Dead of Night (1977) (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 30, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Dan CurtisRelease Date(s)
1977 (October 28, 2025)Studio(s)
Dan Curtis Productions (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)- Film/Program Grade: See Below
- Video Grade: See Below
- Audio Grade: See Below
- Extras Grade: A
- Overall Grade: B+
Review
Movies that offer multiple separate but thematically related stories aren’t new to the industry. The original Dead of Night (1945) was one of the first films to tell separate stories of the supernatural. Later, Tales of Terror, Asylum, Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow continued the popular format. In 1977, Dan Curtis directed the made-for-TV version of Dead of Night (1977), featuring stories by Richard Matheson and Jack Finney.
Narrator John Dehner tells us at the beginning that there are three stories—one of imagination, one of mystery, and one of terror. The first, a Twilight Zone-type episode adapted by Richard Matheson from a Jack Finney story, is Second Chance. It centers on contemporary college student enthusiast Frank Cantrell (Ed Begley, Jr.) who purchases a rusted 1926 roadster, restores it to mint condition, and finds himself in the same era as the car’s vintage. As in many time travel stories, a character who goes back in time may affect events in the future, some minor, some catastrophic. It take Frank some time to figure out that his presence in the past has repercussions in the present. Begley is well cast as the car-loving young man who goes back 50 years and discovers that his brief stay in 1926 has shaped the course of his life. The story has a nostalgic, even melancholy flavor.
No Such Thing as a Vampire is Matheson’s spin on the vampire legend. With the look of a Hammer horror production, the film takes place in an unnamed European country in what looks to be the 1800s or earlier. Alexis (Anjanette Comer) is convinced she’s being preyed on by a vampire. She awakens at night screaming, convinced she’s going to die. Every morning, she notices small piercings on her neck and blood on her pillow. Her husband, Dr. Gheria (Patrick McNee) summons family friend Michael (Horst Buchholz) for help. Michael notices garlands of garlic hung on all the doors and windows to ward off vampires, but the attacks have continued. All the servants have left in fear, except the butler Karel (Elisha Cook, Jr.). That night, Dr. Gheria asks Michael to watch Alexis along with him so they can protect her if the vampire returns. This episode has lots of gothic atmosphere and a claustrophobic feel, as most of the action takes place in the Gheria house. McNee (Steed of TV’s The Avengers) conveys authority, strength and concern, but also fear. Buchholz doesn’t have a lot to do, which is probably good since his acting isn’t at all convincing. Cook, a veteran character actor in films that range from The Maltese Falcon to House on Haunted Hill, comes off as appropriately rattled but loyal, and plays an important role in the story’s denouement.
The final episode is an original written by Matheson specifically for this trilogy. With a premise inspired by W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw, Bobby opens on grief-stricken mother Alma (Joan Hackett) who, depressed at the loss of her young son Bobby (Lee Montgomery), has been seeing psychics in the hope of reaching out to him. Alone at night during a raging storm, Alma draws demonic symbols on the floor and recites incantations begging that Bobby be returned to her. Later, she hears tapping on the front door. When she opens it, Bobby is there... but is it really Bobby? He soon turns surly and rude and eventually tries to kill her. Alma runs through the house, trying to elude him and get out, but the doors are locked, the lights are out, and she has become prey to the apparition she has summoned from beyond the grave. The episode is intense and scary, with most scenes shot from a low angle and many camera set-ups. Hackett does a credible job as the woman in distress and reminded me of Karen Black running from the Zuni fetish doll in Curtis’ Trilogy of Terror. Montgomery is appropriately creepy as the returned Bobby—a sweet-faced ghoul intent on murdering his mother.
All three tales have Matheson’s surprise twist and all contain varying degrees of tension. The brief running time for each episode avoids padding, so the narrative flow is brisk. Robert Cobert’s score is original, heavy and grandiose. It builds suspense and maintains our attention. Production values for all three stories are quite impressive, suggesting a fairly high budget.
Dead of Night was shot by director of photography Rick Waite on 35mm film with spherical lenses and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1. As with many TV movies of the 70s, focus tends to be soft. Darker scenes suffer with reduced lack of definition. In Bobby, for example, a good part of the story takes place in a dark house and it’s difficult to see details. Second Chance has a dreamlike quality in the scenes set in the present that carries through into night scenes of the past. In No Such Thing as a Vampire, the set design is rich, with costume and some outdoor locations on the back lot adding period flavor.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear and distinct in all three tales. A vintage car’s engine hums as it travels down a country road in Second Chance. Horses’ hooves can be heard on the cobblestones as Michael arrives at Dr. Gheria’s house in No Such Thing as a Vampire. Bobby contains the sounds of shattering dishes, heavy breathing, footsteps, and pouring rain and thunder, and Robert Cobert’s score amps up the excitement. Screaming is heard in the second and third stories.
SECOND CHANCE (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B+/B/B+
NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): A-/B/B+
BOBBY (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): A-/B/B+
Bonus materials on the Region A Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics include the following:
- Audio Commentary with Tim Lucas
- Dead of Night Introduction by Jeff Thompson (7:51)
- A Darkness at Blaisedon Introduction (7:13)
- A Darkness at Blaisedon (51:53)
- Robert Cobert’s Music Score Highlights (46:04)
- No Such Thing as a Vampire – Deleted Scenes (10:31)
- Deleted Extended Opening and Title Sequence (5:18)
- Burnt Offerings Trailer (2:30)
Audio Commentary – Novelist and critic Tim Lucas notes that Dead of Night marked the final collaboration between Dan Curtis and Richard Matheson. The opening narration is provided by John Dehner, who would work for Curtis again on the mini-series The Winds of War in the 1980s. Dead of Night premiered on NBC on March 29, 1977. The stories are varied. Jack Finney (The Body Snatchers) wrote the story on which Second Chance is based. Finney wrote frequently of time travel. Ed Begley, Jr., a “ubiquitous actor,” has amassed over 300 film and TV credits. Robert Cobert’s music is used sparingly, “like a condiment you should never overdo.” Second Chance is referred to as “Spielbergian” because of its reflective sense of wonderment. Lucas provides career overviews of a number of the actors, including veterans Ann Doran and Elisha Cook, Jr. Period buildings in the No Such Thing as a Vampire story were shot on Universal’s European street, which was rebuilt in 1967 after a fire destroyed the original sets. Lucas talks about other films that featured multiple horror tales. The original concept for Dead of Night was that an investigator (Kervin Matthews) would deal with occult mysteries each week, but a weekly series was never picked up. Bobby, the only completely original tale of the film, is compared to the Amelia episode in Trilogy of Terror. Alma seems normal when we first meet her, but her narcissism and neuroses are revealed. Bobby may have influenced Halloween with its destabilizing camera, point-of-view photography, and Bobby’s silhouetted figure. Lucas provides a lengthy discussion of Curtis’ career particularly Dark Shadows, the first soap opera featuring a vampire as the central character. Curtis loved story telling and was inspired by early horror films and literature. “He respects the page.” His career peaked with the mini-series The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. The three stories in Dead of Night have completely different looks. The cinematography in Bobby is a class act with dramatic lighting, eerie shadows, lots of below-eye-level angles. Curtis “had a thing about houses,” and he worked on films in which old or creepy houses were integral to story. He worked on developing deals to revive many projects. A new Dark Shadows premiered in early 1991, but lasted only twelve episodes. In 1996, Curtis directed Trilogy of Terror 2, which featured only one new episode, The Graveyard Rats, based on a 1936 Weird Tales story.
Dead of Night Introduction by Jeff Thompson – Thompson, author of The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis, notes that Dan Curtis hoped Dead of Night: A Darkness at Blaisedon would spin off a series of horror tales, both adaptations of classics and original stories, to be called either Dead of Night or Inner Sanctum. Thompson provides brief synopses of each of the three stories in the trilogy. Curtis was fond of hiring great character actors.
A Darkness at Blaisedon Introduction – Dan Curtis started his career as a salesman. ABC asked him for a pilot for a nighttime supernatural series. The film was videotaped with three cameras at the same studio as several soap operas. It was intended to be the first episode of a series that never ran.
A Darkness at Blaisedon – This is the pilot of a horror anthology series that didn’t sell. Aired on August 26, 1969, the gothic melodrama focuses on Angela Martin (Marj Dusay), a young heiress, who hires paranormal investigators Jonathan Fletcher (Kerwin Matthews) and Sajeed Rau (Cal Bellini) to debunk the haunting of the mansion she inherited, The investigators discover the house actually is haunted by a vengeful ghost that may possess or murder Angela, who resembles the spirit of a former owner.
Robert Robert’s Music Score Highlights – The score of Dead of Night is heard without visuals or dialogue. Standing alone, it’s highly atmospheric with suspenseful chords and melodies that capture the tone of the tales.
No Such Thing as a Vampire: Deleted Scenes – Four cut scenes are shown, each introduced with a title card. They are the original opening shot with location card; hearse in a hurry; Karel misses; and original final shot.
Deleted Extended Opening and Title Sequence – The main difference between this sequence and the one that appears in the film is that director Dan Curtis speaks the opening narration.
Dead of Night offers an interesting mixture of tales. For a TV movie, production values are impressive. The pace is brisk, and the acting, for the most part, is admirable though Buchholz and Comer could have benefitted from sharper direction from Curtis. Intensity grows with each episode, and the second and third push the boundaries of what was acceptable on 1970s network television. Horror fans should be warned that though this film is well made, it lacks the graphic imagery of R-rated theatrical features. The only blood shown is brief and the scares, even in the Bobby sequence, don’t compare to modern horror films. We owe a lot to Dan Curtis’ for pioneering the made-for-TV movie and bringing horror to the small screen.
- Dennis Seuling