Netflix'ns: Dance of the Dead

Netflix'ns is a series of review shorts of films discovered on Netflix, be it DVD or streaming. For better or worse, I sat through these films and have lived to tell the tale. These are not so much reviews as just comments on the film watched. This is also a work in progress.



Not to be confused with the Masters of Horror episode with Robert Englund, this Dance of the Dead is actually worth watching. I got it in the mail from Netflix the other day, sadly it isn't streaming yet, and promptly popped it in. I have been looking forward to checking it out for awhile now. I remember seeing, in a few places, it called the best of the first batch of Ghost House Underground releases. This line seems to be positioning itself as competition for After Dark's Films to Die For series.

In any case, Dance of the Dead was specifically handpicked by Sam Raimi for inclusion (Ghost House is his company, I believe). That has to count for something, right? I am not saying this is a great film or is destined to go down in the pantheon as one of the great, but it does prove to be highly enjoyable and plenty of fun. I suspect that a good number of genre fans will really like this one.

The first half of the film introduces us to all the main players on the eve of their prom. Dates are still being made and we get to see the couples, the losers, and those who'd rather pluck out their eyes than go to prom. In the background we get hints that things are not as they seem, such as the Cemetary Man-esque groundskeeper who takes care of the escaping dead.

The second half finds the dead launching themselves out of the graves en route to the fresh meat of the prom. A group of students band together, armed with bats, machetes, and other implements of death. The results are funny, bloody and well worth the ride.

So, if you haven't seen Dance of the Dead, give it a shot, toss it in the ole queue and have some fun.