Tobe Hooper 2 for 1 Special

Masters of Horror Presents: Dance of the Dead & The Damned Thing

Directed By: Tobe Hooper

Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Pentagrams for The Damned Thing/2.75 out of 4 Pentagrams for Dance of the Dead

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

Tobe Hooper has found some magic on the small screen. After years of struggling to make successful feature films, Hopper has returned to the television medium that has previously been good to him.

I have to admit from the onset that I’m a big Hooper fan and that my opinions of his work a very biased towards that. I for instance see the good in his work even when it has been less than great. I do that because I know that he is great, this he has proven. It’s pointless to mention his agreed upon classics of the genre. But know that I for one find movies like Lifeforce and The Mangler to be really fun to watch. Many disagree. Especially with The Mangler. Their loss.

I have a soft spot for the man because he has struggled through some serious lows (Spontaneous Combustion, Night Terrors, Crocodile). His ability to pull himself back into form after so much adversity really gets to me. The 90’s where basically awash and it would seem as though he was finished. Then, out of nowhere he starts getting hired to do good stuff again. His first big return came in 04, with The Toolbox Murders. Thirty years after Chainsaw and I think that was his goriest work ever. Then he follows that up with Mortuary in 05, which again the critics pan, but I see the greatness in.

These two films to me proved he still had it. He seemed reinvigorated with youth. It probably helped to have a couple of young screenwriters providing the stories for both. Working with fresh talent and a decent budget, Hooper was back!

At that point the Masters of Horror project pops up and Hopper has a chance to continue to explore new and old territory. In hour-long segments, Dance of the Dead and The Damned Thing present tight and energetic bursts of mini-Cinema. He seems very comfortable working in this controlled format.

Both shorts are very different in look and feeling. Dance of the Dead is a more science-fiction apocalypse shocker, while The Damned Thing is classic, dark horror. Of the two I enjoyed The Damned Thing to a much greater degree. I was surprised at how far Hooper pushed the envelope with brutal kill scenes. I feel like this is as brutal as I’ve ever seen him. A supernatural force terrorizes an entire Texas town, specifically the family of the town’s sheriff. The sheriff tries to understand what’s happening and stop it but finds himself eventually overwhelmed by the madness-educing monster.

I never once considered that what I was seeing was TV. Everything about the production from the acting to the effects was just as they would be if this were a film. When the hour was up I had felt as though I saw a complete movie.

Dance of the Dead on the other hand probably benefited more from the fact that I considered it’s made for television format. A futuristic tale of a post-nuclear war town in which depraved teens sell stolen blood and beat up old people.

The title Dance of the Dead refers to a military serum that made soldiers rise up and continue bodily function after death. After the war, the serum is black marketed for use in making dead women convulse around a nightclub stage while being probed by tasers. Said nightclub, the Doom Room, is run by MC, Robert Englund himself. Englund is his diabolical best but the horror is a little thin. We mostly get a twisted love story between a bad boy and the innocent town virgin he helps turn to the dark side.

The film repeatedly employs a Natural Born Killers visual technique where everything gets disoriented and distorted. They probably could have toned that down a bit.

It didn’t seem very likely that the 17-year old girl would so quickly find herself relishing in the midst of inhalants, drunk-driving and sex and violence in the streets but hey, nothing about this future seemed realistic.

Aside from that this was still good, entertaining TV. It didn’t hold up as strongly as Damned but it was worthy of its difference. Hooper doesn’t just do the same films over and over. In fact I feel like everything he’s ever done Is it’s own separate thing, very different from everything else. And after over 30 years in the business to continue to take chances and try new approaches is the genius of the man. He doesn’t always hit the mark dead on, but when he does it’s great. Surrounded with talent and resources, Hooper proves he deserves a place amongst the other greats like George Romero and John Carpenter.

The Masters of Horror series was a great opportunity for him to showcase his talent and will hopefully springboard him into still greater opportunities to do features again.