Quick Reviews: Dance of the Dead (Masters of Horror)

Even though Tobe Hooper is a big name in Horror, I haven't done either of his Episodes of...

In his first one, a post-apocalyptic world leads to a...

Some time in the future, a plague struck the World and killed millions.

Even worse, someone in Editing butchered the crap out of this Episode with flashes and transitions!

In a City of freaks and addicts, a man- Robert Englund- runs a Club that promises the titular Dance.

Is this a better Tobe Hooper Film with Englund than The Mangler?  Ehh...

In a nicer City, our Heroine is working with her Mother.  She wants to see the World.

Or, in this case, the Star of The Black Donnellys.

Did I just want to point out that a Show about Irishmen was called The Black Donnellys?  Yes.

The girl and Black Donnelly #1 go to the Club (pursued by the Mother) and learn what the titular Dance is.

SPOILER ALERT- they are just tazing Zombies.

When one of the Dancers turns out to be our Lead's Sister, tensions arise.  With more SPOILERS to be revealed, how will things turn?  To find out, watch the Episode.

I wanted to like this.  Look- Tobe Hooper is a true Master of Horror.  He made Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist and Lifeforce.  In other words, he's not Mick Garris.  Yeah, I'm still going there.  Dance of the Dead has the essence of a good Story.  We have a fairly-interesting Setting, a good Lead and Robert Englund.  Yeah, he's in shit like The Killer Tongue and others, but he's still great.  The first problem: filling out the Story.  The Episode/Film is not the best at explaining, well, anything.  Showing the important opening as a Flash Cut Dream/Memory- not good.  They just don't explain it well enough so that when you first see the Post-Apocalyptic Setting, you go 'Huh?'  Show me a Dream and a Diner and I know that the World has gone to crap?  Really?  The biggest sin: the Editing.  While watching it, I was asked about how bad the flashy/cutty stuff was.  I said 'Yeah, it is pretty annoying.'  The response I got: 'I get the feeling that when you call something 'Pretty annoying,' you actually mean that it is really awful.'  Basically, yes.  It just feels so '90s in the bad way and this one was made in 2006.  Was there a need to look like a Hard Rock Video from 1997 here?  I just don't get it.  Oh and the pay-off is not super-great either.  All in all, Hooper suffers for other people's sins.  On the plus side, it made me appreciate the random Weather I get in Florida.  Sure- it can rain on only 1 side of the Street here, but never this...  

Some good ideas are buried under the so-so Script and annoying Editing.  Hooper deserves better than this- in spite of TCM 2.