Murder-Rock: Dancing Death 4K 1984 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

An unknown murderer kills the girls of a dance school in an original way: first he puts the victim to sleep with ether, then pierces her heart with a long needle. The mentor of the victims sees a man in her dreams, a retired alcoholic actor, who tries to kill her. She finds the man and they begin an affair. The dancers continue to die from a stab in the heart....

Review 4K Movie

Some viewers tend to regard the film as an imitation of American slasher movies, but for Lucio Fulci, that would be too simplistic. There is no unpretentious “hack-and-slash” here. The story is more likely to come from giallo, skillfully using artistically virtuoso sadism to frame a cleverly twisted detective story. Black gloves in front of the camera lens, relishing murders, beautiful women as victims, Eros and Thanatos at the climax of the attack scenes. And there is something else characteristic of Italian “yellow detectives” that is revealed closer to the denouement.

We all know that Fulci had already created talented giallo films and could easily have repeated this again, but the charm of the production lies in the director's special effort to experiment with the overall atmosphere, fitting the script with a killer with a thousand and one suspicions into an atypical musical setting. The screen is filled with a lightness of being, enhanced by rhythmic compositions, graceful dancers, and truly mesmerizing sensual numbers, presented by the virtuoso discoveries of a cinematographer who knows how to express the emotions of the body through the screen. The beginning of the film can easily compete with the hit Flashdance, which is high praise for any musical film with choreography, but further on, the author is interested in the usual genre conventions, which paint a tense story about a mysterious maniac. The investigation of his crimes is quite intriguing, and the suspenseful plot is masterfully demonstrated in order to delicately flirt with a little bloodshed on screen, but expressively depict the fragility of human life in the clutches of a murderer. The tools of the trade are a skilled cinematographer, editor, and sound engineer, who brilliantly captured the ominous technique of a thumping heartbeat and its cessation, instead of the hackneyed screams of victims.

Of course, a particularly attentive viewer will be able to quickly weed out the false clues or spot the scattered hints to the film's mystery even in the first hour of the film, but this does not make the work any worse. The recognizable cast fits their roles well. The climax does not seem contrived, using psychological realism. Even a touch of mysticism finds its place, allowing Fulci to express his talent in his favorite manner, cleverly weaving something inexplicable into reality, such as non-random, suggestive dreams from the depths of the subconscious.

All of the above adds up to a very appealing, fast-paced detective story with beautiful visuals, vivid musical accompaniment, food for thought for viewers to solve the mysteries, and a pleasant little cameo by the director in one of the scenes. That's all you need for a decent genre work or a valuable