The Ghost Dance

"The Ghost Dance" focuses on an anthropologist whose archeological dig in the Arizona desert unleashes the spirit of a powerful, corrupt Native American shaman who begins to exact a violent revenge through the possession of a young Native man.

This under-seen relic of '80s video stores could broadly be classified as "redsploitation" fodder, which I suppose could be partly true, though I think "The Ghost Dance" is a bit more sensitive to its themes than other films that fall in that category.

Shot on location in Tucson, the film is benefitted by the stunning desert landscapes and atmospheric museum interiors, the latter of which being where a lot of the story unfolds. The story is also set apart from many of its contemporaries by the fact that its focus is on adult professionals (university professors, anthropologists, researchers), giving it another unusual dimension that differs from the standard teenage stalk-and-slash.

This is not to say that "The Ghost Dance" is a perfect film, as it is far from it; the main element lacking I believe is the background mythology and actual nature of the villain, whose supernatural machinations become muddled and incoherent at times. Despite this, the attention to detail and respect for the Native American culture still feels present. The direction also has an at times "made-for-TV" charm to it.

Overall, "The Ghost Dance" is a worthwhile oddity in the '80s slasher pantheon. It is slightly more cerebral than most of its peers, and the supernatural angle lends a unique dimension, even in spite of the machinations not feeling fully fleshed out at times. As an independent slasher of the time, "The Ghost Dance" is surprisingly much better than many. 6/10.

I'm not really sure if I can even give this movie a legit rating, considering everything worthy that happens in it is in the dark, and since the print is so dark its literally like watching a pitch black screen at times. Pretty much all the kills are in those dark scenes so hopefully one day this rare thing finds itself on a cleaned up blu ray, until then I'll just give it a 7 because what I saw did entertain me.

It's late afternoon on the Arizona desert as workers unearth an Indian body.Dr.Kay Foster(Julie Amato),the director of anthropology at a local university supervises the dig.She finds the remains of an ancient Indian warlord known as Nahaluh.That sinister night an Indian scavenger,Aranjo(Henry Bal)creeps into the excavation and steals an Indian medicine bag.That's where the horror begins.Peter F.Buffa's "The Ghost Dance" is a bloody supernatural slasher flick with a nice Indian angle.The acting is surprisingly good and there is some suspense and gore,including throat slashing and spear impaling.The film is extremely obscure,so grab the copy and treasure it.Highly recommended.8 out of 10.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Ghost Dance; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 1.00 Pace - 1.00 Acting - 1.00 Enjoyment - 1.00

TOTAL - 4.75 out of 10

I do love a good supernatural revenge hack-an'-slash. Sadly Ghost Dance is not a good one. It teeters on the verge of averageness.

The main issue I have with this little picture is the story's scope. A native American's spirit possessing one of his descendants would be looking for some serious payback, and rightly so. However, we don't get half as much as was required, and there's real mention of the tribesman's motive. It gets mentioned in passing but is never expanded upon - It should have been his driving force; his incentive to kill, to set the tables straight. Details such as this are the difference between an okay picture and a wonderful one.

The filming of the screenplay isn't too inventive, though the director does attempt to add more interesting shots and a varied tempo. The shots mostly work and are used when the low budget didn't allow for a respectable special effect. Such as the runaway truck at the burial dig site. The truck pins a man to the side of the opened grave. Instead of seeing the man's legs crushed and held between the truck and mud wall, the director opts to show the scene from outside the grave. By doing this, the actor has to sell his pain and torment. It works, though the scene isn't too well composed. The varied pace isn't as successful, and for one simple reason, it's not varied enough. Though the cutting is quicker and sharper, it's not by too much, and as such, the film's flow hardly alters - not enough to help.

The actors and actresses are the best things about the movie, which isn't much compliment. The only one who hinders the film is the bad guy, Nahalla, played by Henry Bal. It's not Bal's fault though. A non-speaking role is tough to play as it relies on the body and facial acting of the performer; it also needs a good director. In most of the sections Nahalla's in, he's a hulking shadow. Though he has the physique he doesn't possess much ominousness or danger - except for the massive blade he wields. And for a resurrected killer, that is a shame.

Ghost Dance had good possibilities that both the writers and director overlooked. That said, it's still a passable movie to pass an hour and a half, but only if you have nowt else to watch and you've stumbled across it on a streaming service for free.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked Ghost Dance.

Take Care & Stay Well.

So I got this somewhere recently and for some reason put it on to watch. It looked super duper cheesy and sometimes I get in the mood for that. I put it on and saw a dark poorly made movie and thats always reason to make me wanna quit watching, but I didn't.

It was a plot thats been done a million times of archaeologists digging on sacred ground and the mummy of a native American comes and kills a bunch of people! the end LOL.

It was decent for a slasher movie and although I never want to see it again I will say if you like slasher movies that it is pretty good. Its not just a slasher movie its a bit deeper plot wise. Very rare movie, so if you find it you might wanna watch it.

4 out of 10 stars