Brendan here, and I’m coming to you LIVE with another story about my college years! I skipped classes in a hungover haze on one of the days during my sophomore year. I lounged around, ordered a pizza, and “chillaxed” until rehearsal for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was in the mood for a cheesy zombie flick, and after a quick Google search, I stumbled upon Dance of the Dead. I remembered seeing the Ghost House Pictures cover at the video store next to me, so I shambled over and picked it up. If memory serves, I had a blast with it, but how does it hold up nearly two decades after its release?
Dance of the Dead follows Jimmy (Jared Kusnitz), a class clown who spends his time futzing around in school rather than focusing on his studies. His girlfriend, Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick), breaks up with him due to his lack of romanticism/seriousness. Little do they know how serious things are going to become. The local gravedigger (James Jarrett) is at the frontline of impending doom when he finds the bodies of corpses coming back to life. What is the culprit? Could it be the nuclear power plant looming in the near distance? Jimmy, Lindsey, and a ragtag group of outcasts must band together if they want to make it through the night alive.
Writer Joe Ballarini and director Gregg Bishop crafted a surprisingly fun low-budget zombie flick on what looks like a shoestring budget. Even though the film was based on a script that was supposedly written in the 90s, the inclusion of the nuclear power plant was incredibly poignant for a post-9/11 zombie film. The United States had invaded Iraq due to suspected WMDs/nuclear weapons, so Ballarini’s inclusion of nuclear waste as a catalyst for the zombie apocalypse was a great idea. Thankfully, much of it is inferred, and the film ends with a bit of a cliffhanger so as not to beat the audience over the head with Cold War-era fear. But I’m sure if Damien Leone watched this film, he’d find a way to say there were no political undertones.
As with many aughts-era films, some of the dialogue is incredibly dated. A bit too many f-slurs for my taste. During my viewing I kept cracking up from the number of times I said out loud, “That’s so aughts.” Between the myriad popped polo shirt collars, stylized soundtrack, and Andrew W.K., Dance of the Dead screams the 2000s.
It wasn’t until now that I realized director Gregg Bishop is the man behind one of the only entertaining entries in V/H/S: Viral “Dante the Great”. AND that Justin Welborn, the racist from The Final Destination (the only person to say the N-word in the entire franchise), plays not just Dante the Great but also Kyle Grubin in this film. Grubin and Jared Kusnitz carry Dance of the Dead and give us one of the best zombie-slaying scenes. Along with Gwen (Carissa Capobianco), they take on a mini-horde of zombies with reckless abandon. For a practical zombie film on a low budget, the kills look great. Bishop stretched his dollars when needed and used what he could to create sequences you won’t soon forget.
Apparently, Sam Raimi couldn’t stop laughing when he first saw the film, which is where I split off from him and the majority of others when it comes to this film. The comedy in Dance of the Dead doesn’t work for me and feels forced much of the time, but it wasn’t forced enough to make me like the film any less. It succeeds as a zombie film with a fun cast of characters and that was enough. This film was a healthy dose of nostalgia with a fun soundtrack, great kills, and a genuine love for the genre.
What more could you ask for?
