Tobe Hooper certainly deserves his reputation as a 'Master Of Horror', especially for his masterpiece, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" of 1974, but also for a few other films, such as "Eaten Alive" (1977) and "Salem's Lot" (1979), that certainly couldn't come up to the brilliance of TCM, but definitely were interesting Horror films. His first contribution to the "Masters Of Horror" series, the third Episode, "Dance Of The Dead", however, turned out to be a minor disappointment. The episode is certainly not entirely bad, it has some atmosphere and is very creepy at times, but it simply lacks an adequate structure of storytelling.
The story, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic America, sometime in the near future when the majority of Americans have died in a terrible war, and the anarchistic conditions only allow the strong to survive. One of the most popular gathering points for the drug addicted youths who rule the streets, is the macabre 'Doom-Room' hosted by an eerie creep named 'The M.C.' (Horror icon Robert Englund). 16-year-old Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) runs a little restaurant with her protective mother (Marilyn Norry). Peggy is fascinated when a young hoodlum named Jak (Jonathan Tucker) shows up in the restaurant with his no-good friends one day...
The movie has some good moments, Robert Englund is creepy as hell and Jessica Lowndes as well as Marilyn Norry deliver good performances. I couldn't ignore the fact, however, that director Hooper was obviously more interested to make the episode look as 'cooool' as possible, and focused on effects and visuals rather than on telling the story, which makes the episode look like a 1-hour video clip. Over all I was disappointed with "Dance Of The Dead", although I admit it was macabre and entertaining at times and has some qualities. 5/10
The story, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic America, sometime in the near future when the majority of Americans have died in a terrible war, and the anarchistic conditions only allow the strong to survive. One of the most popular gathering points for the drug addicted youths who rule the streets, is the macabre 'Doom-Room' hosted by an eerie creep named 'The M.C.' (Horror icon Robert Englund). 16-year-old Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) runs a little restaurant with her protective mother (Marilyn Norry). Peggy is fascinated when a young hoodlum named Jak (Jonathan Tucker) shows up in the restaurant with his no-good friends one day...
The movie has some good moments, Robert Englund is creepy as hell and Jessica Lowndes as well as Marilyn Norry deliver good performances. I couldn't ignore the fact, however, that director Hooper was obviously more interested to make the episode look as 'cooool' as possible, and focused on effects and visuals rather than on telling the story, which makes the episode look like a 1-hour video clip. Over all I was disappointed with "Dance Of The Dead", although I admit it was macabre and entertaining at times and has some qualities. 5/10