Dance of the Damned

The first thing that struck me about this movie and is often true of well done, low budget films is that it feels like a stage play. The movie is character and dialog driven with an economy of changing scenes. Like insects trapped in a magnifying jar, the claustrophobic space brings the characters into raw detail.

When I first saw this film, I thought it was foreign - maybe British, Canadian, or Italian. None of the actors have been in a lot of movies that I am aware of, although Starr has been in a few other B grade vampire movies (none near this good). Surprisingly it used to be easy to find for rent. Since it never came out on DVD though, it is tougher to find now (apparently it was released on laser disk but the second half/side was badly engineered so it would have to be remastered before being transferred).

There was however an uncredited remake in 1993: To Sleep With a Vampire (directed by Adam Friedman) that is available on DVD (for real cheap). It features almost the exact same script including portions of word for word dialog. Besides the fact that it is not as well acted, the main differences are that the stripper has bigger breasts and that both of the main characters had a small following before they took the rolls. Watching that remake is like watching your favorite play performed at a local High School: it reminds you pleasantly of the better performances you have seen.

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!

My review was written in March 1989 after watching the film on Virgin Vision video cassette.

This morbid but engrossing vampire drama is skedded for direct-to-video release this month, but gets brief big-screen exposure at the AFI Festival in Los Angeles.

Filmed back-to-back last year with same filmmaker's "Stripped to Kill 2", pic shares that sequel's strippers milieu. Starr Andreeff is a suicidal peeler, distraught at having a court order barring her from visiting her young son.

A handsome vampire, Cyril O'Reilly is in the Paradise Cafe and senses Andreeff's despair, propositioning her after hours to spend the night with him for a quick g-note; he even promises to kill her at dawn after their confab.

Despite that claustrophobic premise, reminiscent of the launching point of Anne Rice's novel "Interview with the Vampire", pic covers much ground, with an especially atmospheric late-night visit to the beach. Helmer Katt Shea Ruben bears down effectively on the various philosophical questions of the genre: emptiness of immortality, search for meaning in existence, etc.

Punching it across is an uninhibited performance by brunette Andreeff, whose unusual beauty and on-the-edge thesping command sympathy and interest. O'Reilly also is impressive, rising above obvious James Dean mannerisms to create his own persona as the brooding, shoulder-length-hair night creature.

Special effects are modest but fresh. Climax is predictable and undercut by an unintelligible final line of dialog.

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.