Paul Magne Haakonsen This was a zombie movie, so of course I am there to watch it.However, it turned out that "Dance of the Dead" was a stereotypical zombie movie, to say the least.The movie was crammed with very uninteresting characters, and that gave the acting performers very little to work with. Despite having so little to work with, then the acting performances was actually adequate. And the casting crew had done a good job in finding the actors and actresses.Aside from the cardboard characters, then the movie also suffered from having a very generic plot. And it offered nothing new to the zombie genre in any way.Some of the special effects and make-up was good, while some was very low budget in appearance. And worst of all, the movie had running zombies in it, which is a huge no-go for me. And some of the zombies were saying 'brains' when chasing after the living, whether or not that was an homage to "Return of the Living Dead" or not, I can only speculate.It made no sense that music could keep zombies still in a trance-like state. But hey, I guess directors and writers are free to alter and add to the zombie lore, so sure, why not?

daggersineyes What a wonderful surprise this movie was. After reading a lot of miserable, negative reviews I decided I'd give it a go anyway because nothing in the bad reviews was telling me it was boring. I approached it with caution hoping I wouldn't end up feeling like I wasted my money and time. But truth is, I liked the idea of a movie with a "low budget" feel, unsophisticated special effects, cheesy humour and even bad dialog. Sometimes they are entertaining because of all that.But it turned out to be an absolute gem! Instead of being entertained by how bad it was, I was entertained by how GOOD it was. What this director has achieved with just a teensy budget puts a lot of the big players to shame. The characters were quirky and adorable, there was actually a little bit of character development and unexpected twists in their behaviour. Cool music, wonderful camera work and direction and perhaps the biggest surprise - lots of good acting! Sure there was some hammy performances but many of the actors were REQUIRED to be hammy. The characters were drawn larger than life. They were exaggerations of the kind of characters you find in this genre all the time. The movie was deliberately parodying the stereotypes and clichés and messing around with them. I guess those negative reviewers missed the point - unfortunately for them.After I saw this movie I read a bit about how it was made and that increased my admiration for all of the people involved in it. There is a genuine warmth and a sort of joy that emanates from everyone and everything about it. It must have been awesome to work on it together - and it shows. There were so many characters I really loved I found myself hoping for a sequel!! And some of the scenes were astounding. The "makeout" scene in particular was gruesome & hilarious. I also liked the way the scenes in the graveyard were done, loved the walking torso and of course, the zombie carrying it's head around so it could see. LMAO So much to love!! Ignore the nit-pickers and people who didn't get it. It's not an Oscar winning movie. It's a well directed low budget funny horror flick. It's a barrel of fun. Watch it. You wont regret it.

BA_Harrison When Shaun of the Dead came out, some bright spark coined the bloody irritating term 'rom-zom-com' to describe the romantic zombie comedy genre. I can go one better: Dance of the Dead is a romantic zombie comedy that takes place at a high-school prom, making it a 'prom-rom-zom-com'!The film takes place in a small town where high school students are busy preparing for their annual school dance, unaware that the dead are stirring in the local cemetery thanks to radioactive goop from a nearby nuclear power plant; when their Hawaiian Hula party is crashed by the zombies, it is up to the school's sci-fi nerds (who didn't attend the prom because they couldn't get dates) to try and save the day.Although comedy and horror are notoriously difficult genres to blend, laughs and scares occupying opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, Dance of the Dead, from director Gregg Bishop, is one of those films that gets the balance just right, the result being a funny, frightening, highly spirited, delightfully bloody and hugely enjoyable zombie romp that really deserves more recognition than it seems to get.Bishop handles the pacing brilliantly, wisely giving his audience enough time to get to know and like his characters (even the total douches) before subjecting them to the horror, a trick that makes proceedings more intense when the crap finally hits the fan: he also manages several refreshingly original touches that really help distinguish this film from the countless other zombie comedies of recent years: I particularly love the way that his flesh-eaters launch themselves from their graves and hit the ground running (I've never seen that done before); the routine 'survivors barricaded in the house' scenario takes a hilarious yet horrific turn with the realisation that the building is a funeral home; and an unexpected romance is given a tragic and rather nasty twist when the couple suddenly become zombified.The predominantly young cast all give finely tuned performances, with particularly appealing turns from leads Jared Kusnitz and Greyson Chadwick (who gets sexier the bloodier she becomes), and memorable support from Carissa Capobianco as cute cheerleader Gwen, Justin Welborn as school-bully-turned-hero-turned-zombie Kyle, and Blair Redford as too-cool-for-school rocker Nash Rambler. Meanwhile, Mark Oliver represents the older generation admirably with a comical turn as gung-ho army nut Coach Keel, whose impressive home arsenal comes in very handy against the living dead.

adamcarlton dance of the dead is a fairly low budget zom-com with no widely known actors and there is virtually no media coverage for it either. needless to say it is well worth seeing for zombie or comedy fans.the acting is overall fairly good. the cast does a good job of filling their roles and for the most part you care about what happens to them. look out for the cool high school bully and the gym coach. 7/10 the dialogue is a little hit and miss. sometimes the characters come out with cringe worthy lines or just things that are completely unconvincing and silly at the time or just cliché. other times characters come out with some funny and appropriate lines such as the coach with "ill have this place wired like a crack-head drinking' a red bull". id say the dialogue is half cheesy half decent/funny/cool. 5/10the special effects are top notch. the sets, makeup, gore and general effects are all really good for this kind of movie and there isn't a whole lot to complain about. towards the end there is some pretty nice head squashing/crushing/splitting etc. 8/10 the camera-work and editing is also good with little to complain about. you can tell here and there that its a low budget film from hand-held movements, one too many premature cuts to black, etc. 7/10 the pacing is pretty good throughout, the film takes around half an hour to get going before the zombie action picks up but from then on, there's always something to keep you interested as the film develops. 7/10 overall the the effects, the acting, pacing, camera-work, and dialogue come together to make a far above average b movie zom-com. it isn't quite on par with shaun of the dead, but it isn't too far off. think 'teen shaun of the dead with a lower budget centered around a high school prom' and uve got dance of the dead.7/10