). They can inspire horror tourism. People can hop in a car, make a trip out of it, and walk around the same places master filmmakers settled on to bring their nightmares to life.
For some, the holy grail of horror locations is the Monroeville Mall in Pennsylvania, the place four survivors snatched from undead shoppers in George Romero’s 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead. It’s one of the most potent symbols in horror, a reminder of humanity’s attachment to materialism and the cannibalistic nature of the capitalist values it represents. And now, it’s owned by Walmart.
Some $34 million was all it took for the giant retail corporation to purchase the mall, which they’ll co-manage with Cypress Equities according to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. Walmart told the news outlet that they intend to “re-imagine Monroeville Mall into a new retail and commercial destination,” prioritizing “retail and entertainment, restaurants, residential, hospitality, office and public spaces.”
The purchase took place on February 4th of this year, on George Romero’s birthday. While some might see this as a bad omen for the future of the mall, I see it as further confirmation of the film’s biting social criticism. Like the zombies in Dawn suggest, money returns to the places it had already flourished in when it has nowhere else to go. Problem is, it comes back with an eye for blanket change, showing little to no respect for the things that were there before. The location’s history is disregarded, with promises of a bright future overriding every other consideration. In this case, we stand to lose a place of cultural importance.
The Monroeville Mall has embraced its status as a horror spot. It has a Living Dead Museum and gift shop that opens from Thursday to Monday that features props and memorabilia from all corners of zombiedom. They’re part of a themed attraction that chronicles the history of zombies in cinema and pop culture. Additionally, the mall has hosted a slew of zombie events throughout the years, including zombie walks (under the name “Walk of the Dead”) and festivals. It goes hand in hand with the area’s “Living Dead Weekend” celebration, which features screenings of Romero’s classics, guest signings and panels, and special events organized by the museum.
Whatever Walmart’s plans may be, let’s hope they include the preservation of zombie history. This isn’t just a film location you can visit for the fun of it. The mall has gone lengths to honor the work Romero did there, and then some. It still proudly displays its love and dedication for Dead culture and continues to build upon it, leading to the creation of a very special and unique community. We can’t lose that.
This might sound a bit far-fetched, but should all that work become threatened with erasure, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider registering the mall as an historical site. This might offer protections that could safeguard its existence and even highlight the community around it. So, let’s keep an eye on this. If this beloved horror destination falls victim to an even hungrier version of the kind of capitalism the place already represents (the irony is not lost on me), then it might mean that the next “Walk of the Dead” event could end up becoming a march for survival. We already know zombies can takeover whenever they want. And if Romero’s films have taught us anything, it’s that the dead always get in.
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