Main cast: Kent McCord (Tom Solo), Teri Copley (Vanessa Solo), and Betty Carvalho (Grandma)
Director: Richard Friedman
During the Great Drought of ’89, Tom Solo is having the time of his life in the middle of the sweltering desert, where he’s buying all kinds of Native American relics for cheap. He intends to sell these things with a huge markup, naturally.
His wife Vanessa, however, has had enough and wants to leave him and go back to the city, where she’d find a better man, with a more respectable job, to pamper and cherish her.
Their domestic squabble is interrupted by an old lady that wants to sell Tom a large statue of a god of death, which she claims to have belonged to some “lost tribe”. It can summon rain, at the cost of a life. She also says that the statue is cursed, but an educated man like Tom doesn’t have faith in such antiquated beliefs.
Since she’s okay with accepting $20, Tom buys it.
Now, the old woman says that the statue can bring back the rain, as long as there are human sacrifices made to the god. They are all in the middle of a great drought. Gee, I wonder what that old broad is planning by selling these two the statue…
Even taking into account the time this episode was made, Rain Dance pushes forth the whole “creepy Native American woo-woo witch” angle in such a manner that makes me cringe a little. The old lady’s entire lines are overly-melodramatic monologues, and this character makes the Old Witch in Tales from the Cryptkeeper look well-developed and nuanced. What, there’s no other way to present this character other than making her a cartoon villain that will make even the Mystery Inc gang say it’s just too much?
The story itself is predictable and the scares are more hammy than frightening. These scenes are actually pretty alright for this show, but sadly, these scenes are few and are packed in the late act. The bulk of the act is devoted to Tom and Vanessa arguing and acting like obnoxious gnats as well as the old lady taking up what seems like 10 hours with her overly theatrical monologues.
A pretty subpar and uninteresting episode, in other words.
