Dance Macabre

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.

Okay, we need to talk about the "grand finale" of this (righteously) forgotten early 90s slasher. I honestly don't want to ruin it, but is there anyone -seriously - who didn't figure out the supposedly shocking end-twist from the first moment Svetlana rolls into the picture in her wheelchair? Slashers from the early 1990s don't score well on inspiration or creativity, I know, but the revelation of "Dance Macabre" is too preposterous, ridicule, and predictable for words. Besides, after looking up the film here on IMDb, I also noticed the cast listing blatantly gives away the big twist as well.

It had potential, though. Based on other sadistic and bloody horror flicks with a ballet academy setting (like Argento's "Suspiria" or Fulci's "Murder Rock") and my appreciation for writer/director Greydon Clark (he did make "The Return" and "Without Warning" after all), I had relatively good hopes that "Dance Macabre" would at least be an undemanding but grim slasher with a massive body count. And, of course, there's the lead role of horror monument Robert Englund as the scar-faced and sinister ballet academy's headmaster. How bad can it possibly be, right?

The painful truth is that, since the "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels, Robert Englund only starred in lousy flicks in which depicted eccentric weirdos ("Phantom of the Opera", "Night Terrors", "The Mangler") and this is his worst and most unconvincing role of them all. The body count is reasonably high, but the killing methods are dull, unimaginative, and frustratingly un-gory. Clark's direction is thoroughly unremarkable. Perhaps he felt restricted by the omnipresence of producer Menahem Golan, but even Clark's notoriously terrible "Uninvited" had more panache. In fact, there's only one brightness in "Dance Macabre" and it's lead girl Michelle Zeitlin. Not necessarily because she's a gifted actress, but because she's a beauty with a breathtaking body. She's a lot curvier and more voluptuous than a ballet dancer ought to be, but I'm not complaining. Apparently, Zeitlin quickly quit the acting business and hosts wellness workshops nowadays.

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.

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.

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.