Dance with the Devil (Perdita Durango) poster & wallpaper
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Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, Harley Cross, Aimee Graham, James Gandolfini ... see more see more... , Screamin' Jay Hawkins , Carlos Bardem , Santiago Segura , Don Stroud , Alex Cox

The title character of this Alex de la Iglesia film made her first appearance in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) and was originally played by Isabella Rossellini. Rosie Perez takes over the role in... read more read more... this blend of black comedy, graphic sex and violence, voodoo, and weirdness. Perdita Durango is pure trash, a fact she establishes at the film's beginning. Her adventures begin when she hooks up with Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem), a sleek, black-clad, sexually adventurous practitioner of Santeria who routinely kills, robs banks, and steals corpses from graves for his cannibalistic blood-soaked rituals. Santos (Don Stroud) is a pedophile and a crime boss. He hires Romeo to steal a truck filled with human fetuses that are slated to be used for cosmetic experiments. Romeo accepts but feels he must make a human sacrifice before he goes. This bothers Perdita not a bit and she even picks out a pair of blonde teens for the ritual killing. The two crooks kidnap the kids, ritually feather them, sexually abuse them, and are preparing to kill them when Romeo's cheated partner shows up with policemen. The crooks and their prey manage to escape, but the scheme to commandeer the truck gets botched and an ensuing shootout between Santos' men and DEA agents goes wrong. Santos loses many men and swears revenge upon Romeo and Perdita, who continue on their journey with their two doomed victims. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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25% want to see it

4,657 ratings

Critics

33% liked it

9 critics

R, 2 hr. 6 min.

Directed by: Álex de la Iglesia

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DVD Release Date: December 28, 1999

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Flixster Reviews (188)

  • matertenebraum
    April 9, 2010
    matertenebraum
    Following the success of El Dia De Bestia and Acción mutante, once again the director pursues the nature of dark obsession. The two main leads are dysfunctional amoral sadists who re in some ways rediscovering a part of them that they miss - love.

    It's a story of trying to move ... read moreon but the main characters are very amoral however there's darker circles than them, which pulls them further down the spiral. In essence this movie is an antithesis of a glamour Mafia movie and I believe represents Mafia dealings in a very dark fashion. In some ways I believe there's a nod to David Lynch with the actor playing the Mafia boss.

    The film is not a sick puppy nor is it banal. For those that have followed this director they will read between the lines to discover some salient points of US government intervention out of the states and human traffic - in this case embryos used for beauty products. Like 'clean Madrid' in El Dia de Bestia there were fascist movements in the capital at the time. Iglaisia puts this on the screen as a cultural reminder.

    Watching this movie at face value will seem very ultra violent and in some places extremely disturbing. Unlike other cult producers like Tarintino Iglasia uses a loot of cult cultural references to make his films extremely dark and funny (like La Communidad). If you're Latin or Spanish I feel there would be a lot more in this movie for you. Recommended viewing - but not for the faint hearted.
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    July 28, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    A flawed affair from Alex de la Iglesia that benefits from one thing: Javier Bardem playing a crazy ruthless mexican santero who rapes american teen girls and makes human sacrifices. Bardem owns the movie in every way.
  • deano
    April 29, 2007
    deano
    Awesome rated R action and hot sex scenes. Rosie Perez is bloody hot American-Purerto Rican actress in this dangerous hostage thriller film.
  • cacutshaw
    January 31, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Boring. Went to see this because it was a follow up on one of the characters from Wild at Heart, but it couldn't be further in tone. Maybe I should see it again after viewing a lot more cult movies, but I remember sitting in my seat excited to see this, and by the middle being ... read moresunk into the chair waiting for it to end.
  • MovieGuruDude72
    August 16, 2011
    MovieGuruDude72
    Javier Bardem is awesome as an evil SOB. Rosie Perez? I still can't get past that God-awful Cuban accent. It's worse than Ricky Ricardo's ever thought about being. This film had the potential to be very, very good but despite its great story and graphic violence and sex, manages ... read moreto be nothing more than a vain attempt at a latino version of Natural Born Killers. Some steaminess and lots of gratuitous violence/gore but the film is so weak the violence only leaves you feeling indifferent. Never a good reaction to splatter.
  • RicardoCraneo
    July 4, 2011
    RicardoCraneo
    A wacky and slightly hilarious voodoo road movie which also functions as a character study I guess. Apparently it's based on Wild at Heart, a David Lynch movie which I thought flopped on all accounts. This is a better version even though it's overlong, restricted, and with some b... read moreoring, cliched points for the genre. Also, there's an emphasis on ethnicities of characters and the Spanish-English language switching is unsubbed. The lead characters are unique and radiant, but their philosophies are cheaply presented. The director does action and violence remorselessly as in Accion Mutante, so I was expecting more of it in this film. Maybe the Americanization bogged it down.
  • welcometothesucks007
    April 8, 2010
    welcometothesucks007
    Right after the success of his masterpiece, the dark comedy "El Día De la Bestia", Spanish director Alex De la Iglesia took a stab at Hollywood with this wild ride of marvelous insanity and bizarre entertainment. Sadly, the resulting movie was severely cut in the U.S. and the U.K... read more. and didn't had the expected results as many labeled as another Tarantino-style film. While at first sight "Perdita Durango" indeed looks like a rip off of the movies by the Tarantino-Rodriguez tandem, this really black comedy is more a witty satire than a serious action flick.

    The film is the story of Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez), a young criminal who one night meets Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem), a crazed priest of an extreme form of Santeria who makes a life doing jobs for the mob. They fall in love and Perdita comes along in Romeo's latest job: the traffic of human fetuses for the cosmetic industry. On their trip, they kidnap two American teenagers for Romeo's human sacrifices. However, things go wrong as a DEA agent (James Gandolfini) follows them closely and the kidnapped teens try to escape.

    Based on Barry Gifford's novel of the same name, the movie follows the criminal couple's adventure in the style of a road trip movie with the two couples (the criminals and their victims) as main characters. I can't tell how faithful the movie is to the novel, but it is definitely closer to Gifford's previous film adaptation, David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" than to the Tarantino films that are often compared to it. The movie is charged with black humor and disturbing violence, and is a brilliant satire of modern society.

    Alex De la Iglesia crafts a film that is at the same time disturbing and funny, and he plays with those two very different emotions with very good results. The pacing of the movie is very good although it is true that at times it feels a bit disjointed. Still, De la Iglesia manages to tell an intelligent and different story than what we are used to. On a side note, the edited A-Pix version is missing what is probably the most important moment of the film due to copyright troubles, so to fully appreciate the film, the 125 version is the way to go.

    The acting is good for the most part, with Javier Bardem showing exactly why is he considered the best Spanish actor of his generation; his Romeo Delarosa is one of the best performances of his career. Rosie Perez is effective, but at times it feels as if she weren't up to the challenge, something that hurts the film badly, as she is the main character. Harley Cross and Aimee Graham are very believable as the kidnapped teens and show potential for comedy, but the real joy comes from supporting actors Gandolfini and a surprising Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

    Personally, I liked the film a lot and it is a personal favorite, but I must be fair and point out that it is not a perfect film. Alex De la Iglesia's main mistake is to focus too much on Romeo Delarosa's character, almost to the point where Rosie Perez almost becomes a supporting actress. The fact that Bardem's acting is enormously superior doesn't really help Perez' performance, but she's hot as hell. On another point, the movie seems to lose steam at the last point, and while it does recover some of its initial power, the edited versions definitely take out this final improvement.

    As written above, this is a personal favorite, and while I wouldn't recommend it to everybody (due to its disturbing images), I would definitely recommend it to fans of black comedies, disturbing thrillers and overall bizarre film-making in general
  • edmeyer83
    April 30, 2009
    edmeyer83
    One of the funniest movies I have ever seen, but it's not a comedy. I was in NYC with some high school friends and this movie was on in the hotel. This was one weird movie and we were laughing so hard that security came to our room twice!
  • eskaton666
    June 6, 2008
    eskaton666
    A fun road trip through the characters of Barry Gifford, whose title character (Perdita Durango) appeared in the earlier David Lynch film 'Wild at Heart.' This film seems to constantly skirt the edge of becoming an incoherent mess, but somehow manages to hold itself together. C... read moreertainly not without its flaws. James Gandolfini is good here, as always, in looks and performance.

View All Dance with the Devil (Perdita Durango) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Michael Dequina
September 14, 2005
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com

The film would have better off staying with the comic tone, for that's what de la Iglesia does best--and where his interests clearly lie. Full Review

David Rooney
October 18, 2008
David Rooney, Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

December 6, 2005
Film Threat

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Emanuel Levy
August 8, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Eric Lurio
December 21, 2004
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette

No review available.

Dragan Antulov
April 7, 2004
Dragan Antulov, rec.arts.movies.reviews

No review available.

December 8, 2002
Film Threat

Click to read the article Full Review

Brian Webster
August 17, 2002
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

Click to read the article Full Review

Cory Cheney
August 8, 2002
Cory Cheney, Urban Tulsa Weekly

No review available.

Mark R. Leeper
January 1, 2000
Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews

Click to read the article Full Review

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