Deadly Dancers: Six Wild Dance Performances In Horror You Need to See to Believe
It has been a couple of weeks since I saw28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and I’m still reeling from that Iron Maiden scene. You can read my thoughts on it here. Ralph Fiennes shaking his money maker and rockin’ out got me thinking of other dance performances in horror that embedded themselves in my mind like wriggling brain worms. Scenes that had me looking like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, eyes wide and soaking it all in. Those moments that make you want to leap up out of your seat and shake it till you make it.
Below, you’ll find a list of some of the most unforgettable dance performances in the horror genre. Some are stylish and sexy. Others, absurd. But all have a hypnotic quality that makes it damn near impossible to look away. In line with Bone Temple, I focused on non-musicals, highlighting scenes in films where dance is not the main draw. So, you won’t see mentions like Tim Curry in Rocky Horror, no matter how incredible. Nor will you see flash-in-the-pan moments such as Crispin Glover spasming out of control for a mere few seconds in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, despite my obsession with that scene.
So, take a seat. Turn the volume up to eleven. And hold onto your butts, because it’s about to get nuts.
WARNING: May induce sudden hip thrusts.
Amelia Kinkade – Night of the Demons (1988)
They say a good dancer looks possessed on the dance floor, but this is next level. Kevin Tenney’s horror classic about teens partying in an old house that’s home to demons is a Halloween staple. Part of that is thanks to the performance of Amelia Kinkade as possessed goth, Angela.
One poor stud happens upon the girl by herself, unbeknownst that she’s just become demonic soul food. Fireplace burning, music pumping, and strobe-light flickering, the possessed teen twists and turns like a ballerina from Hell. All while the stud muffin looks on in bewildered yet a little turned on amazement. Sexy. Entrancing. Kind of scary. It’s the sort of dance that’ll have you wishing every Halloween party had an Angela. Demons never fail to bring a good dose of spice to any event.
Mark Patton – A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
It seems every slasher franchise eventually features an odd dance performance (looking at you, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter). A Nightmare on Elm Street got there as early as the first sequel with this little number from Mark Patton.
The actor plays Jesse, the next teen unfortunate enough to move into 1428 Elm St. Dad orders his soon-to-be-possessed-by-Freddy son to unpack his room. Jesse begrudgingly obliges…but not without a little dancing! The most ’80s sunglasses you’ve ever seen come on. Butts push in drawers. Toys are used as phallic innuendos. By the time mom and love interest, Lisa (Kim Myers), barge in, they might as well have caught the poor kid touching himself. It’s a lesson that sexy dancing always makes cleaning your room more fun…but lock the damn door, first.
Salma Hayek – From Dusk Till Dawn
Listen, it doesn’t get much better than Salma Hayek performing the ultimate burlesque dance while wearing a python around her neck, flames erupting behind her. Hayek plays Satanico Pandemonium—named after the 1975 Mexican horror film—a vampire queen. Her dance embodies the movements of the snake hanging from her body. Slow, rhythmic, utterly hypnotic. The last great show that the patrons of the Titty Twister will ever see before she and her vampiric cohorts drink up. There are worse ways to go, I suppose.
Fun fact: Hayek had to overcome her fear of snakes to do the scene. Good thing she did, because thirty years later, it’s still one of the most iconic dance sequences in the genre.
Atanas Ilitch – Slumber Party Massacre II
Okay, so I’m stretching my “no musicals” rule a touch here since you could classify Slumber Party Massacre II as one if you really wanted to. But I can’t hit publish without including this little number from the Driller Killer (Atanas Ilitch).
Deborah Brock’s sequel about a girl band stalked by a supernatural killer in the vein of Freddy features the occasional musical number. Yet it’s Driller’s rockabilly jam that will, er, drill its way into your mind forever. Equipped with a drill-tipped guitar and clad in leather, the murderous rocker sings and shakes his hips towards his next victim. Once you see him jiggle his ass as he backs towards her, you’ll never unsee it. Ilitch’s performance here is Exhibit A for why I wouldn’t mind seeing the average slasher villain break out a musical number. Who doesn’t want to see Jason Voorhees do a little jiggle?
Grace Jones – Vamp
Salma Hayek and her performance in From Dusk Till Dawn more than deserve a spot on this list, but that scene owes everything to Grace Jones inVamp. Tarantino pretty blatantly lifted the plot for his and Robert Rodriguez’s 90s vampire hit from this film. In it, Jones plays Katrina, a vampire queen operating a strip club that lures patrons to their doom. Sound familiar?
Whereas Hayek incorporates serpentine moves into her dance, Jones is like a wild tiger on stage. Donning fierce red hair, pale makeup, and exquisite body paint, she’s like a raging fire shaking, crawling, and silently roaring at the audience. It’s strange. It’s seductive. And it set the bar for every vampire queen dance that has come since.
Angela Trimbur – The Final Girls
Todd Strauss-Schulson’s Last Action Hero meets Friday the 13th twist on the slasher formula makes facing off against a supernatural killer look like a goddamn blast. Again and again, the clever narrative finds inventive new ways to toy with genre tropes.
At a certain point, our heroes realize they must contain Tina (Angela Trimbur), whose sex appeal draws the machete-wielding Billy (Daniel Norris) out of the woods. But once they devise a trap, they “unleash the beast” to lure the killer into it. Out comes Tina with the hottest dance to “Cherry Pie” that you’ll ever see someone perform in mittens and a lifejacket. Her Xena warrior call as she flashes Billy puts a perfect cap on a scene that I hope someday reaches the iconic status of others on this list. I’m still waiting for that sequel.
What are some of your favorite dance scenes in horror? Let us know in the comments below!
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