Dead of Night

From the team who brought us "Trilogy of Terror" comes a follow-up TV produced three part anthology by writer Richard Matheson and director / producer Dan Curtis. Not to be confused with the 1945 version with the same title (which is also an anthology), this TV feature was going to be a pilot for an up and coming TV series that didn't eventuate. The three stories that have been picked are all rather different in tone. Honestly the first two tales really do pale in comparison with the last one and if this one weren't tact on it would be quite a mediocre film. Curtis' sturdy direction is fine, without over-doing anything, but maybe could have used bit more spruce. Although saying that he comes into his own in the final story. Each story (adapted from Henry James' story) written by Matheson has its nice little touch and imaginative edge, but again it's the final one that only clicks and stands-out. There's no real wrap-around story holding these tales together, but it opens with quite an atmospheric beginning to kick off proceedings.

1/ "Second Chance" - (20 minutes) A young man buys an old vintage 1926 Jordan car, which he restores, every single feature, including the original number plates. He takes it out for a drive on an old back road and then finds himself transported back to 1926.

There's nothing horrifying about this one, but there's a "Twilight Zone" spin on the material and how things play out. Rather slow-moving and sappy with Ed Begley Jr.'s musty narration adding to the ponderous pace in this stop and go affair. The robust music score was kinda off, but it was exceptionally well shot. Curtis seems to be directing from the script. It's not bad and has an endearing stroke to it, but its quite uneventful and far from intriguing. This one feels rather misplaced compared with the other two. I can't knock that this isn't a smart little fantasy, but it doesn't grip you either.

2/ "No Such Thing as a Vampire" - (20 minutes) A professor living in a mansion in the eastern Europe with his wife, finds out that his wife has bite marks on her neck. He doesn't believe in vampires, but his superstitious servants and the surrounding village think otherwise. A doctor is called in to see her and he notices that the husband also has marks on his neck.

This broodingly unusual mystery is a tightly drawn up one idea concept and is shaped by its Victorian settings. It's more suggestive in its set-up and has things going on behind the scenes to throw you off course. Instead it gets rather clunky with a payoff that comes as quite a let down. Not that it wasn't good, just that I was expecting something more from this enliven mystery. Patrick Macnee is good in his sly performance, Elisha Cook Jr. equally so as superstitiously uptight servant. Horst Buchoiz and Anjanette Cormer are reasonably sound. The atmosphere is very bleak and is rallied up by the foreboding music score and flowing photography.

3/ "Bobby" - (30 minutes) A lady is staying alone in a beach house, while her husband is on a business trip. So during one stormy night she decides to perform a magic ritual to hopefully bring back her dead son who accidentally drowned. Nothing happens for a while, but then she hears a knock on the door and there sits a shivering and soaking-wet Bobby.

Now this is more like it! Haunting, creepy and truly disquieting is the key to this one. This dark little item was indeed captivating by consistently tightening the screws with controlled suspense and lingering on some spine-tingling images. Curtis paces it briskly and milks it out nicely with sweeping camera movements and a selectively alienating music score. The distinct performances are very impressive by Joan Hackett and Lee H. Montgomery. Montgomery is downright eerie and Hackett is truly fitting as the unhinged mother. It made great use of clichéd devices, like the thunderstorm to generate atmosphere. The close quarters made it thrillingly taut with its encroaching shadows and quiet air. The mind-snapping premise has that ambiguous build up too it and plays around with that feeling where things aren't what they seem, like the second one. This one does leave a lasting impression with its genuinely macabre conclusion.

I guess one out of three ain't bad, but again if it wasn't for the splendour packed final segment it wouldn't be worth your time in tracking it down. Still it's worth it if do happen to come by it.

If you enjoy Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, this fine made-for-TV anthology will be right up your alley. It consists of three stories that each hit a different spot on the TZ spectrum, all with screenplays by horror/fantasy veteran Richard Matheson.

1. Second Chance. Ed Begley, Jr. plays a student who rebuilds an old car, which takes him back in time with unexpected results. This is one of those gentle, "what if" episodes that TZ did so well. Don't expect any scares. The original story is by Jack Finney, who wrote two memorable novels on the subject of time travel, and also the classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

2. No Such Thing as a Vampire features a post-Steed Patrick Macnee as a doctor whose wife is suffering from the symptoms of vampire attacks. This has some scary moments and a very clever ending that would have felt at home on TZ or Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

3. Bobby is the story of a woman who can't cope with the loss of her young son, so she does everything in her power - including occult power - to bring him back. As anyone knows, you always get more than you bargain for when you make deals with the devil! This segment has a stalking terror element that may remind you of Matheson's "devil doll" segment in the earlier "Trilogy of Terror."

Of course, there are goofs, and 70s production values (day-for-night photography, etc.). Also awful 70s shag carpets and very obvious stunt doubles. But it's still loads of fun to watch and holds up well. The DVD has loads of extras, including 36 music cues by Dark Shadows composer Robert Cobert, deleted scenes, and a complete, 50-minute pilot called "Dead of Night" that Dan Curtis pitched to ABC back in 1969. You can also Dan Curtis doing a pretty decent Rod Serling impression in his guide track for the opening narrator.

Horror anthologies have been a staple since the Silent days; ironically, this particular one shares its name with perhaps the most celebrated example in movie history – the 1945 Ealing film (another fine movie so entitled is Bob Clark's 1974 cult zombie flick actually better-known as DEATHDREAM!). Anyway, director Curtis had already tried his hand at the form with the popular TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975; TV), which had intended showcasing the versatility of its star i.e. Karen Black. Though some bemoaned the fact that here only the last segment was really scary, the very opening narration states that we would be seeing a tale of Mystery, another of Imagination and, well, just one of outright Terror! Incidentally, all three were scripted by genre expert Richard Matheson, with the second episode adapted from one of his own stories, the third an original and the first inspired by the writings of Jack (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) Finney.

"Second Chance": this actually has the feel of a "Twilight Zone" with car fanatic Ed Begley Jr. buying a scrap of metal (the remnant of an automobile-against-train accident from 50 years before) who restores the vehicle to its original state. When he tries it out on the road, he begins to unaccountably pass by a number of similarly-vintage cars and soon realizes that he has been caught in a time warp and effectively gone back to the mid-1920s! Emerging from the car to check out his surroundings, it is stolen shortly thereafter, even if he does try to stop the thief's flight (though pedestrians he meets assure him that that reckless driver did in fact own a car like it). He goes to sleep by the porch of some house and finds himself once again in his own time, later meeting a girl from school he was sure he had never seen before; when she introduces him to her family, he is surprised to learn that not only is the girl's grandfather a car aficionado as well but he actually still owns one from his youth…and it turns out to be the very same vehicle he himself restored, so that, by way of the three-second delay that it took him to intervene, the accident that claimed the life of the man and his female companion was miraculously averted!

"No Such Thing As A Vampire": this is more typical fare (down to the classical Transylvanian setting), but it still provides a sting in the tail – Patrick Macnee is a doctor whose wife (Anjanette Comer) seems to have fallen victim to a bloodsucker. The townsfolk are naturally terrorized, but the protagonist's butler actually happens to be a vampire hunter (played by Elisha Cook Jr.!). Still, the attacks persist and Macnee sends for his friend (Horst Buchholz) – the former gives him a lowdown of the recent events whilst sipping tea, but the guest begins to feel drowsy and loses consciousness after a while. It transpires that Buchholz was having an affair with the doctor's spouse, and the latter took advantage of local superstition to exact his revenge – indeed, he puts Buchholz in a coffin in the attic and smears his lips with a trickle of blood extracted from Comer…and then, to complete the illusion, rouses Cook to locate and destroy the vampire via the traditional stake-in-the-heart!

"Bobby": like the famous Zuni Doll segment from TRILOGY OF TERROR, the best episode is left for last – interestingly, this draws both from it (a woman is terrorized in her remotely-located home by a strange presence) and from the afore-mentioned DEATHDREAM (a mother resorts to the occult to have her dead son restored to life). In fact, we first find Joan Hackett chalking a large symbolic circle on the floor by which to invoke the Forces of Darkness. In the meantime, she has spoken to her husband on the phone about how she is coping with their son's tragic demise in a drowning accident. Eventually, the boy does turn up knocking on the front door and complaining of the extreme cold (apparently, his body was never retrieved). His mother takes him inside and purports to treat her kid to his favorite food, but he suddenly turns hostile and knocks the plate off the table! His aggressive behavior continues to escalate and he even denounces the woman for her possessiveness – the boy demands that she play a game of hide-and-seek with him which grows more and more threatening, as he attacks her with a knife and even breaks the windshield of her car when, terrorized, she takes shelter inside it. She decides to call her husband for help but the man's voice is listless until she realizes that the wires have been cut and that the boy is on the other line himself! In the end, the kid throws his mother down the stairs and confesses to not wanting to come back because he hates her…and, in fact, he sent a demon in his place (with the child's countenance now acquiring terrifying features)!

There is no doubt that the last section is the most effective here but the ones that preceded it, providing nostalgia and inventiveness in equal measures, make for more than adequate (and thankfully varied) build-up.

This horror anthology film that was made for TV features three stories. The first, 'A Second Chance' stars Ed Begley Jr. as a young man who finds that his newly purchased antique car can travel in time. It's an interesting little tale reminiscent of The Twilight Zone, but it doesn't really have any place in a supposed horror film (even one that was made for TV.

The middle tale, 'no such thing as a vampire', stars Patrick Macnee as Dr. Gheria, a wealthy British man whose wife believe that she's been the victim of a vampire. Gheria naturally doesn't believe this preposterous notion at first, then Micheal comes to help.... This tale was better than the first one, but even though it is enjoyable enough and boosts a nice twist, it's still nothing that special.

Which brings as to the third, last & hands down best story in this movie, "Bobby", in which a long deceased boy is brought back to life via the dark magiks that his distressed, grief-stricken mother partakes in. She's jubilant to find him at her door, but things soon turn sour as he's different now & playing sadistic games with mommy dearest. For all the horror and tension that the first two stories lacked, this one makes up for it....in spades. Lee Montgomery is suitably frightening as the titular Bobby and it remains one of the best short horrors ever made for American TV (now if only the first two parts were even half as good)

My Grade: B+

DVD Extras: deleted/extended from the 'no such thing as a vampire' segment; alternate intro vioceovers; Music score highlights; the unaired 1968 pilot episode of 'Dead of Night' (A Darkness at Blaisedon); & a photo gallery

I'd read countless statements and a few reviews stating that the 3rd segment here; "Bobby" amounts to what is the most frightening 30 minutes of television horror and scared many ****less when first viewed. Of course; for jaded horror viewers today, that kinda' statement can't possibly hold up. But; I watched "Bobby" (and the rest of "Dead Of Night") a few moments ago and "Bobby" doesn't disappoint.

"Bobby" is a very atmospheric episode. The tone is immediately set when the mother calls upon dark forces to return her son, Bobby, home. A few moments later Bobby returns and pretty soon it's clear he's not the way she remembered him. What follows is a cat and mouse game, extremely well played out, tense and quite frightening with one hell of an ending.

The other episodes of "Dead of Night", quite frankly, pale in comparison. "Second Chance" is a uneventful story about time travel with a twist in the end that justifies what's gone on before but little more than that. "No Such Thing as a Vampire" is a well acted little mystery, again, with an OK twist but rather slow and lacks any suspense.

"Dead of Night" will only be remembered for "Bobby" and, at the meager age of 36 years old, the episode still packs a punch. At it's basic core it's a frightening concept and with a running time of less than half an hour there's more tension and shock value to be found here than in many feature films.

Is it good value to recommend something that's only 1/3 good? In this case; I'd have to say Yes.