Mall Zombie to Cult Icon

A late-night ask changed horror history. We’re at Living Dead Weekend 2024 with Lenny Lee—yes, the machete zombie from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead—unpacking how a crew guy became a cult icon, how a practical head gag sold one of the film’s most unforgettable moments, and why a 19-second shot still pulls cheers decades later. This is a ground-level look at Romero’s set culture: collaborative, curious, and open to anyone willing to get their hands dirty.

Lenny walks us through the pivot from lights and camera to on-screen monster, the careful blocking behind the biker melee with Tom Savini, and the practical effects that made the “one-take” illusion feel raw and dangerous. We relive the Pittsburgh premiere when the theater roared for every familiar face, and follow the clip’s afterlife as it carried Lenny to conventions around the world. Along the way, we trade stories of 16mm projection, near-misses with hungry projectors, and backyard screenings where the thrum of the machine and fog in the beam turned film into community.

We don’t stop at nostalgia. You’ll hear mall-tour trivia that digs deeper than photo ops, the reveal that David Emge (Flyboy) was a Vietnam veteran who actually knew his way around a rifle, and the wild fact that the bank scene tossed real money that had to be accounted for down to the last bill. It’s a vivid time capsule and a craft masterclass rolled into one: practical effects, analog cinema, and the fan energy that keeps Dawn of the Dead undead. If you love Romero, Savini, horror history, or the grit of filmmaking before pixels, this one’s for you. Hit follow, share with your horror crew, and leave a review with the moment that made you a Dawn believer.

Chapters

• 0:02 Introductions At Living Dead Weekend
• 0:22 Working With George Romero
• 1:50 From Crew Member To On-Screen Zombie
• 2:51 Filming The Machete Kill
• 4:24 Premier Night And Cult Status
• 6:37 Conventions, Fans, And Lasting Impact
• 8:17 Projectors, Film Reels, And Nostalgia
• 10:35 Mall Tours And Behind-The-Scenes Trivia
• 12:21 Real Money In The Bank Scene
• 13:17 Farewells And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Sam Fisher of the Fishbowl at Living Dead Weekend 2024 with longtime friend and machete zombie, Lenny Lee.

SPEAKER_03: 0:11

Hi Sam, how's it going?

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

It's going excellent. Thank you for taking the time to swim in the bowl with me.

SPEAKER_03: 0:17

My pleasure. What's on your mind today, Sam?

SPEAKER_00: 0:22

Obviously, George Romero, Dawn of the Dead, one of the most infamous zombie kills and innovative make-of-effects techniques of all time. What was it like uh working with George and uh Dawn the Dead and I'll get into that?

SPEAKER_03: 0:44

George. How are you? Working with George was a lot of fun. I mean, um working on Chief George.

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

Well, we have a staff.

unknown: 0:56

And then the second one was night light.

SPEAKER_03: 0:59

And uh I had a great experience this time. I was on a cruise. That's what they call it. Right. Like lights, moving places, cable, tripods, doing a camera cruise, the garments. Right. And then um, fortunately for me, uh George was one of those people directed. And uh I know, and I had to do my list. One night we talked about my character and said he's on. One night he had uh set up lighting, camera, waiting for the one of those three o'clock, and George is uh the notes and I lean over to George and say, Hey George, I like to play a zombie. George is like, go upstairs and see what they have. So we were in the Monroe Month, and we were downstairs. And so I literally ran back the best club and I went into community room. Community rooms where we gathered each night to discuss the plan for the day, right?

SPEAKER_02: 2:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17

And so uh there was one guy in there and said, Hey, he was basically come up and see what you have. So he pointed out a real machine with a cut by his head, not this one.

SPEAKER_02: 2:37

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 2:38

And um, I'm like, that is cool. Because I didn't want to get shot. Right, right. Even my mind I didn't want to get shot. So long story short, cut to the tears, 24 hours later.

unknown: 2:51

I'm zombieing through the mall. And talks to me in the motorcycle.

SPEAKER_03: 2:59

And he's in the uh the carrier, the side car. So coming past me and I zombie up to me. Knock him out of the sideclock. Of course, he's very unhappy. And uh gets up, runs up to me, kicks me in the chest, sends me flying across the me being a zombie, I'm not very involved. So Tom comes over to me, sits his foot on my shelf. I look up, I give him a hair. And then he takes a spaghetti out of his boot and he says, Say goodbye, creepy. Obviously, it didn't happen all in one motion.

SPEAKER_02: 3:40

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 3:41

Several different positions. We did it all in one take, though.

SPEAKER_02: 3:44

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 3:45

Part of it in one take.

SPEAKER_02: 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 3:48

And um I was just thinking, I just want to make the final cut.

SPEAKER_02: 3:52

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 3:53

That's all I cared about, is making the final cut. Because I always wanted to be a monster.

SPEAKER_02: 3:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 3:57

Because when I was a kid, I used to read Famous Monster, Filmland, and like, you know, when you were a kid, when I was a kid, like eight, nine, ten, you were watching Frankenstein, Dracula, Body Snatchers, you know, stuff in the 50s. Like people were now watching stuff from the 70s and 80s.

SPEAKER_02: 4:16

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 4:17

And so having this opportunity for me was like just the little boy dream that I had when I was a kid. Right. I was when they play a monster. So several months later, the premiere of the film is in downtown Pittsburgh, and all the cast, the crew, whoever lived close, and their family members of one kind or another were all invited. And so, of course, everybody's involved, very involved. Right. Every time somebody who was part of the crew or cast was on screen, we were all cheering. So I know that my bit happens later in the film, so I'm kind of sweating out because I'm waiting to see it. And then up comes me and I'm walking through the mall, and I'm like, oh, and I'm like, and every and I get it in the hand and everybody said so. It was kind of a cheap thrill, right?

SPEAKER_02: 5:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 5:15

And I was like, I had like my heart was pounding. I was like, wow, I'm glad everybody liked it. Of course they did. And um, so I didn't know it, but those those images, that film clip, 19 whole seconds, became an iconic clip, which became an iconic zombie, which has since the year 2000 had me invited to conventions uh virtually all over the world.

SPEAKER_02: 5:45

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 5:46

And um I really get tired of it, no, I don't. Uh I I love the fans, uh, I love the energy. It's like an adrenaline kit.

SPEAKER_02: 5:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 5:58

Okay, you know, I'm not a drinker, not a smoker, no, I don't do drugs. I just really love the whole experience.

SPEAKER_02: 6:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 6:08

And so it's something that's kind of becoming elegant all in my life, which I never anticipated in a million years.

SPEAKER_02: 6:15

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 6:15

Nor how long this film will be so epic. And it seems to keep going on because it's got fans that are just as young as I was start out doing it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:26

Exactly, exactly. Do you mind if we get a shot of all the all the the the famous machetes for you to action?

SPEAKER_03: 6:36

Okay. 2003, it was like the 25th anniversary of the film works, whatever it was. I don't remember what it was. So I was there as a guest, I'm having a great time. Someone says, Oh, you know, this is a film, it sits a little bit, and it belongs to Greg McTearl. I'm like, oh, that's good. I said, but the problem is, we don't have a project. I said, well, I didn't need to project by nothing. So I bring it in the next morning. And I show the guy how to do it. So like like a minute before he's about to project the reels, he says, Oh, that'll eat it. Like, I knew you're gonna do this. I said, Oh, I have a lot of home. Because, man, why should we upgrade it's gonna be so pissed? So I go, okay, alright, I'll do it. So, but I can't remember. How many reels were there? It was all it was the whole movie. But I mean, how many reels? You know how many four maybe. I mean memory, three or four. Yeah. Because I remember like having to keep changing. The audience was like 34 and five. Yeah, I had to change the reel.

SPEAKER_04: 7:52

But that's yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 7:54

That's like, okay, this is pretty neat, right? I'm doing projecting the frame still. And so, Rick, do you still have that clip?

SPEAKER_04: 8:04

Yeah, I do. Have you projected it? I haven't projected. Most of my 16mm projectors are all kaput, so I haven't had a chance to, but I just found a place in LA because I have a lot of movies, a lot of stuff that I collected on 16.

SPEAKER_03: 8:21

So I still have a page, I think, works.

SPEAKER_04: 8:24

Really?

SPEAKER_03: 8:25

Isn't a page, it's like the same one.

SPEAKER_04: 8:29

Yeah.

unknown: 8:31

Experimental film together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 8:36

So we're gonna invite everybody to this theater at home stuff.

unknown: 8:41

Yeah, three weeks.

SPEAKER_03: 8:42

And uh you would think it's a change. Right. Yeah. And uh so the projector is like manager coming kind of just throw it up. And it wasn't even new what they had.

SPEAKER_04: 8:57

Yeah. And it's still that would always worry me because you have one bad projector and it eats your movie. Right. Well this was very smooth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 9:05

This was a really I mean that's what I used things to work very nice.

SPEAKER_04: 9:10

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_03: 9:11

And there's certain things you have to do to kind of like you have to like keep your hand here.

SPEAKER_04: 9:16

Yeah. I used to I used to run 16 millimeter movies in my backyard on weekend nights. We would make popcorn and I would put the pr the screen out and we would watch movies like Frankenstein meets a wolf man. I would have parties in LA and invite people over, and we would just the sound of the projector and the and the little, you know, the night fog in front of them.

SPEAKER_03: 9:41

That's great, that's great. No, because I wanted to ask you this. I was literally gonna come over now and ask you. Yeah, but these guys came by and I said, I know they want to use something. I'll do it now. And I'm gonna go over and say hi to Greg.

SPEAKER_04: 9:57

Oh, so I saved you the trip.

SPEAKER_03: 10:01

So I'm good that way. Yeah, we're good that way. Hey, well, I wanted to show you something, but I well, I'll be back.

SPEAKER_04: 10:08

Okay, but I need you to pause the interview for 10 seconds. Sure. I got Tom and just give me it across there.

SPEAKER_03: 10:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 10:17

Craig Nikatira, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_04: 10:22

I probably have it 15 times. But this is cool because I have Tom and Marty on the same one.

SPEAKER_03: 10:27

My cohorts.

SPEAKER_04: 10:29

Cohorts. Thank you. I know, I see that.

SPEAKER_03: 10:41

I mean, I gotta do it right, but not do it at all.

SPEAKER_04: 10:44

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 10:45

You're welcome anytime.

SPEAKER_04: 10:46

Now I gotta go back to my table. I'm gonna come back and audio.

SPEAKER_03: 10:51

Oh sorry. These are gold around here.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

Awesome. That that was I know, that was spectacular. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 11:08

Right. He's actually he was on the first mole tour. Well, actually, he wasn't on the first mole tour I ever did. But after we we did it, it was uh me and David Emgave. We did a separate one, and then there was like Ken Frey and a bunch of other people, a lot more than just the two of us. I think Greg comes up to me after he goes, I heard your mallotur was actually better. I wasn't much worse. It was really good. Yeah, because we we got into like detail, we wrote it all down. We weren't just like trying to show people like we knew what we were talking about, we got into it.

SPEAKER_02: 11:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 11:47

And uh, I don't know if you know, but David was an actual Vietnam veteran.

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03: 11:56

And Flywall actually knew how to shoot a rifle better than his cohorts.

SPEAKER_01: 12:04

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03: 12:06

And uh so him fumbling around with the rifle was actually not true. He actually knew how to shoot that rifle.

SPEAKER_00: 12:13

Interesting, very interesting.

SPEAKER_03: 12:15

Yeah, so that's what made David so cool, like because he was playing a character that was nothing, nothing really like him.

SPEAKER_02: 12:22

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 12:23

I mean, obviously, he had some technical prowess. I mean, he could like you know take off in a helicopter and land it. He was great that way.

SPEAKER_02: 12:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03: 12:32

But he also had some uh skills he wasn't willing to talk about. David was pretty modest in real life. And um, and then I was like, hey David, tell him about the money at the bank. He goes, Ah, Lenny knows the story better than me. You do. I'm like, come on, Dan, I don't want to hear everything from me. So David goes, okay, listen. So when Ken and I were in the bank and we threw the money up in the air, it was all real money. Oh and it all had to be accounted for. Because it was real money, if any of it was missing, we can see the producer was gonna have to pay the bank. Well, of course, none of it was missing.

SPEAKER_00: 13:09

Right, right. Yeah. We are good. Lenny Catching out Ray Catch and I'm gonna go. Thank you so much. Sam the man on the fishbowl here at Living together weekend 2024 with Lenny Lee, aka zombie. Thank you so much for coming on the show again and having the time to win the ball. You too, thank you so much.