Dance of the Dead
Year: 2008
Director: Gregg Bishop
Studio: Lionsgate / Ghost House Underground
Stars: Justin Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 89 Mins
Official Website: http://www.danceofthedeadmovie.com/




Film Synopsis:

“Dance of the Dead” is a film that garnered a lot of buzz from this year’s SXSW Film Festival. This horror comedy is about a group of students from Cosa High who are getting ready for their high school prom. This was supposed to be their night of fun until the dead begin to rise from their graves at a graveyard that is located next to a nuclear power plant. Soon, the dead are hell bent on crashing this party. Now it’s up to a group of students that come from different backgrounds, which includes cheerleaders, geeks, bad boys and student council members. They have to band together and try to stop these zombies from taking over the town and life, as they know it. The film stars Jared Kusnitz (Otis, Doll Graveyard) and Justin Welborn (The Signal).

(Please Note: This Review Contains Spoilers)

Kelsey’s Review:

Dance of the Dead serves as a fun teen horror comedy. The initial plot has many elements of a teen romance, but a zombie outbreak on prom night transforms it to horror. Some of the relationships seem very natural. We have the science fanatic who is still very down to earth and an all around nice guy who has a crush on the cheerleader who doesn’t notice him who is in turn crushing on the rocker who doesn’t notice her. Another relationship involves someone who is very involved in the school and her future who loves her goofball boyfriend, but feels like she is missing out on the romance that he can’t quite communicate to her. Through this the lines of popularity are blurred and now seem irrelevant. The sci-fi club, student council members, class clowns, school bullies, and punk musicians end up working together when the living dead come after them.

After recently seeing Jared Kusnitz in Otis this year as the hilariously vengeful brother it was great seeing him in Dance of the Dead. He proved that he is more than just comedic relief, but can actually carry a horror film very well. He transforms in the film to a character that really takes the lead and gains our respect. I also appreciated that all of the teens actually looked and acted like high school students. There is not one flat performance, everyone is believable and fresh. Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, and Carissa Capobianco definitely have bright futures ahead of them. Aside from the kids Coach Keel played by Mark Oliver gave a stand out performance. Oliver brought forward energy, charisma, and intensity as the coach who reverted to his veteran ways as a maniacal, almost crazed warrior, this time in the war against the zombies.

Most of the zombie norms are adapted here, but one new element was that zombies seem to be mesmerized and almost pause in time when music plays, especially played by the band of some of the kids at the school. The best part of the film comes when the teens go to the prom to demolish the school swarming with zombies that have already eaten and simplified their entire student body. When Gwen confides in Steven that she has been bitten he finally gets the chance to kiss here. Right at this moment when the underdog has his victory his skin begins to get ripped apart by the girl of his dreams who is hungry for his flesh. Steven quickly turns in to a member of the living dead himself and there is a funny and brutal turn where they are engaging in a love scene and looking beastly and ferocious as they bite in to each other’s blood.

The characters at times seem like they are just representations of a certain group or clique in the school. However, the film quickly develops each and every one of them. No one is there just to play the victim and those who do fall victims first are really the morally weaker people who we see deserve the fate they are given. There isn’t much time spent hiding out, because we are given a fierce group of kids who are ready to do everything they can to defeat these zombies and save anyone who is left alive. Through everything that these people go through with each other and with their life flashing before their eyes they all go through revelations. Not only is Dance of the Dead a zombie fest full of cheese and gore and a fun teen film, but it is actually an effective coming of age film. None of this is over dramatized, but is mostly shown in how the characters step up and how differently they treat one another when their town is at stake. The zombie attacks, the dialogue, and a quirky graveyard worker who actually knew about the zombies existence before the outbreak occurred help keep things light and refreshing. Dance of the Dead works zombies and teen coming of age stories wonderfully together to give us a fun filled horror comedy.

Anthony T’s Review:

I definitely agree with you Kelsey on this film. This is a film that I’ve been looking forward to after hearing the buzz the film received at this year SXSW Film Festival. This film should have been given a chance in theaters because it’s that good. “Dance of the Dead” was a lot of fun to watch, as this is truly one of the best horror films of the year. Most of the credit has to go to director Gregg Bishop (who also has a very funny short horror film called “Voodoo” on the DVD, which I highly recommend, if you loved this film). He does a great job directing at an intense pace, while hitting all the horror and comedy notes perfectly. The pace of the film moves very fast, which makes all the action in the film intense. The death scenes were done very well, as they were intense and very gory. He also has some very good talented actors in this film. I could tell from the performances that they wanted to be there and make this film entertaining. They were having fun with their roles, as it made the film more fun to watch. The whole cast nail their characters down perfectly, as they felt like normal teenagers and the actors also had great chemistry with each other. Another thing that Bishop did very well, along with his casting director, was to find the right people to play these parts, as the actors were pretty much around the high school age with the expectation of Justin Welborn (who also stared in “The Signal” this year). That also helped sold the fact that these characters were normal teenagers and their mannerisms were teen like. It helps when you can find talented young people that are young and interested in the material to play these roles, for films like this. It’s something that Hollywood casting people, should be looking at, when casting films like this, instead of casting older people to play young people or young people, from a teen soap opera that are there to cash a paycheck,to play these part and be uninteresting for ninety minutes. That’s why Hollywood turns out these awful teenage horror films and yes that includes One and a Half Missed Hours of My Life (aka “One Missed Call” and no, I’m not done whining about that film yet).

Joe Ballarini’s screenplay was very original and well executed. This film has a lot of great moments including the ones that Kelsey mentioned, which was also one of my favorite scenes, in the film. This film has a lot of great moments because the characters were all likeable, yes, including the gym teacher, which I loved the scene when he introduced the teens to his stash of weaponry. If they weren’t likeable, then the moments would not work. They were so likeable because the character development was very effective. I liked how Ballarini make the character all different from each other, like the class dork to the sci-fi geeks to the cheerleader to the band and on and on. They all didn’t seem like carbon copies from another films, which makes the characters believable, in some ways. He also adds a lot of humor and blood curling action to the story, which makes film very enjoyable, because it was funny while moving the story and horrific elements at a fast pace.

This film is definitely lived up to the hype that the received earlier in the year. I urge you to rent and/or buy this film immediately, because this is what the horror genre is supposed to be, not those stupid remakes or the endless Saw sequels. “Dance of the Dead” is one blood-splattering prom that you would not want to skip.