Dance of the DeadYear: 2005 Director: Tobe Hooper Written by: Richard Christian Matheson Threat: Chemical Weapon Weapon of Choice: Reagent Based upon: short story - Richard Matheson Color/B&W/3D: Colour Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
Please see the Masters of Horror series page.
The tyranist's thoughts
With Robert Englund starring (sort of) you'd think this one would have been high on our list of
Masters of Horror episodes to see, but it easily had the worst trailer of the whole lot. And we
watch trailers. And so this is the very last of the Masters of Horror season 1 episodes that
we are getting around to reviewing.
In some post-apocalyptic future, people live in constant fear and the youth (who have little
to no memory of the apocalypse) live lives of degeneracy and debauchery that push the
boundaries of good taste even more than usual.
Featuring a lead actress who was far prettier than anyone else in the movie, it was really
hard to like the characters, their situation, or much of anything really. The plot is laid out
in choppy little bits that don't make much sense and seem really to only move things toward
the centerpiece of the eponymous dance at a night club the worst scum would never even
try to get into.
I mention the unusually pretty actress, Jessica Lowndes, just because she looked so very
out of place. It was mostly a shame that things happened the way they did to her. Between
a way overprotective mother and a chance encounter with the worst possible person, who tried
to be nice while she was around, she was really sort of doomed.
This lacked some of the emptiness common to most post-apocalyptic stories and that bothered
me. The fact that it was cut together like I was supposed to watch it while on Crystal Meth
also didn't help much.
This was below average for the series, but Jessica Lowndes was worth seeing and I hope she
works more.
Posted: March 12, 2007
Rish's Reviews
In a bleak, ugly, and pessimistic future, we meet a character who has somehow (apparently
due to her mother's overprotective influence) retained innocence, optimism, and beauty.
So naturally, she is attracted to the rebellious bad boy who comes riding into town, the
one her mother warned her about.
The world the film took place in was interesting. But it wasn't all that different from our
own. Maybe that's intentional ('cause hey, how different WOULD the world be?), maybe
it was budgetary.
I'm a big Richard Matheson fan. Can't say that I ever read the short story this is based
on. Someday I may; his stories are quite good.
But I'm not a Tobe Hooper fan. Sorry, but Texas
Chainsaw just isn't my thing, even though I quite like Lifeforce.
Still, he seems to be quite popular. I know there are a lot of different kinds of Horror,
and hence, there are a lot of different kinds of Horror fans. I've gone to conventions
and seen how it is. I think Horror fans, as well as any die-hard movie fans, are very
opinionated, and one man's Giant Spider Invasion is another man's Omen
(1976). Interpret that how you will.
I liked the story, very much. The idea is a good one. I just didn't like emphasis the filmmakers
chose to focus on, and the direction the story went in the end.
It's as if the Lifetime Network made a post-apocalyptic film, complete with their
obligatory Good Girl, Bad Boy, Worried Mother, Bad Man, and Corrupt Girlfriend
archetypes . . . only to have the ending mysteriously rewritten by a disgruntled, woman-hating,
ex-employee.
And, to tell the truth and shame the devil, I'm sure it's more realistic for an ugly, hopeless
world to corrupt a sweet and beautiful person than for that lovely and hopeful person to
redeem a bleak and horrible world. But if I want realism, I'll turn on MSNBC.
Posted: July 4, 2007
Total Skulls: 12
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution |  |
|
| MTV Editing | |
|
| OTS | |
|
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | |
|
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | ||
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | |
|
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | ||
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | |
|
| x years before/later | |
|
| Flashback sequence | |
|
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | |
|
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? | |
