User reviews

After the blockbuster success of dance movies Fame and Flashdance, Lucio Fulci, Italy's 'King of Gore', decided it would be a good idea to cash-in on the craze, so in 1984 he gave the world Murder Rock, a giallo style thriller packed with energetic dance sequences (performed by bodacious babes in skimpy Lycra leotards and leggings) and several murders (performed by a mysterious unseen killer wearing gloves and a leather jacket).

Unfortunately, due to the modus operandi chosen by the movie's murderer—a hat pin in the heart—the film is considerably less gory than Fulci's earlier blood-drenched movies, and, despite it being one of his more competent and visually interesting efforts, many of his loyal fans were disappointed with the result. I found the film no less entertaining than most of Lucio's previous efforts, crammed as it is with wall-to-wall gyrating, sweaty hard-bodied honeys, but a bit more gore would certainly have been welcomed.

Starting with a long opening dance sequence in which we get to see our potential victims bopping away to a pounding disco beat, Fulci makes it quite clear that T&A is high on the agenda. The stunning girls enthusiastically writhe and thrust to the music, building up such a sweat that it isn't long before viewers are treated to the first shower scene, which ends with a busty blonde becoming victim number one. In a virtually bloodless murder, the killer pushes a bejewelled hat-pin into the girl's heaving bosom, puncturing her heart. And a legion of Fulci fans scream, 'Where's the gore?'.

And so it continues, with more dance sequences (including one erotic routine reminiscent of Jennifer Beal's nightclub act from Flashdance) and a few more splatter-free deaths. Fulci tries hard to emulate the directorial stylistics used by his contemporaries in the genre, and manages to throw together some quite interesting visuals, but the film soon becomes tedious, and with my two favourite girls offed first, I quickly started to lose patience.

In typical giallo fashion, the killer is revealed during the film's closing moments, but anyone who has seen this kind of thing before will probably have worked out who was responsible long before the end.

And the relevance of the hat-pins? Well that is never explained leaving me wondering why Fulci picked this method of killing when an axe to the head would have been so much juicier.

Murder Rock gets 6/10, primarily for the oodles of gratuitous nudity (hey, I'm easily pleased!).

One of Lucio Fulci's "gentler" films, MURDER ROCK is not very popular among gore fans (largely because of the lack of eye gougings and disembowellments), but it has much to recommend. The story deals with a maniac who is killing the girls at a dance school in New York -- together, a cop and a psychiatrist track the maniac down. Keith Emerson contributes a dated, but enjoyable, soundtrack, and cinematographer Giuseppe Pinori makes fine use of half-lighting, a la Mario Bava's SEI DONNE PER L'ASSASSINO. Fulci cameos as an agent. Recommended for Italian horror buffs. *** out of ****

A violent shocker with high level on vivid imagery and pure cinematic style in which a nasty murderer executing grisly killings by means of a hypodermic needle-wielding psycho-killer . It starts with a series of murders rock a dance academy in New York . As the mysterous and owner directress , Candice (Olga Karlatos) of a prestigious New York ballet school teams up with a suspicious male model (Ray Lovelock) to solve a series of weird murders of a few of the dancers . Along the way , a tough Police Inspector Lt. Borges (Cosimo Cinieri) investigates the bizarre murders . Save the last dance . . . For hell! .Depraved - Demonic - Diabolical - And Beyond! .New York's best dancers are dying for a part in the next Broadway hit.

Eerie and creepy thriller with full of killings , sexual violence , red herrings , grisly murders by means of a razor blade executed by a psychopath on the loose , loathsome and lots of blood and gore . A mysoginist whodunit with plenty of nudism , explicit scenes of violence and Giallo style , no for squeamish . Concerning the classic giallo plot in which a series killer with a hidden agenda carrying out a criminal spree . It has flamboyant imagery , graphic gore and moody atmospherics , while mixing disco music from Keith Emerson and dancing images in Flashdance style along with Gialli characteristics. Starring the beautiful Greek actress Olga Karlatos giving a fine and attractive acting . Karlatos surrounded and well supported by an Italian cast of usual Italian B actors , such as : Ray Lovelock , Cosimo Cinieri , Geretta Geretta , Christian Borromeo and Claudio Cassinelli who passed away a bit later on , whilst filming Sergio Martino's 'Fists of Steel' .

The motion picture was middlingly directed by Lucio Fulci , and being entertaining enough. And financed in tight budget by Augusto Caminito , Fulci's regular producer and occassionally director . Fulci was one of the most controversial filmmakers in terror genre , though frequently derided as sheer sensationalism and commerciality. Here Lucio Fulci directs in his usual style filled with flaws , failures and gaps , but professionally made because being a nice artisan . Critics are divided over both the moral and talents of Fulci (1927-1996), who sometimes directed under the alias Louis Fuller. For some reviewers many of his flicks are extremely cruel and savage , yet their gory surface often concealing social, religious , or provoking commentaries or other thoughful , intelligent issues . Nevertheless , most of them considering his works have undeniably provided a considerable influence on the terror genre , creating decent efforts on low budget flicks . Standing out his ¨Don't Torture a Duckling¨ deemed to be one of his best pictures . And in the adventure genre with two financially successful Jack London 'White Fang' adventure movies in 1973 and 1974 which were ¨Zanna Bianca¨, and ¨Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca¨. Also during the mid and late 1970s, Fulci directed two 'Spaghetti Westerns' : ¨Four of Apocalypse¨ (1975) and ¨Sella d'argento¨ or ¨Silver Saddle¨(1978), and another 'giallo' ; ¨The Psychic¨ (1977), as well as a few sex-comedies which include the political spoof : ¨The Eroticist¨(1972) , and the vampire comedy ¨Young Dracula¨ (1975) , and the violent Mafia crime-drama ¨Luca the smuggler¨ (1979) . In 1979, Fulci's film making career successfully another high point with him, breaking into the international market with ¨Zombi 2¨ (1979), an in-name-only sequel to George A. Romero's Zombi: Night of the Lving Dead (1978), which had been released in Italy as 'Zombi'. And hiis big hit ¨New York Ripper¨ , at the time rated as a video nasty , due to it and why the excessive extra violence was heavily cut or prohibited in a large number of countries . With this film established Fulci as a gore director par excellence . Over the next three years, Fulci plied his trade with finesse and flair-play , rivaling even the popularity of his "opponent" the great Dario Argento, with such sanguine classics as ¨City of the Living Dead¨ (1980) and ¨Beyond¨ (1981). These films, as well as the reviled "New York Ripper" (1982) are actually intelligently crafted, with sound commentaries on everything from American life to religion. And he went on his fall with lousy movies, but eventually Fulci at least found work in television . Rating : 5/10 . Average , only for Lucio Fulci completists .

Lucio Fulci's Murder Rock is often lambasted by both Fulci and Giallo fans; and although I can certainly see why, I've got to say that this film satisfied me personally and I won't hesitate to label it a successful attempt at blending the tacky eighties styling's of dance phenomenon's the likes of 'Flashdance' with the familiar styling's of the popular Italian Giallo. I'm sure Fulci thought he was on to a definite winner back in 1984 with all these popular elements in one film; and even though I'm not sure how they would have been received at the time, nowadays it stands up as an amusing slice of kitsch nostalgia. I think the director cared more about making a quick buck on this film than providing the mass with a piece of art, and this shines through in the convoluted, but not well put together plot line. As you might expect, the film centres on a dance academy. After one of the girls is found dead, the cops place everyone at the academy under suspicion and when the murders continue; the police are given more leads to eventually track down the perpetrator.

The main reason why this film isn't liked by many of my fellow Fulci fanatics is due to the fact that it's relatively bloodless in comparison to his other works. The likes of The New York Ripper and The Beyond show the director at his gritty, blood-dripping best...whereas the kill scenes in this movie hardly feature any of the red stuff. That being said, they are still rather sadistic, as the killer knocks his victim out with chloroform before puncturing their heart with, of all things, a hat pin. Still, it has nothing on the eyeball violence of Zombie Flesh-Eaters. The musical numbers are atrocious in true eighties pop style, while the dance scenes are rather boring and not what I tuned in for. Fulci does find time to implement some gorgeous visuals, and the blue tint that accompanies most scenes gives the film a certain sense of art. Even though many of the film's elements are not brilliant, I still rate this film as an overall success as it's entertaining and fun to watch, and even though there are too many filler scenes; the plot plays out nicely. It's not a major highlight either for the genre or for the director, but Murder Rock is still worth seeing.

After the death of a highly regarded female dancer at New York's Artistic Dance Centre, the eyes turn to each other, as they learn that they are competing for only three spots that could see them living their dreams. Their dance teacher Candice Norman pushes them to the brink to achieve that goal, due to an accident that crushed her chance. Lt. Borges gets the case, and soon other well-regarded dance students are following the same fate of a hat-pin in the heart. Is joyously, and ambition becoming part of it, but Candice starts believing it's the man in her dreams George Webb, who she eventually meets, that might have something to do with the killings.

Oh didn't the flash dance era hit hard! With a clunky, overwrought soundtrack like this you just get that tingling sensation to join in with the dance routines. For some reason I got Blondie's groovy "Danceaway" stuck my head, when watching it. Constantly it was playing on a loop! Okay the cheesiness of the times really does shine through, but I thought it was a fair effort. It can drag and labour on from time to time, but director Lucio Fulci visually counter-punches those weak spots with raucous masterstrokes of suspense, mood and a slight touch of malevolence. Around this time his was at his peak of displaying gore and splatter to the extreme, but on this occasion his holding back quite a bit to basic deaths involving the unique, but repetitive hat pin to the heart. However the bare flesh is still evident, and there's a sexually arousing dance number or two. The surprisingly well executed use of the camera, lighting and the setting to the lead up to the deaths were far more effective. Fulci stylishly milks his artistic merit with some inspired images. To bad its brought undone by its second rate script with silly reasoning's and contrived developments. It's a trashy and unusual mix of dance and Giallo, but it could've been more twisted than the monotonous and goofy treatment it got. Other than a diverting grizzled, cynic cop performance by Cosimo Cinieri (with such great lines "… school full of S.O.B"), the rest of the lead acting is quite bland (Olga Karlato and Ray Lovelock) and the hilariously hideous dubbing didn't help. Claudio Cassinelli had his amusing moments. I guess the lovely looking girls are just there to pout at the camera and look good. The eclectically flashy music score by Keith Emerson is true to the era and fashionably stylised.

Interestingly watchable novelty that's well-directed, but the material doesn't really rise for the occasion, as it succumbs to unintentional silliness.

Lucio Fulci wanted to make a giallo. But then Flashdance happened and the producers knew Keith Emerson (yes, the Keith Emerson from Emerson Lake and Palmer) and the result was…Murder Rock! Or Murder-Rock: Dancing Death! Or Slashdance! Or The Demon Is Loose!

We start at the Arts for the Living Center in New York, where Candice (Olga Karlatos, the only actress to be in both Zombi 2 and Purple Rain) watches Margie (Geretta Giancarlo from Demons) choreograph dancers for an upcoming talent agent visit. Only three girls will be selected, so they all need more perfection.

That night, Susan, one of the dancers, is murdered in the locker room. First, she is chloroformed. Then, as if Fulci has simply waited too long for something violent to happen, a giant hatpin is inserted into her breast. I imagine Lucio sitting in his director's chair, saying "Why do I have to show all these pretty girls in leotards when everyone just wants to see me rip out one of their eyeballs?"

Lieutenant Borges (Cosimo Cinieri, The New York Ripper) and Professor Davis (Giuseppe Mannajuolo). show up to investigate, choosing Candice, the head of the academy Dick Gibson (Claudio Cassinelli, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) and Susan's boyfriend.

We find Candice at her apartment, where Dick shows up to tell her that he isn't sleeping with any of the students. Anyone that tells you this is pretty much telling you that they totally sleeping with the students. The studio DJ also calls her to update her on the murder.

Back at the school and everyone is back to their routine, which upsets Dick, who tells the cops of the rivalries between the dancers. Later that night –after we see on stage by herself, showing off for the crowd — he shows up at her place, wanting to talk. She finds a photo of him with Susan, but when she turns to find him, he is gone. Worse, her bird is dead, stabbed by a hairpin. And soon, so is she, as a hairpin is thrust into her heart.

But what of Candice? Well, she's having nightmares of the killer, who she sees chasing her with the long hairpin. She sees his photo on a billboard and tracks him down. The man is George Webb (Ray Lovelock, The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue), who isn't the handsome model in the ads any longer. He's now a mess, so she runs from him, leaving her purse in his room.

What would a giallo — or a Fulci movie — be without a red herring? It comes in the form of Bart, a dancer who confesses to the murders because Susan was crazy and Janice was Hispanic (but in a much more racist way). Borges believes that he isn't the killer, but when George comes to the Academy to return Candice's purse, Dick tells the cop that that's their man.

At lunch, Candice tells George about how her dancing career ended after a hit and run accident with a motorcyclist. Now, she can only be a teacher. And she's not convinced that George is on the up and up, as she learns from a talent agent that George once had an affair with a younger girl who died.

Oh yeah — and Margie attacks Candice just like the killer, but Dick saves her.

The killing doesn't stop, though. Jill is killed while Molly, a girl in a wheelchair, takes photos of her. Molly tries to take photos, but the killer escapes. Dick tries to run away, but he's arrested. But again, the killing doesn't stop. Gloria is murdered in the locker room with the trademark hairpin.

It all leads to Candice going back to George's hotel room, where she finds the murder weapon. She runs away and George tries to find her, but she's at the police station, telling the Lieutenant, who agrees to meet her at the Academy.

Ready for the big reveal? When she gets there, she sees a video of every dancer who has died, leaving her screaming their names. George appears with the murder weapon and asks why she set him up. She responds that she knew he was the hit and run driver who cost her so much and that she killed the girls because of her jealousy of them. They had the life she would never know and had to die…and he has to pay for all he has done to her. She grabs the murder weapon and kills herself with it, pushing the weapon into George's hand. The police arrive, but they already knew she was the killer, thanks to the buttons on the killer's jacket being on the left side and Candice knowing details about the murders that they never made public.

That's the plot, but please imagine that there is a leotard-clad dance-off every ten minutes or so.

Murder Rock was part of a planned trilogy entitled "Trilogia della musica" and would have been followed by Killer Samba and Thrilling Blues, but Fulci became ill for two years and abandoned the project.

This film looks gorgeous! It has some stunning shots of the killer coming at the camera and while there is some blood, it isn't at the expense of the story. I literally expected nothing and was rewarded with some great fun. Your ability to enjoy flashdancing and 80's outfits may impact your enjoyment of this film, however!

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Lucio Fulci is a usually very remarkable director who moves with the times, that's for sure. Following the huge success of stupid dancing movies, like "Fame" and "Flashdance", it was an inexplicably popular trend in the early 1980's to insert overlong dancing sequences in horror films as well. Fulci was one of the first foreign filmmakers to cash in on this trend; moreover, he dedicated a FULL movie to the intrigues and competition issues in typical dance academies! The saddening result is a tame and boring movie, very much UN-Fulci and definitely not worth being listed among his other contemporary gore-highlights like "The Beyond", "New York Ripper" and "House by the Cemetery". Someone is killing off the pretty but very competitive girls of one and the same dancing class, only a couple weeks prior to an important recital. Her/his modus operandi is a lot gentler than usual in slashers, since the victims get paralyzed first and then stabbed in the heart with a hatpin. It's truly incomprehensible why Lucio Fulci, commonly known as the Godfather of Gore, decided to make the murders so soft & bloodless, sometimes even happening entirely off-screen! What happened to my horror-idol with his normal passion for nastily cut throats or vile eyeball-stabbings? Perhaps Fulci hoped to reach wider audiences like this or maybe his producers wanted to see a stylish murder-mystery for a change. The hunt for the killer's identity starts off interesting but, due to the repetitive and way too expanded dancing sequences, you stop caring about that pretty soon as well. Italian horror regular Ray Lovelock ("Autopsy", "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie") gives an adequate performance and most of the academy girls are lovely eye-candy (showing a bit of flesh, too), but it constantly remains a dire film.

Murder Rock is one of Lucio Fulci's lesser known films. It was released in the wake of a series of exceptionally violent movies directed by the great man. This one is considerably tamer and not one of his better received critically. It may very well be because it's less intense that it isn't amongst his most popular, I think it's only fair to say that is part of the reason. It's possibly the most blatant attempt by Fulci at making a mainstream movie. He decided to combine the popular horror sub-genre of the time – the slasher – with the 80's fad for fitness. This was the era of Flashdance and Fame, and lycra clad people seemed to be everywhere. I guess it was only a matter of time before a slasher variant on this theme emerged. In keeping with trying to appeal to a wider demographic this one is a relatively bloodless affair as well. It's possible that by trying to appeal to too many people, Murder Rock ended up pleasing fewer.

The story is about a series of murders committed around a dance school in New York. It's one of many early 80's efforts that Fulci set in America. In keeping with its Italian giallo roots though, there is a strong emphasis on the whodunit aspect. This ensures that the story retains a bit of interest and the audience is engaged throughout. There are some moments of giallo weirdness too which always helps such as the recurring dream that the female protagonist has about a sinister stranger trying to kill her. While Keith Emerson is on hand too with an appropriately cheesy soundtrack. It isn't exactly of the standard of the score he did for Dario Argento's Inferno but it does the job. Overall, this is an entertaining movie. A little light-weight perhaps but fun all the same.

Nothing very special about this giallo. A bunch of dancers are trying out for parts, and some get murdered by a hatpin stuck into their left breast (where it looks like it would actually pierce a lung and not the heart as intended). Some of the dancing scenes are pretty sexual.

The studio where they do their dancing has a rather odd system at the end of the day whereby a voice comes over an intercom, and the lights flash on and off repeatedly. I guess this is to make for more suspense or to make the killing scenes more exciting? It's more on the annoying side.

One of the women has a dream in which she is pursued by a killer with a pin (it changes sizes throughout the dream, sometimes appearing giant). She later sees the man from her dream on a billboard. She tracks him down, finding him to be a bit of a washed up, alcoholic actor, and starts a relationship with him.

Much more than that I don't remember.

Loved it. Great suspense, disturbing murder scenes. Not too gory, but the suspense makes up for it. Very tense, the closeups, the pre-murder lighting and screams, the sound of the heart stopping. The victims' desperation is well played. Music is great to set you in the era, but you'll find it cheesy if you don't like 80s stuff. Some of the nudity was perhaps unnecessary but still stylishly done. The movie is weird but well executed. It isn't as gruesome as a gore flick, but I think it was more disturbing as it provides greater immersion. The slow killings are a shocker as you can feel them as real. I found myself trembling several times watching this, both by the murder scenes themselves and the suspense going through all the movie. Great camera shots, great scene composition, awesome lighting. The plot is simple but it works. It's interesting to watch the students accusing each other of the murders. There's an unexpected plot twist that I found rather interesting. Don't watch it if '80s cheesiness puts you off. In my case it was a plus. My first venture into giallo cinema and it satisfied me beyond my expectations. If I can find similar movies will definitely watch them. Last recommendation: do yourselves a favor and don't watch it dubbed, watch it in Italian as it's intended to be watched. Dubs for low budget movies aren't precisely good and will make the movie look fake. Get Italian audio with captions for maximum enjoyment.

the detective in this film was forever grossing me out stuffing his face with shelled nuts, cracking them open with his teeth then scarfing them down, smacking his lips over espresso then using his finger to wipe the sugar off the bottom of the cup then sucking on it noisily. when he wasn't eating he was picking at his face. disgusting performance!

this film was so cookie cutter in terms of how there would be some scene to move the plot/story such as it was. then there would be a scene with weird lighting (who has all this darkness in their apartments for goodnessakes? everyone in NY evidently...) a noise would be heard, the person would caper about cautiously and then the ubiquitous Italian gloved hand of death would finally appear.

I resented having to turn the volume up and down cause I couldn't hear the dialog one moment then Keith Emerson's music would be blaring away . . . it wasn't fun to watch this movie.

the good part was the lampooning of crappy 80s choreography. the poor dancers had to run in place most of the time, tossing their kinky 80s locks back with a snap of their necks. it was about the crappiest dance performance I've ever seen both in terms of conception and execution.

another funny thing is that in counterpoint to the lights flashing on and off when people were about to be killed in the school as described in another review, for some reason when it came time to photograph the corpses, these huge klieg matrices were brought in that over lit everything and burned everyone out in just the same way, only the opposite. if that was supposed to be artistic it wasn't!

(That's me cringing at the aftertaste of "Murder Rock," one of my favorite director's worst efforts.) As it started out I had high hopes, with the ethnic kids break dancing, the horrible music and the random shots of the New York City skyline, I thought: wow, is this gonna be as cool as "Ripper?" Nah...not even close.

The gore is non-existent, the plot is ludicrous, the acting is abysmal and the music is nerve-racking. I love how everyone who gets killed does not defend themselves against what has to be the single scariest weapon in Italian horror movie history: the RAG! Wow, did they forget how to use their hands? Come on guys, let's have a little believability in this next scene...nope. It continues 'til the end. It's like they were paralyzed by the chloroform before it even touched their mouths.

When we find out who the 'killer' is, it is ridiculous and implausible, for there were many murder scenes in the film where the killer could not have been two places at once. I'm willing to forgive a little bit of absurdity in a giallo provided there is some gore, good music and awesome cinematography, but "Murder Rock" delivers none of the above so I can show no mercy here.

I can dig 'bad' Fulci and I think I own every one of his movies but he missed huge with this one. My least favorite Fulci film.

3 out of 10, kids.

I thought Dancing death was an exquisite masterpiece that should go down in the books as the most tangy piece of movie ever.

This is a basic Italian slasher (stabber?) movie set in a contemporary dance school. I have no idea where the notion this is a ballet movie comes from but the dance style is 80s for sure. And what a style it is, if you can think of the Eric Prydz video for Call On Me without any of the sexiness, production value and professionalism then that kind of sums this up. They have went for erotic dancing but its some of the most cringe-worthy and simply hilarious dance scenes ever caught on film. And its not even supposed to be funny, but those scenes are the highlights of this flick. The movie itself does a great job of making you not care about any of the people involved or how the story evolves. There is zero tension built up and you simply couldn't care less who is carrying out these murders or why. The murders themselves cant really be taken seriously due to the weapon used which would struggle to kill a cat never mind an adult human. The dialogue is strange in that some of it seems to have been shot in English while the rest looks like it was badly dubbed into English from Italian. Its very confusing and frustrating trying to figure out which if you try and lip read. The fact that this is what I ended up doing just shows the lack of engagement I had in this movie. I would recommend this if you like to have a laugh at badly made movies however anyone after an engaging horror movie should look elsewhere. Same goes for anyone looking for erotic thrills, unless you have a thing for dancers pretending to be giant bunnies.

I want to start off by stating this isn't a review of the movie, as I really remember very little of the film. What I want to talk about is the marketing campaign. This film was actually played in my city sometime between 1989-1990 - for about a day. There was a commercial that began running on the local TV stations (I'm in Kentucky BTW) which was, I assume, a still image of the, or, at least, a poster for the movie. It was a drawn image of a girl in torn dress chained to a giant X with the city skyline behind her in shadow, with I believe a pair of eyes staring down at her from the sky..there was prob some skulls, maybe even the murder weapon featured in the art, but I don't remember for sure. Anyway, the commercial started on the girl and slowly zoomed out accompanied by a creepy voice-over. I can't remember anything word for word of what he said, but it basically was a pseudo-warning that 'this film contains such shocking scenes' and 'you will be terrified' 'no other film like this' etc. Really got me and my friends pumped up, and on the Thursday before it started, there was a half page ad in the newspaper for the movie, just that black and white poster art from the commercial, but it was the biggest ad on the page. Friday night finally came and me and I know at least four friends went to see it. Two guys walked out within 15 minutes. Then the whole theater was gone within 25 minutes, leaving me and my two best buds to enjoy the weirdest flick we'd ever seen in the theater. I remember there would be these odd fade to black/fade in effects leading up to the murders, and for some reason I suddenly had this thought: "This crap movie is using some sort of hypno-vision to turn us into killers! Or something f'ed up!" I think now that's a cool idea for a movie, but I find it pretty amusing that I was terrified during this film, but not because of the content, but the bad editing. Anyway, the song 'Paranoia is coming your way' or whatever has been a sorta catch-phrase in my circle of friends to this day. What a strange movie, and I just discovered the alternate title of 'Death-Rock' - Whaaaa? I gotta re-watch this now, can't believe this is by Fulci! Wha-wha-whaaaat?! I freakin' love 'The Beyond' and I think he did 'House by the Cemetery' too, which is another great Italian Horror flick. Anyway, those are my memories of 'The Demon Is Loose'

Cult Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci here departs from some of the trappings of his other horror films of the period, as he spins this quirky tale that could be described as "Fame" meets "Friday the 13th". At the prestigious Arts for Living Center in NYC, various dancers compete for a major production. However, some psychotic character is carefully working their way through the student bodies - immobilizing them with chloroform, then piercing their hearts with a hatpin. The lady in charge of the place, Candice Norman (Olga Karlatos, "Zombi 2") hooks up with male model George Webb (Ray Lovelock, "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue"), after having a macabre dream about the guy.

"Murder Rock", a.k.a. "Dancing Death", a.k.a. "Slashdance", is not going to satisfy hardcore horror lovers: there's barely any gore, and while there is some partial female nudity, there might not be enough of *that* for them, either. "Murder Rock" will be most entertaining to people looking for an 80s artifact. And the movie delivers in that regard, with a few set pieces of dancers grooving to the fun & funky electronic soundtrack composed by Keith Emerson. As one comes to expect from movies like this, the dialogue and the dubbed-in vocal performances DO tend to be really cheesy.

The supporting cast includes such people as Cosimo Cinieri ("The New York Ripper"), as a wary, sunflower seed-munching police detective who always looks like he'd rather be ANYWHERE else, Giuseppe Mannajuolo ("Nosferatu in Venice") as a helpful Professor, Geretta Geretta ("Demons") as an instructor, Giovanni De Nava and Silvia Collatina from "The House by the Cemetery", and Al Cliver, also from "Zombi 2".

"Murder Rock" offers some fun, but is never as crazy or as odd or as atmospheric as the best Fulci genre films of the 70s and 80s.

Six out of 10.

Lucio Fulci mostly makes bad movies. He has good ideas, but lacks the style to pull them off, just slapping you with nudity and gore and hoping it works. Here he actually starts pretty good. There is some noticeable improvement in his style, because movie starts with a nicely choreographed dancing training with beautiful women along with nice music. What follows after that is not so good. Movie is basically your usual Italian thriller, but with no soul. Women serve only as eye candy and are pretty dumb (usual stuff for Fulci movie), while the whole plot is badly paced and doesn't seem all that interesting. Lt.'s character is pretty cool though. But that can't save the whole movie. 5.5/10! Recommended only to Fulci and genre fans...

Lucio Fulci is one of the best and most underrated directors in history. Though not all of his films were great, at least 7 of this films should be in any horror anthology. This film is hard to find, though it was released here in Argentina. In the beginning I thought this was gonna be Flashdance - The Return, but ends up being a clever thriller. The killer's method is original, and the resolution quite surprising. Not one of Fulci's best, but a very good film indeed. Score: 8.

Lucio tapped into all his usual stuff. This is just the cleaner version.

A dance school with your typical choreography teachers (Come on 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8....) and your over competitive wannabe stars provides the setting & victims.

Olga Karlatos is the said teacher. That was her getting her eyeball pierced in 'Zombie.' She plays the same type here. An exasperated, bossy hellion.

The view of the glove attack got old fast. And most of the supposed scares seemed to be cut off too quickly.

As a mystery, it was OK. I guess fans of the Maestro won't be to into it, but first timers might like it.

And see how many people who have starred in previous Fulci flicks you can spot.

A bunch of r·tards dance as some of them get stabbed in the tater with a hairpin by a wacko. Murder Rock is one lousy, mind numbingly piece of s··· and is also the film that ended Lucio Fulci's credibility as a film director (for me, at least). The only entertaining aspects from this movie is the crotch and backside shots of the female dancers. For some reason I was laughing hysterically over it because one wonders what goes in the mind of a filmmaker when he shoots that crap. Other than that, Murder Rock is stupid with a meaningless and r·tarded plot and annoying characters. Plus the kills are practically bloodless and uncreative even though we get to see naked taters in the process. Murder Rock is gay and I can only recommend this to Fulci completists or those who like crap.

I'm not going to dwell on the usual flaws. Woeful acting, inane story, these come with the territory. And I'm not going to dwell on the Flashdance influence, Fulci was known to ply his trade where ephemeral trends were expected to swing. It's how we got Zombi. Horror set in a dance studio was a natural idea after all, as Argento had already shown.

Is it our job anyway as horror viewers to criticize acting or look down on influence? No, the real damning thing here is the absence of atmosphere that envelops. So much fuss is made about a superficial mystery with suspects being paraded, so little energy invested in place, bodies, the swirl of visual madness. Fulci tries here and there, a few tricks with mirrors, a scene of hallucination, all of it trivial spattering.

The appearances of the killer show this; each time a black-gloved hand reaches out from below a first-person camera to victims' faces that just stand there and grimace a fake horror for the camera. Contrived.

But none of other comments mention what has to be one of the most randomly bizarre things in movies; a girl has been left alone after dance practice in the lockerroom, this is so we can have a first murder, a stern voice then comes in through the PA to announce the place is going to be locked down in a few minutes (a dance studio!), the voice sounds like it's warning NASA employees of some imminent shutdown. For no reason lights begin to flash.