Review - Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead

Oh the dead, how they dance . . .

In this week’s installment of Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead, Tobe Hooper directed an entertaining if somewhat anticlimactic story of post terrorist Anytown, USA.

We begin this story in the middle of a little girl’s birthday party. All of a sudden, the sky turns all weird and chaos breaks loose with everyone trying to run for cover. Those who didn’t make it to safety screamed in agony as their skin seemed to be eaten through by whatever it was that was falling from the sky. Then Mom snaps back to reality as her daughter, Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) nudges her awake asking her if she has been dreaming about her father again (her father who had apparently died in the war before she was even born). She lies and says she was and they start reminiscing about the good times. That is until a sickly and disfigured woman comes through the diner they own looking for food and is promptly shooed out the back door by Peggy’s Mom. You get the feeling that she is one of the unfortunate ones from Mom’s dream.

We also meet up with Jak (Jonathan Tucker) and his crazy friend who are out apparently stealing blood from the elderly. We are not exactly sure why at this point, but you can tell that Jak has a certain amount of respect and compassion that is definitely missing from his counterpart. Shortly after, Jak and his buddy show up at the diner with two skanky-ass chicks and it is obvious that Jak is smitten with young Peggy. But Mom is quite sure that these boys are from Muskeet (a town of no goodnicks who party and do drugs all the time) and she is clearly uncomfortable with them being in the diner. She proceeds to force them to leave before they are served but Jak has already planted the seed in Peggy’s mind to meet him at midnight to see the world.

Peggy being all of seventeen is very taken by Jak and decides to meet him. After a crazy car ride and some even crazier drugs, they arrive in Muskeet and end up at The Doom Room whose Master of Ceremonies (Robert Englund) needs the blood these kids have been collecting to make his lupies (not sure of the spelling there) do the Dance of the Dead. When Mommy Dearest realizes that her pure as the driven snow daughter has gone off to Muskeet, she races off frantic to find her. But when they meet up again, will Peggy be able to stomach what Mom has done in the past to try and make a life for them?

It was an interesting story, all the more relevant with the extreme amounts of terrorism and social unrest going on in the world today. But although visually and stylistically it was right on mark for me, it lacked something in the story itself. In my opinion it probably would have done better in full movie format because there seemed to be too much that was rushed into at the end.

Directed by
Dario Argento (episode "Jennifer")
John Carpenter (episode "Cigarette Burns")
Larry Cohen (episode "Pick Me Up")
Don Coscarelli (episode 1.01 "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road")
Joe Dante (episode "Death & Suffrage")
Mick Garris (episode "Chocolate")
Stuart Gordon (episode "Dreams In the Witch-House")
Tobe Hooper (episode "Dance of the Dead")
John Landis (episode "Deer Woman")
William Malone (episode "Fair Haired Boy")
Lucky McKee (episode "Sick Girl")
John McNaughton (episode "Haeckel's Tale")
Takashi Miike (episode "Imprint")

Writing credits
Mick Garris (creator)


Don Coscarelli (episode 1.01 "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road") teleplay &
Stephen Romano (episode 1.01 "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road") teleplay and
Joe R. Lansdale (episode 1.01 "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road") short story


Clive Barker story (episode "Haeckel's Tale")
Stuart Gordon writer (episode "Dreams In the Witch-House")
Matt Greenberg writer (episode "Fair Haired Boy")
Sam Hamm writer (episode "Death and Sufferage")
Sean Hood writer (episode "Sick Girl")
Shimako Iwai story (episode "Imprint")
Bruce Jones story (episode "Jenifer")
Max Landis writer (episode "Deer Woman")
H.P. Lovecraft story (episode "Dreams In the Witch-House")
Richard Matheson story (episode "Dance of the Dead")
Richard Christian Matheson writer (episode "Dance Of the Dead")
Drew McWeeny writer (episode "Cigarette Burns")
Dennis Paoli writer (episode "Dreams In the Witch-House")
David J. Schow writer (episode "Pick Me Up")
Scott Swan writer (episode "Cigarette Burns")
Daisuke Tengan writer (episode "Imprint")
Steven Weber writer (episode "Jennifer")
Bernie Wrightson story (episode "Jennifer")

[Cast (in alphabetical order)
Angela Bettis .... Ida Teeter
Billy Drago
Matt Frewer
Chris Gauthier .... Timpson
Jesse Haddock .... Johnny
Jesse Hlubik .... Max Grubb
Warren Kole .... Walker
Laurene Landon .... Birdie
Lucie Laurier
Jessica Lowndes .... Peggy
Zara Taylor .... Annie
John DeSantis .... Deformed Serial Killer (uncredited)