‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Gives Tribute To A Classic Zombie Movie In Latest Episode

Episode 10 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 saw some characters entering a mall as they searched out a survivor who had requested help. However, many fans of the classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead recognized the tribute immediately.

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 10 ( titled “210 Words Per Minute”) of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead Season 5. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed this episode and wish to avoid spoilers.

In the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead, Grace (Karen David), Morgan (Lennie James), and Dwight (Austin Amelio) headed to a mall after receiving a radio call out from a survivor who was stuck there. The episode opens with Dwight killing one of the infected as the trio then enters the mall in search of the male survivor.

Over the course of Episode 10, viewers find out the fate of the man and get to follow Dwight on a small side mission in which he is captured by one of Logan’s (Matt Frewer) men. While Logan is still trying to locate the oil fields, Dwight is not scared of this group, having already had to deal with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his group in AMC’s original zombie series, The Walking Dead.

However, for many fans of the zombie film genre, this episode was all about Fear the Walking Dead‘s homage to Dawn of the Dead.

According to Digital Spy, Dawn of the Dead is considered to be the definitive zombie movie. This classic film also features a mall as the survivors in that movie have to battle hordes of the undead as well.

The George A. Romero classic was released in 1978 and was the second movie in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series. Filmed on location at the Monroeville Mall east of Pittsburgh, the survivors of this movie barricaded themselves inside a mall in an effort to protect themselves against the undead. The movie was hugely successful and spawned a variety of zombie movies as a result.

Dawn of the Dead was also remade in 2004. And, as Uproxx pointed out, the actor who plays Fear‘s latest villain, Logan, was also in the remake as a character called Frank.

While the situation between the events in the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead and Dawn of the Dead are quite different, many fans took to social media to show their appreciation at the fact that AMC had made such a tribute to the iconic zombie movie.

Season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC with Episode 11, titled “You’re Still Here,” on August 25.