Harefooted Halloween: Dead of Night

What I Liked: All the stories in this anthology film are in the, uh, sorta classier (?) realm.  They’re more Twilight Zone in spirit despite this coming out fifteen years prior.  So there’s nothing too gruesome or monstrous here.  These are gothic tales that involve death, ghosts, haunted objects, etc. and how they affect the living.

The (not really) twist ending is weirdly satisfying.  Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it.  It’s wide open enough to draw your own conclusions about what you just witnessed while also being definitive enough to be a grim finale no matter what.

What I Didn’t Like: One story about a pair of golfers who make a wager has a fairly disturbing suicidal setup but then they play the rest of it for laughs.  None of the other segments are comedic so that’s fine for one to take a different path but the movie doesn’t pull off the tone shift within this particular one.  It’s the only section I didn’t care for.

The actor who plays the doctor in the wrap arounds constantly takes off and puts on his glasses.  I don’t know if this was the actor’s or director’s decision but it’s distracting as all hell.  Every time this guy says a line he has to pull his glasses off in dramatic fashion just so he can put them back on a moment later.  Leave them alone you oaf!

Overall Impressions: This one may not be as flashy or intriguingly bizarre as the 60’s and 70’s British horror anthology pictures like Asylum, The House that Dripped Blood or Torture Garden, but it’s not as silly as those either.  This was made in the 40’s so there’s going to be more restraint all around.  I dig both styles for different reasons.  Dead of Night is probably more consistent throughout its stories (perhaps with the exception of the golf one I mentioned above) and they remain more mildly stimulating than scary.  Although there are a couple of scenarios that would be downright upsetting in real life due to them involving shit like domestic abuse, child murder and suicide.

The 1972 Tales from the Crypt is still my favorite of these I’ve seen so far though.