Slash Dance

What a pathetically bad movie. As a slasher movie, the tension and excitement are non-existent. If you're looking for gore, blood and guts,this isn't for you either. If you blink a few times while watching the movie, you might miss what little there is. The acting is soooo bad. It's hard to tell if they are trying to be that bad to be funny or are they really that bad. The characters are pitiful. There seems to have been very little thought put into this film. They did try to interject some humor into the film, which just made it worse. So let's see, it isn't scary, exciting, or humorous and the acting is terrible. But at least you have the dancing. No, you don't have that either. What you have is several girls trying to act like they are professional dancers all the while saying one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight as they do their so-called dance moves. The dancing is a joke, they are terrible. There is nothing in this movie worth watching. It's dull, boring, and poorly acted. Don't say I didn't warn you.

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the film on Glencoe video cassette.

Catchy title notwithstanding, "Slash Dance" is a meek horror thriller headed for home video shelves.

Filmmaker James Shyman's tame approach is more slasher-film meets "A Chorus Line" than the Jennifer Beals pic punned upon. A maniac is killing the young women auditioning for a role in a musical show at the Van Slake theater. Lovely cop Cindy Maranne goes undercover as a dancer to root out the baddie.

Minor plot pits Van Slake heirs Joel von Ornsteiner and William Kerr as prime, too-obvious suspects.

Pic suffers from too much attempted comic relief (Von Ornsteiner's geek-style overacting is a pain) and surprising prudishness. Dancing, endlessly shown in rehearsal form, is boring and staged without style. Tech credits, especially Geza Sinkovics' colorful lensing, are above average.

I watched this film as a child originally. It was one of many films that created my interest in bad horror/comedy movies. I recently re-watched it because I realized that several of the ladies from GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) starred and were featured. America from GLOW is in the lead role with supporting roles by GLOW Characters Matilda The Hun and Beastie. Do not expect a regular cheap horror movie with this one. It was made to be a combination horror/comedy film and is purposely campy.

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Quite entertaining for a lower budget independent film. Whenever the film begins to slow, it is saved by the decent acting and pretty face of Cindy Maranne (Americana GLOW Wrestling). If you're a straight-to-video fan from the 80's you'll love this flick.

This slasher-with-not-much-slashing is NOT the Lucio Fulci flick (aka Murderrock). With a title like Slash Dance, I was expecting this to be a hoot. This is apparently a little-seen movie and it should stay that way. Young women start disappearing when showing up at a shoddy Hollywood theatre to audition for...um...a chorus line or something. A detective goes undercover and...um...joins it. The story doesn't make sense, the acting is painful, and the dancing is even worse. The 80s fashion and music is the kind that everyone tries to forget. There are several failed attempts at humor that don't work because of stoneface delivery. The most bizarre part of this movie is that some of the castmembers (including the abs-of-steel lead) were GLOW wrestlers. There are also two characters that are apparently beach steroid dealers that act like...well...pro wrestlers. If you really enjoy bad 80s movies that are borderline "so bad it's good," then you might get some chuckles out of this. I didn't quite make it to that point. My rating: 1/10