Throughout the ’70s, Dan Curtis was the go-to man for network TV horror. From Dark Shadows to The Night Stalker and the classic horror novel adaptations (reviewed here), he had quite a track record for both original and intelligent adaptations of other sources. One of his most famous was 1975’s Trilogy of Terror, a trio of stories written by Richard Matheson culminating in a bravura final film, “Amelia,” about a tiny African doll which stalks and terrorizes the woman who owns it.
Buy Dan Curtis’ Dead of NightDead of Night, stealing the title from a famous British horror anthology film from 1945, is also a trilogy of stories written by Richard Matheson, but it’s not as focused on terror. This anthology film is more like a trio of Twilight Zone episodes. That’s fitting because Richard Matheson was a regular contributor to Twilight Zone. He wrote 16 episodes of that show.
It opens with “Second Chance,” adapted by Matheson from a story by Jack Finney, who wrote Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but most of his fiction was of a gentler kind. “Second Chance,” starring a very young Ed Begley Jr. as Frank, is essentially a magical realism story. Frank is an old-car enthusiast, and he finds the body of a 1926 Jordan Playboy in a barn. It was half-destroyed when the driver tried to outrun a train, killing both occupants. Frank lovingly restores the car, but when he takes it on a drive, he finds he drives not just through space, but through time: to the very night the car was destroyed in the first place.
That’s the sentimental story. The next is a nastier tale called “No Such Thing as a Vampire.” A doctor’s wife wakes up every night with blood dripping from her neck. The doctor believes she’s being attacked by vermin, but she, and the servants, and the whole damn town know it’s a vampire.
The doctor calls in a colleague and friend to the family to consult, and… to tell any more would be to give the story away. It’s a grim and nasty tale which would have been right at home in a Tales from the Crypt episode. It’s also based on a previously published Richard Matheson short story.
The final story, “Bobby,” is the only original in the anthology and is the darkest of the stories. Alma (Joan Hackett) is distraught at the loss of her son to drowning. So distraught, she resorts to black magic to bring him back. After a night of spell casting, she heads to bed, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. No three guesses who it is.
Bobby claims he washed up at shore a little distance away and has been staying with people whom he didn’t know. After his mom gets him dry, clothed, and offers him food, Bobby wants to play a game. Hide and seek.
And he won’t take no for an answer. As he grows angrier and more belligerent, Alma is left to question what, exactly, did she call back from the grave?
As an anthology series, Dead of Night is inherently uneven, and the three stories are very different. This release from Kino Lorber has cover art that makes the show look like it’s some kind of medieval story, but the first and last films are ’70s contemporary. “No Such Thing as a Vampire” takes place in some kind of unnamed 18th century villa.
Tonally, the different shorts are very secure in the sort of story they’re telling. The opening time-travel mystery never pretends to be something scary – it’s sentimental, without apology. The second story is clearly setting itself up for a twist but is admirably methodical in how it gets there. “Bobby” is the stand-out because it is the most suspenseful and frightening. It becomes clear quickly that Bobby’s game of hide and seek is not fun, and not games. It’s a deadly test that mother Alma is not prepared to pass.
Though a TV-movie, Dead of Night was shot on film. It probably looks better on this Blu-ray release than it ever did on TV. It’s decently directed and the final sequence is particularly suspenseful. It’s a fun movie, though not some lost classic or hidden gem.
Dan Curtis’ Dead of Night has been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Extras include an audio commentary by Tim Lucas. Video extras include an introduction by Jeff Thompson (7 min), who wrote the book on Dan Curtis; a TV-pilot by Curtis, “A Darkness at Blaisedon” (52 min) with an introduction by Thompson (7 min); highlights from composer Robert Cobert’s score (46 min), and deleted scenes and sequences (16 min).
