History NightmareFuel / DawnOfTheDead1978

* Roger's bites, particularly the leg. He's missing a huge chunk of himself that will never heal, and as we discover when they're sealing up the mall, it's constantly raw, as it gushes blood when the zombie squeezes the bandage when Roger is trying to get into the car. Roger's writing and loud screams of pain only heighten how hideously painful it must be trying to keep going after receiving a bite like that.

* The reveal of Flyboy being a zombie.

-->'''Peter''': Scary isn't it?... isn't it?

-->'''Peter''': Scary isn't it?....Isn't it?

*** Actually, more terrifyingly, is that Steve isn't ''completely'' gone, even in his undead state, he ''still remembers'' where their hideaway is, and leads a group of fellow zombies directly to it, possibly foreshadowing the events of Land of the Dead by nearly 30 years.

* The original ending would have had Francine commit suicide by sticking her head into the rotating helicopter blades. The prop head meant for this scene was put to use for the infamous exploding head sequence mentioned above.

''As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.''

* The racist cop Wooley running amok killing off random refugees with reckless glee before getting gunned down. We're treated to an [[BoomHeadshot extreme]] [[YourHeadAsplode close-up]] of one of his victims.

* The opening havoc in the newsroom, followed by the raid on the tenement building. Exposition aside, it shows how much society is slowly collapsing before we even see a single zombie.

* The old one-legged priest's ominous warning to Peter and Roger is a subtle form of this, foreshadowing the apocalyptic situation in the latter half of the film, as well as in ''Day of the Dead''.

* The general {{Gorn}} levels of violence. It's almost like something out of a war scene. To be fair, it's hard not for things to get messy when you're fighting a horde or flesh-eating re-animated corpses, but it's still pretty unsettling.

* The racist cop in the raid running amok killing off random refugees with reckless glee before getting gunned down. We're treated to an [[BoomHeadshot extreme]] [[YourHeadAsplode close-up]] of one of his victims.

* The general {{Gorn}} levels of violence.

* The original ending would have had [[spoiler:Francine commit suicide by sticking her head into the rotating helicopter blades]]. The [[spoiler: Prop head]] meant for this scene was put to use for the infamous exploding head sequence mentioned above.

* At the beginning of the film it is stated that half of the rescue stations - presumably in the Philadelphia area - have been "knocked out" or are "inoperative," without going into further details. One can only imagine how those rescue stations came to be "knocked out," particularly as Francine considers running inaccurate data about the rescue stations on TV to be a death sentence for those refugees arriving at non-existant rescue stations...

* Once the illusion of the mall's consumer paradise fades away, you realise that you're trapped in there... forever....

* While [[AssholeVictim they had it coming]], the scene with several of the Bikers being eaten alive by zombies is incredibly disturbing. One in particular is shown having his stomach torn open and his guts ripped out while screaming in agony the whole time.

[[caption-width-right:350:When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.]]

* The opening havoc in the newsroom. Exposition aside, it shows how much society is slowly collapsing before we even see a single zombie.

** What really sends the above moment home is that Steve's zombie makeup is noticeably more detailed, with his skin much more clammy and rotten looking, his wound still oozing blood that's stained his shirt, and his unique ZombieGait, in which he's balancing on what appears to be a broken angle, looking several times like he's going to topple over.

* The original ending would have had [[spoiler:Francine commit suicide by sticking her head into the rotating helicopter blades]].