- Dance of the Dead (Masters of Horror)
-
"Dance of the Dead" Masters of Horror episode 
DVD cover for Dance of the DeadEpisode no. Season 1
Episode 3Directed by Tobe Hooper Written by Richard Matheson Production code 103 Original air date November 11, 2005 Guest stars Erica Carroll
Robert Englund
Emily Graham
Lucie Guest
Jessica Lowndes
Ryan McDonald
Marilyn Norry
Melena Ronnis
Jonathan TuckerEpisode chronology ← Previous
"H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House"Next →
"Jenifer"Dance of the Dead is the third episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on November 11, 2005. Richard Christian Matheson adapted the episode from a short story of the same name by his father, Richard Matheson. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan scored this episode.
Plot
In 2008, terrorists developed a biological weapon called "Blizz". They used this weapon in local weather patterns in the United States. As it falls from the sky, it will instantly burn any living thing it touches. At her seventh birthday party, young Peggy (Emily Graham) watched as her friends were killed by Blizz.
Ten years later, America has been ravaged by the effects of World War III. The death count continues to rise in this dark and bleak future and some states simply no longer exist. Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) is now a teenager, ignorant of the world outside of her mother's diner. She has lost both her father and her sister, Anna, and now depends on her mother, Kate (Marilyn Norry). One day, Peggy meets biker/drug addict Jak (Jonathan Tucker) and his two "friends", junkies Boxx (Ryan McDonald) and Celia (Lucie Guest). The three are into some shady dealings with a nightclub called The Doom Room, located in the town of Muskeet.
Kate warns Peggy that "everything the people of Muskeet do is a goddamn trick", and although she's afraid to disobey her mother, Peggy sneaks out with Jak in the middle of the night to the Doom Room with Boxx and Celia. Muskeet, as it appears, is completely ravaged and the home to ravagers, sociopathic bikers, and teenagers. The Doom Room is a heavy metal bar run by an MC played by Robert Englund. As Peggy and Celia watch the band Decree perform, Boxx and Jak go behind the stage to perform a business deal with the MC. They trade him packets of blood, for what has yet to be revealed. The MC promises that he will pay them if their product is good enough for the next "performance". If not, he'll make them eat it.
Back at Peggy's house, Kate awakens to find that she is not there, and instinctively knows that she's in Muskeet.
Robert Englund as The MC
At that point, Peggy witnesses what the performance is. The MC has collected victims of Blizz who suffer from a medical abnormality where they still stand even after they've died. This condition was first discovered in the battlegrounds of the war. They are then pumped with blood and forced to dance, and those who don't move are shocked with electric prods. Peggy watches in horror as the MC brings out her own sister, Anna (Melena Ronnis).
When Anna falls off the stage, Peggy and Jak take her away from the Doom Room, to be followed by the MC and one of his goons. Peggy and Jak meet up with Kate where the MC sheds some light on how he came to "own" Anna. When she was still alive, Anna was just like the other teenagers in Muskeet, and Kate was sick of having to drag her out of the Doom Room every weekend. Then Anna overdosed on drugs, so Kate decided to sell her to the MC, and she was apparently still alive.
Kate is beaten down and tries to explain to Peggy that she sold Anna because they had nothing. Angered at what her mother did, Peggy trades her for Anna. In the end, Peggy becomes another Muskeet style teenager, and watches as Kate's corpse is beaten with electric rods and forced to dance in the Doom Room. Momentarily, Kate's face flashes from that of her corpse to an evil version of her snarling at the viewer menacingly.
Cast
- Jonathan Tucker as Jak
- Jessica Lowndes as Peggy
- Ryan McDonald as Boxx
- Marilyn Norry as Kate
- Lucie Guest as Celia
- Robert Englund as The M.C.
External links
- Dance of the Dead at the Internet Movie Database
- Review for Dance of the Dead at Dread Central
Season 1 Incident On and Off a Mountain Road · H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House · Dance of the Dead · Jenifer · Chocolate · Homecoming · Deer Woman · John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns · Fair-Haired Child · Sick Girl · Pick Me Up · Haeckel's Tale · ImprintSeason 2 The Damned Thing · Family · The V Word · Sounds Like · Pro-Life · Pelts · The Screwfly Solution · Valerie on the Stairs · Right to Die · We All Scream for Ice Cream · The Black Cat · The Washingtonians · Dream CruiseRelated Richard Matheson Novels I Am Legend (1954) • The Shrinking Man (1956) • A Stir of Echoes (1958) • The Beardless Warriors (1960) • Hell House (1971) • Bid Time Return (1975) • What Dreams May Come (1978)Short stories "Born of Man and Woman" (1950) • "Blood Son" (1951) • "Button, Button" (1970)Screenplays The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) • House of Usher (1960) • "The Last Flight" (1960) • "Nick of Time" (1960) • "A World of Difference" (1960) • "A World of His Own" (1960) • Master of the World (1961) • The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) • "The Invaders" (1961) • "Once Upon a Time" (1961) • Night of the Eagle (1962) • Tales of Terror (1962) • "Little Girl Lost" (1962) • "Young Man's Fancy" (1962) • The Raven (1963) • "Death Ship" (1963) • "Mute" (1963) • "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963) • "Steel" (1963) • The Comedy of Terrors (1964) • The Last Man on Earth (1964) • "Night Call" (1964) • "Spur of the Moment" (1964) • Fanatic (1965) • The Young Warriors (1966) • "The Enemy Within" (1966) • The Devil Rides Out (1968) • De Sade (1969) • Duel (1971) • The Night Stalker (1972) • The Night Strangler (1973) • The Legend of Hell House (1973) • Dracula (1973) • The Morning After (1974) • Trilogy of Terror (1975) • The Martian Chronicles Mini-Series (1980) • Somewhere in Time (1980) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) • "Button, Button" (1986) • Loose Cannons (1990) • The Dreamer of Oz (1990) • Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) • Trilogy of Terror II (1996)Adaptations
by others"And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959) • "Third from the Sun" (1960) • Cold Sweat (1970) • The Omega Man (1971) • The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) • What Dreams May Come (1998) • Stir of Echoes (1999) • "Dance of the Dead" (2005) • "My Ambition" (2006) • I Am Legend (2007) • I Am Omega (2007) • The Box (2009) • "The Splendid Source" (2010) • Real Steel (2011)Categories:- 2005 television episodes
- Adaptations of works by Richard Matheson
- Films directed by Tobe Hooper
- Masters of Horror episodes
- Post-apocalyptic television series
- Television programs based on short fiction
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
