History Recap / MastersOfHorrorS1E3DanceOfTheDead

* DeathByPragmatism: Used, although the victim's pragmatic decision was unquestionably one of the coldest things on the list. [[spoiler:Kate sold her older daughter, who was a strung-out junkie in the process of overdosing to a man who would reanimate her lifeless body to dance in his freak show so that she could support her younger daughter. In the end, she is killed and the surviving daughter trades her mother's body for the sister's so that the sister can be buried.]]

* DueToTheDead: Peggy recovers the body of [[spoiler:Anna]] so it can be buried properly.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[ThePowerOfLove Jak joins Peggy]] against the MC and helps her "rescue" [[spoiler:her zombified sister, Anna]]. Ironically, this act sets off the chain of events that ends with [[FaceHeelTurn Peggy becoming a regular]] at The Doom Room, [[spoiler:and her dead mother the Room's newest "dancer"]].

* JerkAss: Kate has an abrassive personality and causes preventable damage to people ([[spoiler:closing the door on a woman and her daughters during a blitz attack, abandoning Anna to the MC]]), despite her main motivation being her own protection and of her daughters.
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Kate is allowed to die by her favorite child Peggy, in punishment for her treatment of her unfavorite Anna, and her body turned into a dancer in exchange for the former's.]]

* TheReveal: Kate, fed up with Anna's hard-partying lifestyle, allowed her to [[spoiler:die of a drug overdose and sold her corpse to the MC. Trouble was, she [[NotQuiteDead wasn't quite dead]] when her mother sold her.]]

** The girls singing in the blitz scene are eerily similar to the famous ones in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', doubling as an ActorAllusion for Englund.

* AfterTheEnd: DownplayedTrope. The United States still exist, but [[ApocalypseAnarchy lawlessness is rampant]] and chemical warfare has caused untold damage. Jak even says that California [[NoodleIncident no longer exists]].

* AfterTheEnd: DownplayedTrope. The United States still exist, but [[ApocalypseAnarchy lawlessness is rampant]] and chemical warfare has caused unspecified damage. Jak also says that California [[NoodleIncident no longer exists]].

* LastDisrespects: The MC's "dancers" are dead, kept in cold storage and animated with chemicals and electric shocks for amusement and profit, until he decides to throw them in the trash.

* AfterTheEnd: The setting.
* ApocalypseAnarchy: Less pronounced than in most examples.

* DeathByPragmatism: [[spoiler: Used, although the victim's pragmatic decision was unquestionably one of the coldest things on this list. A mother of two sold her older daughter, who was a strung-out junkie in the process of overdosing to a man who would reanimate her lifeless body to dance in his freak show so that she could support her younger daughter. In the end, she was killed and the surviving daughter traded the mother's body for the sister's so that the sister could be buried.]]
* DenOfIniquity: The Doom Room.
* {{Fanservice}}: Many of the workers in The Doom Room go topless.
* ForScience: Used as an apparent legal cover by the MC, as he likes to remind the audience before [[spoiler: showing them some reanimated cadavers that his assistants make "dance" with electric shocks]]. This is present in the short story, as well. It's legal, so long as it's preceded by the "educational" disclaimer.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[ThePowerOfLove Jak joins Peggy]] against the MC [[spoiler:and helps her "rescue" her zombified sister Anna]]. Ironically, this act sets off the chain of events that ends with [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn Peggy becoming one of the regulars]] at The Doom Room, and her dead mother becoming the Doom Room's newest "dancer"]].
* HumanResources: [[spoiler: Jak and his friends are blood harvesters, who steal fresh blood from hospitals (and occasionally from live people) and sell it to the MC.]]
* ILoveTheDead: The MC performs oral sex on an animated female cadaver, and then later receives oral sex from a different animated cadaver.
* JerkAss: Kate, hands down.
* LargeHam: Creator/RobertEnglund, a master of the trope.
* MyBelovedSmother: Kate.

* PhlebotinumDependence: To "dance", the Doom Room's zombie dancers need to be regularly injected with fresh blood -- preferably from older people who are unlikely to have ever done drugs or have an STD. Additionally, the MC keeps a private stash of blood [[IDoNotDrinkWine for his purposes.]]
* ShoutOut: The bouncers at the Doom Room are dressed in the "droog" style (derby hats, white jumpsuits, etc.) featured in the film ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
* SissyVillain: The MC. He wears makeup and is pretty flamboyant.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Kate, fed up with Anna's hard-partying lifestyle, allowed her to die of a drug overdose and sold her corpse to the MC. Trouble was, she [[NotQuiteDead wasn't quite dead]] when her mother sold her.]]
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* TheUnfavorite: Anna.
* WretchedHive: Cruising down the main drag of Muskeet at night makes Dodge City look like Disneyland.

Directed by Creator/TobeHooper and based InNameOnly on a short story by Creator/RichardMatheson. Peggy (Creator/JessicaLowndes) is a 17 year-old girl who lives with her overprotective mother Kate (Marylyn Norry) in a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] US TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Her father died in WorldWarThree and her older sister Anna went missing some years after that. Shortly after meeting a teenage punk named Jak (Creator/JonathanTucker), Peggy ignores the advice of her mother and accompanies him to The Doom Room, a nightclub in the nearby town of Muskeet run by an eccentric manager known only as "the MC" (Creator/RobertEnglund), where the main attraction is the so-called ''[[TitleDrop Dance of the Dead]]''.

** ApocalypseAnarchy: Less pronounced than in most examples, actually.

* DeathByPragmatism: [[spoiler:Used, although the victim's pragmatic decision was unquestionably one of the coldest things on this list. A mother of two sold her older daughter, who was a strung-out junkie in the process of overdosing to a man who would reanimate her lifeless body to dance in his freak show, so that she could support her younger daughter. In the end she was killed and the surviving daughter traded the mother's body for the sister's so that the sister could be buried.]]

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: In this case they are only vaguely reanimated corpses.
* PhlebotinumDependence: In order to "dance", the Doom Room's zombie dancers need to be regularly injected with fresh blood -- preferably from older people who are unlikely to have ever done drugs or have an STD. Additionally, the MC keeps a private stash of blood [[IDoNotDrinkWine for his own purposes.]]

Directed by Creator/TobeHooper and based InNameOnly on a short story by Creator/RichardMatheson. Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) is a 17 year-old girl who lives with her overprotective mother Kate (Marylyn Norry) in a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] US TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture. Her father died in WorldWarThree and her older sister Anna went missing some years after that. Shortly after meeting a teenage punk named Jak (Creator/JonathanTucker), Peggy ignores the advice of her mother and accompanies him to The Doom Room, a nightclub in the nearby town of Muskeet run by an eccentric manager known only as "the MC" (Creator/RobertEnglund), where the main attraction is the so-called ''[[TitleDrop Dance of the Dead]]''.