Dreams In The Witch-House & Dance Of The Dead Review Country : USA Year: 2005 Genre: Horror Format: Broadcast Running Time: 60 minutes Network: Showtime Auteurs Stuart Gordon and Tobe Hooper bring you two new blood-curdling installments of Masters Of Horror Credits "Dreams In The Witch-House" directed by Stuart Gordon. Starring Ezra Godden. "Dance Of The Dead" directed by Tobe Hooper. Starring Robert Englund. Alright, I missed it last week even though I promised I would review the new episodes every Friday night... shoot me. So I'm going to make up for it by giving you a double review of two more shorts in the excellent series, Masters Of Horror. Director Stuart Gordon of Re-Animator fame adapts another H.P. Lovecraft story with 'Dreams In The Witch-House' for the second episode of the cycle. Gordon, who always pulls off excellent adaptions of everything Lovecraft delivers again. This episode actually disturbed me quite a bit. Maybe it's because I'm a new father, but none the less, it does take a lot of disturb me, so hats off to Gordon. A true master of horror. In 'Dreams', Walter (Ezra Godden) Gilman, a college student rents a loft in a building in the New England town of Arkham. While studying interdimensional string theory at college he is haunted by nightmares of a 17th century witch and her rat with a human face. He must prevent the death of his neighbors baby at the hands of these forces. Godden (Dagon) pulls off another Bruce Cambell-ish role, and should get more work. It seems he is only working in Gordon's films though. The one major drawback to this short is the F/X work. It's shoddy as hell, and the CG at the end (with the baby) is just plain awful. Maybe next time, they will do the right thing and stick with mechanical F/X, which could have been pulled off very easily. I have to say, I enjoyed it and will for sure give it The Pit seal of approval. The next episode is Tobe Hooper's 'Dance Of The Dead'. This story revolves around a post-apocalyptic town where re-animated corpses of friends and enemies dance on stage for the few people who survived a nuclear holocaust. Peggy, a naïve girl, learns of the dangers of the outside world and the sacrifices made to guarantee her survival. 'Dance' is based on a story by horror novelist Richard Matheson, and was adapted for 'Masters' by his son Richard Christian Matheson. I am still a little confused by the short, but it did turn out to be highly entertaining and sleazy as hell. Robert Englund gives a creepy-as-all-hell spin to his character dubbed 'The MC' and shows that he can do just about anything and make it excellent. Jonathon (Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) Tucker plays bad boy Jak and does a fine job. I found it funny that he wound up working for Tobe Hooper after being in the Chainsaw remake. With 'Dance', Tobe Hooper does an excellent job with his direction and seemingly is back to his roots. The pace was great and he never lets up for one second. Now, with the excellent Toolbox Murders remake, its pending sequel, and Mortuary on the horizon... Tobe proves he is still a Master of Horror and does us all proud. You can catch all three Masters episodes on Showtime all weekend. OFFICIAL SITE 'THE INCIDENT ON AND OFF A MOUNTAIN ROAD' REVIEW 'CHOCOLATE' REVIEW 'JENIFER' REVIEW 'HOMECOMING' REVIEW SOUNDTRACK REVIEW Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com