3 out of 5

Director: Tobe Hooper

Atypical for the majority of Hoopers work in that it doesnt lurch into overkill, Dance of the Dead is interestingly subdued. Better than expected, but still average. Here is an alternate history, it seems, where WWIII has happened and the world is nice and ruined. Bliss used to rain from the skies in the past, burning the flesh and taking parents and children from families. Here and now teens are the leading class, hopped up on various new drugs developed during the war and gathering at the Doom Club where they get to watch reanimated corpses injected with something that brings them shivering and dancing back to life. Hoopers overuse of camera / editing tricks dominates much of this episode but it actually works here – its a strange world, and the psychotropic effects make you feel like youre watching the episode through a strobe light, which enhances the oddity of it all. Hooper also succeeds when he can just observe an event and not try to make a story out of it, and thats also what works here: while there is a plot, and a climax of sorts, its more just about observing this strange world. When it slows down and you get to hear the cheesy dialogue and wooden acting, youre kept in tune by the promise of the weird world and surroundings. Englund gets special notice as the MC – still in creepy territory, but getting some room to stretch his acting chops. Stretched to feature length this wouldve been too much, but just properly fills the 60 minutes. Above average for Hooper, better than the majority of MOH, but overall an intriguing hour.