This week on Dancing With the Stars, everyone was in the Halloween spirit.
Not only did the contestants deliver some of their most spooky performances, but even the judges dressed up for the occasion, doling out healthy doses of praise and criticism to each of the remaining nine couples.
And Halloween wouldn’t be complete without resident trickster Sasha Farber scaring the couples during rehearsal.
He sneaked up behind some people during their interviews and dropped fake spiders into the rehearsal rooms, but the gags mostly backfired.
In addition to their individual routines, the couples competed in two group performances for extra points to keep them from finishing in the bottom two.
Brandon Armstrong and Jordan Sparks
Last week, the platinum singer was praised for her “musicality,” so her goal for Halloween night was to nail down the details and finally perfect her frame during her tango to “Oogie Boogie’s Song.”
It appeared to pay off, as head judge Len Goodman said during the performance that “sparks were flying” and praised Armstrong’s choreography.
According to the judges, her technique still needs work, and her performance was insufficient to earn her the 10s she desired.
35 points out of 40.
Mark Ballas and Charli D’Amelio.
Following another week of perfect scores, the social media star was met with a stumbling block when Ballas informed her that he would be unable to rehearse with her due to lower back pain.
Pasha Pashkov took his place, and thankfully, Ballas recovered in time to take the stage for Monday night’s performance.
The judges praised the duo even more for their Argentine tango inspired by vintage horror films.
“My head is spinning like Linda Blair in The Exorcist,” said Bruno Tonioli.
Carrie Ann Inaba stated that she is still looking for the teen to be more intense.
39 points out of 40.
Britt Stewart and Daniel Durant
The CODA star and his partner celebrated Halloween in a unique way, dancing a paso doble to Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” as video game characters trapped in a zombie apocalypse.
He was also thrown off his game after missing some rehearsal time due to illness, but he still managed to deliver one of the season’s best performances.
“Every time you get on this dance floor, it still amazes me, as I’m sure it does everyone at home,” Inaba said.
She and Goodman agreed that as the semi-finals approach, Durant should work on his form.
34 points out of 40.
Gleb Savchenko and Shangela.
Shangela was ready to shake things up again with her jazz routine to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” after Len called her Michael Bublé night performance her “best of the season.”
Savchenko told his partner that this would be the “ideal opportunity” for her to demonstrate her acting abilities while also practising her technique.
“You were in such a deep, dark place, mommy dearest.”
“I loved every minute of it,” Inaba said, adding that Shangela had outperformed her previous performance.
She collapsed to the ground when she realised she’d gotten a perfect score.
50 points out of 50
Koko Iwasaki and Vinny Guadagnino.
Although the Jersey Shore star is a fan favourite, he received some harsh criticism from the judges last week, who were not impressed with his cha cha on Michael Bublé night.
Guadagnino explained that he was “tired of being a good guy” and hoped that his bad guy paso doble would give him the confidence boost he needed to give a cleaner performance.
He appeared to be more confident this week, but he still received some lukewarm comments from the judges.
Goodman admitted that it “wasn’t all bad,” but it also wasn’t all that great.
“I have zero dance experience,” Guadagnino admitted, adding that he is a “work in progress” for host Alfonso Ribeiro.
30 points out of 40
Artem Chigvintsev and Heidi D’Amelio
Mama D’Amelio is hoping to be more “inventive” this week as the comparisons between her and her daughter continue to pile up.
“Charli and Mark’s choreography has been very daring,” she said.
For the first part of the performance, she and Chigvintsev danced a tango with an elastic band connecting them — a risk that The D’Amelio Show star said could pay off or put them back in the bottom two.
It paid off for some, but not for others.
“Bondage becomes you, Heidi!”
Tonioli yelled.
“You had that killer instinct tonight.”
It was fantastic.”
Meanwhile, Goodman and Inaba believe she has reached a plateau after a string of “strong” performances.
37 points out of 40
Alan Bersten and Gabby Windey
Val Chmerkovskiy, the former Bachelorette’s partner, tested positive for COVID last week, so Bersten (who, along with his Season 31 partner Jessie James Decker, was voted off last week) filled in about halfway through rehearsals.
“It took me a while to get used to Val entering my space.”
“Alan and I need to get to know each other,” Windey said.
Whatever they did to accelerate their chemistry paid off, because the judges were blown away by their vampire Argentine tango.
“I’m so proud of you tonight,” said Inaba.
“How you were able to shift and pivot to a new partner and still have that much chemistry, that requires so much vulnerability but yet you maintained your strength the entire time.”
38 points out of 40
Witney Carson and Wayne Brady
Brady dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard last week after missing the majority of his rehearsal time due to illness.
He said he left Michael Bublé’s show feeling “disappointed” and hoped to return this week.
Carson stated that she would use his strengths as a storyteller to help propel the couple back to the top by giving him a role to play.
They performed a difficult contemporary as creepy cyborgs, but Inaba and Goodman felt like something was missing.
37 points out of 40.
Emma Slater and Trevor Donovan
Donavan was determined to move up the leaderboard with his Halloween night performance after being saved from the bottom two for the second time.
“You have to really feel the dance,” Slater said of their contemporary dance to Justin Bieber’s “Ghost,” in which Donovan played a grieving husband and Slater was his wife in the afterlife.
Unsurprisingly, their chemistry was off the charts, and the 90210 star delivered the necessary emotion to earn high praise from the judges.
“It’s such a beautiful thing to witness the gift of dance and…to see the love of dance grow within you,” said Hough.
They received three tens.
39 points out of 40
Following the individual dances, the group routines began.
Vinny and Koko were on Team Wicked, as were Shangela and Gleb, Gabby and Val, Heidi and Artem, and Jordin and Brandon.
33 points out of 40
Trevor and Emma were on Team Scream, as were Charli and Mark, Wayne and Witney, and Daniel and Britt.
39 points out of 40
D’Amelio/Chigvintsev and Sparks/Armstrong were the bottom two.
Inaba supported D’Amelio, while Hough and Toniolo supported Sparks.
Sparks was sent home after Goodman broke the tie in favour of D’Amelio.
Next week is 90s night in the ballroom.