Dead of Night
- TV Movie
- 1977
- 1h 16m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
Three horror stories about a vintage car that transports its driver back to 1926, the mistress of an old Victorian mansion who is scared of a vampire and a mother tormented by her dead son w... Read allThree horror stories about a vintage car that transports its driver back to 1926, the mistress of an old Victorian mansion who is scared of a vampire and a mother tormented by her dead son who she has brought back to life.Three horror stories about a vintage car that transports its driver back to 1926, the mistress of an old Victorian mansion who is scared of a vampire and a mother tormented by her dead son who she has brought back to life.
E.J. André
- Mr. McCauley (segment "Second Chance")
- (as E.J. Andre)
Christina Hart
- Helen (segment "Second Chance")
- (as Christine Hart)
Jean Le Bouvier
- Mrs. Cantrell (segment "Second Chance")
- (as Jean LeVouvier)
Patrick Macnee
- Dr. Gheria (segment "No Such Thing as a Vampire")
- (as Patrick MacNee)
Elisha Cook Jr.
- Karel (segment "No Such Thing as a Vampire")
- (as Elisha Cook)
Horst Buchholz
- Michael (segment "No Such Thing as a Vampire")
- (as Horst Bucholz)
Lee Montgomery
- Bobby (segment "Bobby")
- (as Lee H. Montgomery)
Lars Green
- Dwarf (segment "Bobby")
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Richard Matheson(segment Second Chance)
- Jack Finney(segment Second Chance)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film's third segment, "Bobby", was later remade as the second segment of Trilogy of Terror II (1996), another horror anthology film that was directed by Dan Curtis just as this film was and the first film in the series, Trilogy of Terror (1975), had been 22 years earlier (with that first film originally released two years before this one).
- GoofsDespite the fact that the film's second segment, "No Such Thing as a Vampire", takes place in the late Victorian era, quite modern electric light switches can be seen in the interior of the house. While electric lighting does date back to the 1880s, the switches in use at that time looked nothing like the switches seen in this house; toggle light switches (which are seen in the segment) had not been invented yet.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cineficción Radio: Horror antológico (2020)
Featured review
DEAD OF NIGHT (TV) (Dan Curtis, 1977) ***
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.
"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.
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- Bunuel1976
- Oct 11, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Mit der Nacht kommt der Tod
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 16 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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