Dance of the Damned

This is a wonderful low-budget sleeper, proving that not all contemporary Roger Corman-produced films are trash. And all it really is is a night long conversation between a self-destructive, suicidal stripper and a brooding, world weary vampire. Go figure. But it also would probably take a more mature, patient viewer to sit through this one, because if you're looking for gore, action and special effects, you'll find little of that here. Expect a low key character study similar to a stage play, with lots of dialogue and few location changes. This film itself proves you don't have to be a slave to FX work when working inside the realm of horror. There can be so much more to the genre than just cheap shocks when a common horror theme is put into the hands of someone with talent and imagination. I have no doubt when this was green lit the director was expected to make a vampire movie with nudity that could be sold off as direct-to-video exploitation. In this case, she actually managed to make something of it and that, my friends, does not happen too often.

The script by Katt Shea and Andy Ruben (who were married at the time this was made) not only has some great insight into the outcast condition and very good character development but also some wonderfully poetic passages. One highlight is a beautifully written scene on a beach where the leading lady has to explain to the Vampire what sunlight feels like. It's in her description of this simple feeling that gives her back her will to live. In scenes where the two characters describe their troubled pasts, the monologues are so well written and detailed you can visualize them without having to actually see them on screen. Any movie with a budget would have predictably went into flashback mode but here we're asked to use our imaginations. Clever parallels are drawn between two different lost souls (not to mention two different species); one of whom is forced to live in the night and the other so wounded she's compelled to. Both leads (Starr Andreeff and Cyril O'Reilly) are very good and do their roles justice, and this film manages to be thought-provoking, sometimes very funny and ultimately moving. While a million fx-driven blockbuster type movies involving vampires come and go and entertain while they're around, this one has actually has resonated with me more over time than films like BRAM STOKER'S Dracula, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, etc. It's a shame not many people know anything about it.

I not only recommend this, but also the director's excellent STREETS (starring a young Christina Applegate), and even her more exploitative serial-killer-in-a-strip-club flick STRIPPED TO KILL. They're all well above average for the genre, humorous at times, well written and with a heavy concentration on character. Shea shows the same kind of early talent as the best directors to come from Roger Corman U... including Francis Ford Coppola and Jonathan Demme. In fact, I'd probably place her near the top of the list of the countless directors Corman has supported over the years. And she's certainly one of the most promising female director's I've ever come across viewing countless low budget films.

Amazingly, DANCE was remade in 1993 as TO SLEEP WITH A VAMPIRE. That version, which was also produced by Corman and reused much of the same storyline and dialogue, does not come close to this version. Guess which one has been released on DVD? I wish I could say it was this, but unfortunately some boneheads decided to release the remake instead while this worthy film languishes in VHS obscurity. Hopefully someone, some day will get this out to the masses so it can find an audience.

Dance Of The Damned is one of those rare films that comes along once in a GREAT while. Filmed on an EXTREMELY low budget with a VERY small cast, it manages to succeed where other movies (with 10 times the star power and 50 times the budget) have failed miserably.

A man sits in a low-grade strip club and takes notice of one of the women on stage. He senses her mood is dark and later overhears a phone conversation where she pleads (in vain) with her ex-husband to allow her to see her child. He meets her outside and, after a brief introduction (she first mistakes him as someone out to attack her), convinces her to tell him more about herself. Most of his questions concern, strangely enough, the sun and daylight in general (he asks her what it feels like on her face, how the warmth is, etc.).

It's not until later during their conversation that she realizes he is a vampire. The film does an incredible job (via a great script and subtle but strong performances from the two leads) of dealing with issues surrounding anger, fear and love, and eventually leads to a final, sad, dramatic conclusion.

It would appear this film was released directly to video, and it may be difficult to find these days, even as a rental. But if you manage to locate it out there somewhere, I highly recommended spending an hour and a half of your time taking it in - You won't be disappointed.

-FTM

Not your average run-of-the-mill vampire movie, so at least that's something. Don't expect vampire-action, bat-like facial transformations or bloody killings in general from "Dance of the Damned" or you'll be disappointed. What we get here is more like a TV-drama play, with a bit of 80's cheesiness and nudity added for good measurement. Pretty much a 'doomed romance' type thing about a non-vampire stripper and a vampire-yuppie. One wants to die, the other one will have to die if that other one doesn't die. Something like that. Starr Andreef is damn sexy in this one (and she shows plenty of skin - yes, the top comes off) and it has an ending that will leave you hanging in there (in a neither-here-nor-there kinda way). Certainly worth a watch if you're into offbeat vampire movies (more like the cheesy romance ones, not the edgy arty ones). And it's at least about 5 times better than that awful Andrew Stevens vampire-vehicle "Red Blooded American Girl" from 1990 (I've said it before & I'll say it again: avoid movies with Andrew Stevens playing the leading role in them). Anyway, he's not in "Dance of the Damned", so you're safe to watch it.

A suicidal stripper is token hostage by a lonely vampire who tells her he is gonna kill her at sunrise, but first he makes her teach him about what people do during the daytime, but as it gets closer to sunrise their feelings for each other grow strong and the vampire and stripper form a close bond.

Intelligent, exceptionally well acted and made film by the true master of this genre in my opinion Katt Shea has largely, and unjustly been ignored for no appearant reason. The film features very good characterizations and covers many themes including love, death, guilt, and redemption. Terrific premise also. Seek this out.

Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Profanity, and Violence.

Jodi (Starr Andreeff), a stripper contemplating suicide, is held captive by a vampire (Cyril O'Reilly) who wants to know what it is like to sunbathe.

Yes, the vampire in Dance of the Damned gets to boff the stripper. I think. Well, it's implied. However, the film is mostly intercourse of the verbal kind, as the bloodsucker chin-wags with his next meal until daybreak.

Not so long ago, I watched To Sleep With A Vampire (1992) by director Adam Friedman, which is a remake of this film by Katt Shea. The two movies are almost identical in every way, with many scenes and much of the dialogue from the original used verbatim in the remake. The biggest differences between the two films are that the vampire in this one has a mullet that would shame Michael Bolton, and that Charlie Spradling, who plays the stripper in the remake, is a damn sight hotter than Andreef.

However, even though I much prefer Spradling to Andreef in terms of visual appeal, I do slightly prefer the original movie overall: Andreef is a better actress and Katt Shea is a better director than Friedman, plus this one has more style, even if it is late-80s style (lots of blue lighting and plenty of widdly guitar, sax solos, and synths). I also liked how, by the end of the film, the roles have reversed, with Jodi desperately wanting to live and the vampire developing a death wish; this might also have been the case with the remake, but that film was ultimately so forgettable I can't say for sure.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the vampire's plasma ball and his bubbly water ornament. Man, that vampire has good taste in furnishings!