Review: Dance of the Dead
Director: Gregg Bishop
Year: 2008
Country: USA
When Dance of the Dead, the independent zombie comedy written by Joe Ballarini and directed by Gregg Bishop began, I immediately drew similarities between it and Cemetery Man, that relatively under appreciated Italian zombie flick that features the fine acting of Rupert Everett and amazing tits of this babe. A cemetery groundskeeper, seemingly content with being surrounded by dead people on a daily basis, has is hands full as the dead begin to rise out of their graves. The culprit: a conveniently placed nuclear power plant. In order to prevent the town from being overrun by zombies, the groundskeeper must put the kibosh on their intended assault on the sleepy Georgia town.
Meanwhile, a local high school is preparing for prom, and we’re introduced to a variety of cliches: the nerds, the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the rebels. As prom approaches, the zombies manage to escape the confines of their eternal resting place and begin to wreak havoc upon the town, wherein a small band of survivors comprising a smattering of the aforementioned cliches and the gym teacher must save the day.
Sadly, I am a rare negative voice, as I found the movie to be seriously lacking in terms of, well, almost everything. Where one reviewer praised the character development I felt it was nonexistent. I do, however, have to give praise to the decision to mix up the standard “snobby cheerleader” archetype and make her relatively less loathsome than the rest of her teammates. Another reviewer praised the writing as “sharp,” while I just thought it was stale and lacking in creativity, failing to distinguish itself from other teen-oriented films, horror or otherwise. On the technical side the editing was the film’s biggest flaw. It was jumpy, poorly planned, and did little to alleviate the headache caused by the weak plot.
Despite my grievances, a few moments stand out as being particularly humorous and unique. During the initial confrontation between the our newly ressurected revenants and terrified sci-fi geeks, the zombies literally EXPLODED out of their graves and, defying all logic and knowledge of body decomposition, began to run without missing a beat. The mix of slow, lumbering zombies and Zach Snyder zombies on crack and Red Bull was an interesting decision, and one I felt managed to mix up the zombie trope omnipresent in the film. Though no less irritating than his adolescent counterparts, the role of the gym teacher was downright hysterical, if not for the line “It’s the brick channel! All brick, all the time!” yelled at our protagonist who has been forced to stare at a wall in detention. He reminded me of a weird hybrid between Vince McMahon and Henry Rollins, or rather, their offspring in a weird time-and-reproduction paradox.The gore was clever, especially when considering the low-budget, as this was the first film I have seen that featured a zombie’s spinal column coming off with his head and actually look relatively impressive.
Dance of the Dead was released by Lionsgate through Sam Raimi’s Ghost House banner, bringing the total number of Ghost House films I have seen that are a worth a damn to zero. The overwhelming positive reaction to this film stunned me, eclipsing into full-blown what the fuck mode as the movie progressed. It started strong, managing a slow and steady decline before picking up with a few memorable scenes and one liners toward the end. However, if one were to look past the obvious obstacles – amateur actors, low-budget, etc – you have a fairly solid attempt at mixing two of the more difficult genres to write. Though I personally didn’t like it, I can certainly see why others would.
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Man, Brad, you either need to lower your standards or see more absolute shit, because DANCE OF THE DEAD is a triumph by any realistic point of view. You’ve chided the worst of it and mentioned, but dismissed, the best of it. There’s a lot accomplished in DANCE that lesser talents would have bungled entirely and that greater budgets never get right in the first place.
I think I just need to lower my standards.
More like raise your standards! lol
Everything you mentioned that you didn’t like, I absolutely loved! The editing was amazing in that movie. I mean that film really, really moves. The action editing alone blew me away.
The characters are great. They are all archetypes with a twist. The cheerleader wasn’t dumb, she was innocent. The redneck guy who beat everyone up was actually a hero. The real triump of Dance Of the Dead is how much the audience fell in love with the characters. I mean, we love these kids and we don’t want to see them become zombie food!
The writing was very sharp. How many movies have you seen where zombies launch out of the graves? Are subdued via music? I mean, you’re literally quoting great lines in your review. Yeah, the writer wrote those!
Five stars all the way.