Murder-Rock: Dancing Death (1984)
"Murderock - Uccide a passo di danza" (original title)

The owner of a prestigious New York ballet school teams up with a male model to solve a series of bizarre murders of a few of the students.

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Gianfranco Clerici (screenplay), Gianfranco Clerici (story),

Stars:

Olga Karlatos, Ray Lovelock, Claudio Cassinelli

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Olga Karlatos	...	Candice Norman
Ray Lovelock	...	George Webb
Claudio Cassinelli	...	Dick Gibson
Cosimo Cinieri	...	Lt. Borges
Giuseppe Mannajuolo	...	Prof. Davis
Berna Maria do Carmo	...	Joan
Belinda Busato	...	Gloria Weston
Maria Vittoria Tolazzi	...	Jill
Geretta Geretta	...	Margie (as Geretta Marie Fields)
Christian Borromeo	...	Willy Stark (as Cristian Borromeo)
Robert Gligorov	...	Bert
Carlo Caldera	...	Bob
Riccardo Parisio Perrotti	...	Steiner
Giovanni De Nava	...	Hotel Receptionist

Storyline

A series of murders rock a dance academy in New York in which the mysterous directress, Candice, sets out to find the kiler, with a little assistance from a shady male model, named George, who has a hidden agenda for her as does she for him.

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Plot Keywords:

new york | murder | dance | dream | nipples | 

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Taglines:

Save the last dance . . . for hell!

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

April 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Demon Is Loose

Filming Locations:

Incir De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Scena Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lucio Fulci:  The talent agent who speaks to Candice over the telephone about a background check he made on George.

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Connections

Referenced in Fulci Talks: The Movies (2007)

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Soundtracks

"You Are Not Alone Tonight"
Lyrics and Music by Keith Emerson
Performed by Doreen Chanter

User Reviews

Let's dance, to the death

After the death of a highly regarded female dancer at New York's Artistic Dance Centre, the eyes turn to each other, as they learn that they are competing for only three spots that could see them living their dreams. Their dance teacher Candice Norman pushes them to the brink to achieve that goal, due to an accident that crushed her chance. Lt. Borges gets the case, and soon other well-regarded dance students are following the same fate of a hat-pin in the heart. Is joyously, and ambition becoming part of it, but Candice starts believing it's the man in her dreams George Webb, who she eventually meets, that might have something to do with the killings.

Oh didn't the flash dance era hit hard! With a clunky, overwrought soundtrack like this you just get that tingling sensation to join in with the dance routines. For some reason I got Blondie's groovy "Danceaway" stuck my head, when watching it. Constantly it was playing on a loop! Okay the cheesiness of the times really does shine through, but I thought it was a fair effort. It can drag and labour on from time to time, but director Lucio Fulci visually counter-punches those weak spots with raucous masterstrokes of suspense, mood and a slight touch of malevolence. Around this time his was at his peak of displaying gore and splatter to the extreme, but on this occasion his holding back quite a bit to basic deaths involving the unique, but repetitive hat pin to the heart. However the bare flesh is still evident, and there's a sexually arousing dance number or two. The surprisingly well executed use of the camera, lighting and the setting to the lead up to the deaths were far more effective. Fulci stylishly milks his artistic merit with some inspired images. To bad its brought undone by its second rate script with silly reasoning's and contrived developments. It's a trashy and unusual mix of dance and Giallo, but it could've been more twisted than the monotonous and goofy treatment it got. Other than a diverting grizzled, cynic cop performance by Cosimo Cinieri (with such great lines "… school full of S.O.B"), the rest of the lead acting is quite bland (Olga Karlato and Ray Lovelock) and the hilariously hideous dubbing didn't help. Claudio Cassinelli had his amusing moments. I guess the lovely looking girls are just there to pout at the camera and look good. The eclectically flashy music score by Keith Emerson is true to the era and fashionably stylised.

Interestingly watchable novelty that's well-directed, but the material doesn't really rise for the occasion, as it succumbs to unintentional silliness.