Dance Macabre

I do actually believe that I have watched the 1992 horror movie "Dance Macabre" once before, probably some time back in the mid-1990s. However, I have to admit that I had forgotten about the movie, and thus opted watch it here in 2024, as I had the opportunity to do so.

And let me just say that now that I've watched the movie again, I realize why this movie was erased from my memory. Talk about a dumpster fire of a storyline if there ever was one. Writer and director Greydon Clark put together an insanely boring and uneventful script and storyline, and that just didn't make for an interesting viewing experience. And while the movie is listed as a horror movie, you have to look long and hard to find anything even remotely horror-like about it.

Of course I was lured into watching "Dance Macabre" because the movie had horror icon Robert Englund on the cast list. And that was about it as for familiar faces, I didn't recognize anyone else on the cast list. The acting performances were fair, but the actors and actresses virtually had nothing wholesome to work with.

Visually then you're not in for anything extraordinary here. There are very little special effects in the movie, so not even that could manage to lift up the movie a bit.

If you enjoy horror movies, you should give "Dance Macabre" a wide berth. It just simply isn't worth the effort.

My rating of writer and director Greydon Clark's 1992 'horror' movie lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

We all know the early 90s were when the slasher and horror in general were almost completely dead. The erotic thriller was in.

Shot in St Petersburg, Russia, the production used their budget on the location and Robert Englund, leaving a small body count and little gore.

Good: The gorgeous locations are beautifully shot with a frequent red lighting and combined with a haunting score and you get quite a nice mood.

Bad: The story repeats itself a lot (girl dies, main girl Michelle complains about being at the academy and wonders where her friends go, the instructors act weird. Repeat). Many characters are rather annoying. As mentioned, the kills are very basic (drowning, strangling, etc) and we only get a bit of blood.

In the end the movie is a bit too tame for slasher fans and not thrilling or erotic enough for fans of those movies. I probably should give this a lower rating but I have a nostalgia of picking this up from the local video store.

Still worth a watch for Robert Englund or the die hard slasher fans.

If you are into this kind of film, then this is a great one. I very much enjoyed it.

The girl who played Jessica was pretty. Robert Englund is always an awesome villain. The setting was nice. Pretty much ballet and slasher movies are a perfect combination. Also cheesy 80's, early 90's slasher movies are mostly fun and this one has that feel.

The movie had glaring weaknesses too-- The original plan of being Phantom of the Opera 2 shows you that there is some problems with the script. There is no opera in this movie at all. Robert Englund's dual character who is revealed at the end is just too obvious and makes the movie silly. There is no gore, so don't get this expecting anything like that.

Still, this is a worthy addition to a VHS collection if you are into this kind of film. I liked it alot.

A doleful fable that one must hope will be the sole example of a Ballet Slasher genre, this socio-cultural hybrid is additionally not unique in any other fashion, with a result that ennui will be the fate of those viewers who may see it, although taking into account the somewhat tarnished reputation of director Greydon Clark, their numbers should probably be few. Although featured player Robert Englund has stated that this affair is not a sequel or otherwise related to the version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1989) in which he stars, its producers, 21st Century, have hired Clark to utilize elements from such a hypothetical undertaking, with St. Petersburg, Russia, as setting and with a familiar theme of serial homicide included in the blend. Englund is Anthony Wagner, a renowned American choreographer who, along with his former lover, Svetlana, manages a ballet academy in St. Petersburg, his partner now referred to as "Madame", and confined to a wheelchair following a long past motorcycle collision upon which she and the now deeply facially scarred Anthony were riding. When a young American dancer, Jessica (Michelle Zeitlin) is enrolled by her father (Clark) at the facility, Wagner immediately expresses his amazement at her resemblance to the young Svetlana, a likeness not apparent to a rational viewer. From among the academy attendees, one fortunate woman will be selected to perform with the "St. Petersburg Ballet Russe" and as the most skilled aspirants are being slaughtered by various means and in rapid succession, it becomes apparent that Jessica will make the cut, this not being the only predictable element within a flabbily constructed screenplay. There are problems here with continuity, substandard makeup effects for this essay in Grand Guignol are risible, dubbing, synching and other post-production processing are shabbily accomplished, the photography is hyperfiltered, red plainly being the colour of choice, and the direction, script and scoring are dullish throughout. The much maligned Clark also directs another low budget film with its setting in picturesque St. Petersburg, and in which there is much to like, Russian HOLIDAY (a.k.a. Russian Roulette), but in that movie he benefits from an abler cast, paced by Susan Blakely.

The age of Blu-Ray has brought out some really excellent hidden treasures that, for whatever reason, time had forgotten about. I'd hoped Dance Macabre would be one of those films. It only had a quick release on VHS back in the early 90's and no one ever brought it back up again. Still, hearing about it, I was intrigued.

The elements are all here for a great movie. You have genre legend Robert Englund in a bizarre, multi-character performance, a great setting, the backdrop of ballet, and a crazed murderer running around. It all appears to add up to some potentially interesting Argento-esque thrills. How did it end up being this boring?

Englund's character is the head of a prestigious ballet school in Russia who believes his newest addition to the program is a dead ringer for his lover who was killed in an accident years ago. Someone starts killing people so that she can end up being the star dancer.

All the death scenes are bland and suspense-free and only Englund really sticks out as an interesting actor. Any scenes he's not in are nap inspiring. The music score sounds like something from a late 80's training video and the big twist is so telegraphed and obvious that you wonder why they even bothered to give it a big reveal. Don't bother with this one.