Nov 13, 2025
Dead of Night (Deathdream, 1974)
"Listen to my heart, Doc."
"Andy, there isn't any -"
"Heartbeat, Doc. No heartbeat."
"You killed that truck driver."
"I died for you, Doc. Why shouldn't you return the favour?"
#dead of night#deathdream#horror film#horror imagery#1974#bob clark#alan ormsby#john marley#lynn carlin#richard backus#henderson forsythe#anya ormsby#jane daly#michael mazes#arthur anderson#arthur bradley#david gawlikowski#virginia cortez#bud hoey#carl zittrer#the stepping stone between Clark's objectively amateurish first horror film (Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things‚ can be found by#following my Bob Clark tag) and his one true masterpiece of the genre (Black Christmas‚ genuinely one of the greatest slasher films ever#made). this falls in the middle but errs closer to Black Xmas at times: clearly he'd developed an awful lot in a short time#Marley and Carlin were big gets‚ both Oscar noms‚ and a far cry from the non professional cast of Children...‚ but the real get here was#Backus. essentially an unknown he brings a truly uncanny feeling of otherness to his resurrected soldier‚ using stillness and silence#to really sell the inhumanity. basically a retread of The Monkey's Paw‚ the only real problem here is that there isn't quite enough#material to sustain a feature length film; this is flabby around the middle and drags its feet to pad out the run time‚ but when it goes#for it (as in the brilliantly horrible final 10 minutes or so) it's something close to being very special
