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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Hughes meets a Zombie flick, October 21, 2008
Dance of the Dead was released by Ghost House Underground, which is sort of their take on the 8 Films to Die For and I suppose the Dimension Extreme label as well. From what I have heard Dance of the Dead was hand picked by Sam Raimi for Ghost House Underground and bottom line is this; you'll either really enjoy Dance of the Dead or hate the movie, while most reviews have been more positive this is the type of movie I can see why many loved it and some hated it. I for one really enjoyed Dance of the Dead and it was exactly what I expected.
Dance of the Dead however is as flawed as it is entertaining and quite honestly not everything works here. There are moments where it's too over the top and seems too forced, but other times certain aspects work and it's highly enjoyable. Despite any flaws in my opinion Dance of the Dead has far more good going for than against it. Think of this movie as a John Hughes movie meets Night of the Living Dead or more like The Return of the Living Dead since Dance of the Dead has a lot more of Return of the Living Dead rather than Night of the Living Dead. Dance of the Dead starts off as more of a teen comedy and like I said something in the style of John Hughes, but than the horror kicks in and it becomes something like a John Hughes movie that meets a zombie flick.
The screenplay written by Joe Ballarini and overall it was quite well done, but not everything he does works well. As stated there are moments that are too over the top and moments that seem a bit forced as if Joe Ballarini was trying a bit too hard. But once the middle sections come his script while already good gets better. The characters aren't the best developed characters we've ever come across, but most of them are likeable. Honestly I actually grew fond of a few of the characters and was hoping they would survive. The characters were a lot of fun and Joe Ballarini does very well with the characters he created. Again despite any flaws with the script it does work well overall.
Director Greg Bishop does a bang up job, but like the script there were moments in his directing where certain aspects just didn't work, but for the most part he does well and crafts a very enjoyable and funny movie. Most of the scenes in Dance of the Dead are played light with little suspense, but more of a comedy. Though with that said there are some fairly suspenseful moments in Dance of the Dead, but most of the scenes are played light and it works great. The pacing is solid and there really aren't any moments where the movie is slow. It pretty much always moves forward and always has the fun level working.
The zombies are cool looking and this one has a mixture of running zombies and slow moving zombies. The zombies are pretty much inspired by those from Return of the Living Dead in many ways you can see Dance of the Dead as a modern day version of Return of the Living Dead. Like I said about aspects not working one in particular was a zombie frog; it was only one brief scene, but that's what I mean about things not working, but thankfully it was only one brief scene and that was the end of it.
The cast was solid and all the actors put in good performances with the highlight for me was seeing Mark Oliver as Coach Keel; Mark Oliver starred in Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland as Tony DeRaro. Mark Oliver pretty much steals the show with his intentional over the top performance as a former military man who goes on a zombie killing spree. James Jarrett as the Gravedigger is a brief role, but very memorable. Again as I stated before the characters were really fun and I was hoping quite a few of them would survive.
The gore level is good and it's a mixture of special make up F/X and CGI, but don't worry any CGI used looks pretty good. It wasn't over used and it was mixed with make up F/X so most of the time you won't really notice the CGI and the way it was shot and edited makes it tougher to notice. I hate CG used in horror flicks, but if used right it could work and it was used right in Dance of the Dead
Dance of the Dead is a movie you'll either love or hate; certain aspects fall a bit flat, but overall in my opinion it was a fun ride, but as I stated before I can easily understand why it's also disliked by some people. But I highly enjoyed this movie and it delivered just what I expected. Don't go into Dance of the Dead expecting to see something totally different; it follows the basic zombie movie formula, but still works well in my opinion and was a fun ride.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Modern Comedy Horror Film that Works, November 14, 2008
Dance of the Dead is a horror teen comedy, I guess. It's created by people I've never heard of and stars people I've never heard of. That's alright though because it turns out to be an inventive, carefree, and surprisingly enjoyable little movie. I laughed consistently at the dialogue and the action throughout Dance of the Dead, as it reminded me of fun horror/comedies like Re-Animator and Evil Dead II. More specifically it reminded me of Dan O'Bannon's tongue-in-cheek semi-cult classic The Return of the Living Dead, a film that only idiots think is to be taken seriously but it still has enough flashes of B-movie flavor that you're not sure whether to laugh because it's good at being funny or whether it's just funny because it is so bad. Dance of the Dead is an up-to-date tribute in some ways to films like The Return of the Living Dead which by itself makes it worthwhile, but there are many elements that also make Dance of the Dead original. That is actually saying something believe it or not, because there have been countless failures among similar films but this one captures the right tone.
The reason the tone works is actually pretty simple, director Gregg Bishop has the ability to create a decent teen comedy. He does so by the starting the film with very entertaining characters and the actors do a fantastic job in making us like their funny and sometimes stereotypical personalities that become unique and even funnier given the circumstances. So we get introduced to a group of humorous characters (my favorites being Kyle and Coach Keel) who are not going to the prom. Then these characters become the protagonists as Bishop throws a zombie apocalypse into their setting. Now, overly violent slapstick humor ala Planet Terror meets The Three Stooges is my kind of comedy, so if it's not your thing you won't like this, but I doubt you will have even heard of this movie to begin with if you don't appreciate that sort of thing. So we get an American Pie blue print setting that eventually gets invaded by zombies. Another reviewer effectively compared it to a John Hughes zombie film in his title, which is actually right on point.
I'm giving this a high rating but I normally struggle in giving movies like this too high a rating. Usually silly movies like this can take decades to ease into being truly appreciated but I'm willing to bet that in ten or twenty years folks will look back fondly on Dance of the Dead as a horror comedy cult-classic. Time will tell of course, but I'm willing to make that prediction and give this movie a strong recommendation to those who enjoy similar fare.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It is time for these geeks to kick some zombie butt when the dead rise and crash the prom, October 27, 2008
It is prom night at Cosa High School and charming slacker Jimmy (Jared Kusnitz) has struck out trying to get a date to the dance, but that proves to be the least of his problems when the dead start rising from their graves. Fortunately, Jimmy is not the only dateless geek on prom night. There is the fetching Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick), the vice-president of the student body, Gwen (Carissa Capobianco), the cheerleader who needs to be saved, Steven (Charlton Derby), the nerd who would like to save her, Nash (Blair Redord), the angry leader of a local band, and the tag-team of Jules (Randy McDowell) and George (Michael V. Mammoliti), who belong to the school's Science Fiction Club. You might ask: Why do the dead starting exploding out of their graves? Well, because this is a zombie movie, which means it might be the town's nuclear reactor or it could just be because the script says that they rise from the dead. So do not ask wherefore art their zombies, or why the only adult authority figure left standing once the zombies run amuck is Coach Keel (Mark Oliver), who has watched way too many action films. Just enjoy one of the best tongue-in-cheek zombie comedies to come down the pike in recent years.
When it comes to zombie movies I still prefer the original "Night of the Living Dead" with the traditional slow moving Old School zombies over the new and impoved frantic flesh eaters of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, "28 Days Later," et al. More to the point, I liked "Dead and Breakfast" more than "Shaun of the Dead," and I really liked "Shaun of the Dead." Given that particular set of predilections it is probably not surprising that I am willing to round up on "Dance of the Dead," when most people will not (and, yes, I am looking forward to "Zombie Strippers"). There might be a correlation between these two principles simply because it is hard to do a zombie comedy if they are running and you are running. When it is more "The zombies are coming! Walk away! Walk away!" there is way more time to make with the smart aleck remarks (and to go out for pancakes).
"Dance of the Dead" is apparently a movie that was a decade in the making, since the writer and diretor met up in film school at USC, which might explain in part why it works so well, because the script by Joe Ballarini exhibits evidence of fine tuning. The same can be said for the special effects put together by director Gregg Bishop "The Other Side," who manages not to over indulge in the handheld camera work that so often distracts me (or threatens to make my head explode) in contemporary horror films (i.e., "Cloverfield"). But I think a big part of the success for this 2008 release is that this film follows the Franco Zefferelli approach of going out and hiring actual teenagers to play teenagers, which is why so many people make John Hughes references when talking about this film. The young cast, many from Georgia since that is where "Dance of the Dead" was filmed, give it a certain charm (e.g., when Lindsey leads the group in prayer before the ensemble has its requisite "Buffy The Vampire Slayer movement of striding purposely down the hallway with their array of weaponry, a moment that serves as the backdrop for the DVD's menu). That also means this film has the advantage of featuring unfamiliar faces instead of twentysomethings from television shows slumming in splatter flicks.
I have no idea what "Dance of the Dead" is doing in the Ghost House Underground series of horror films that Lionsgate has put out to distract horror fans from the fact that this year's Horrorfest has been delayed until January (they still only have 5 and not 8 films 2 die 4). This is far and away the best of the six of eight films I have seen so far, and if there is something better than "Dance of the Dead" still out there, that would be really sweet, but I doubt it is going to happen. This DVD also sets the standard for special features in this series, with audio commentary by Bishop and Ballarini, a featurette on the making of the film, a special look at "Blood, Guts, and Rock 'n' Roll: Effects and Stunts of Dance of the Dead," a handful of deleted and extended scenes (with optional commentary by the director), Bishop's short film "Voodoo" (also when commentary, because apparently you cannot stop Bishop from commenting, you can only choose not to listen), and the trailer (which contains the film's one flaw: which is that the best line in the trailer is actually two lines cobbled together, in reverse, from the end of the film).
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