Dance of the Dead (11 Nov. 2005)

In a post-apocalypse society, 17-year-old Peggy lives with her over-protective mother and works in her restaurant. She misses her sister Anna, who died some time ago. When two couples of ... See full summary »

Director:

Tobe Hooper

Writers:

Mick Garris (creator), Richard Christian Matheson (teleplay),

Stars:

Emily Anne Graham, Genevieve Buechner, Margot Berner

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Emily Anne Graham	...	Young Peggy (as Emily Graham)
Genevieve Buechner	...	Young Anna
Margot Berner	...	Marie
Marilyn Norry	...	Kate
Sharon Heath	...	Gerri
Jessica Lowndes	...	Peggy
Robert Englund	...	The MC
Ryan Mcdonald	...	Boxx
Jonathan Tucker	...	Jak
Don MacKay	...	Steven
Karen Austin	...	Quinn
Lucie Guest	...	Celia
Erica Carroll	...	Mia
Fraser Aitcheson	...	Giant Door Guy (as Darren Aitcheson)
Julia Barrick Taffe	...	Loopy Girl #1 (as Julia Taffe)

Storyline

In a post-apocalypse society, 17-year-old Peggy lives with her over-protective mother and works in her restaurant. She misses her sister Anna, who died some time ago. When two couples of punks come to the place to eat some hamburgers, Peggy feels attracted to Jak, who invites her to go out on date with him later. Peggy goes out with Jak without telling her mother, and they go across town to a dark place, the Doom Room, where the master of ceremony is the ringmaster of a freak show with dead. The MC injects blood in the dead, and they dance on a ring for the exalted audience. When Peggy sees her undead sister Anna dancing in the show, the MC discloses the truth about her presence in the circus.

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Plot Keywords:

corpse | overprotective mother | post apocalypse | coffee | person on fire | 

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 2005 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Columbia Production Tax Credit, IDT Entertainment, Industry Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Boxx: You got something ugly inside of you and it wants out. I don't want to be around when it starts hissing.

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Soundtracks

"At Least You Bought Her Flowers"
performed by Fall River

User Reviews

Very Cool

Peggy just might be the last innocent girl left in a post-apocalyptic world. Nine years earlier, Peggy watched as a rain of toxic chemicals maimed, scarred and/or killed her friends at her seventh birthday party. It is a memory which haunts her still, along with the deaths of her father and older sister Anna. Sheltered by her overprotective mother, the pretty sixteen year old Peggy works in the family diner in a town which has all but dried up and blown away. When a group of dangerous punks wanders into the diner one day, Peggy is immediately attracted to the leader, Jak, a tough but nice guy. It is love at first sight, but Peggy's hate- filled mother kicks the foursome out. It's too late though. Jak has already arranged to meet Peggy at midnight, and Peggy slips away with Jak and his friends to the forbidden and dangerous town of Muskeet, where the diseased and the dying go to party. Peggy is taken to the Doom Room, a scummy nightclub run by a sleazy Emcee (Robert Englund) who literally deals in blood. The toxic rainfall of 9 years earlier left many of its victims in a state of undeath, but when injected with fresh blood, the zombies are briefly reanimated. Hauled out onto the grimy stage of the Doom Room, the zombies are poked with cattle prods, twitching and contorting for the amusement of the customers. This is the Dance of the Dead, and Peggy will learn more about it in one night than she ever wanted to know.

I was really impressed with this third entry in the Masters of Horror series. This is Tobe Hooper's first foray into the zombie genre and it's a unique take. These aren't flesh-eating ghouls out for blood, just pathetic cadavers who have become entertainment in a world without cable reality TV shows.

The camera work is dizzying, the music is hard, cold and nihilistic and the performances are great, particularly by Englund whose Emcee is a thousand times scummier, sleazier and nastier than Freddy Krueger could ever hope to be. Jonathan Tucker as Jak is an extremely likable character, despite the fact that he's a thief and a drug addict - he's also chivalrous and heroic, an odd combination that Tucker miraculously makes work. Jessica Lowndes as the innocent Peggy is perfect, going from scared kid to world weary woman within an hour.

Suitably disgusting and abysmally bleak, Dance of the Dead is fun to watch and difficult to look away from, kind of like a particularly bloody car accident. I would (and will) watch this one over and over again.