Dead of Night (1945)

Dead of Night, Basil Dearden et all.

Port manteau horrors are a staple of my film diet. My first was Creepshow and the slew that came in its wake, it was not until later I discovered the British fingerprints of Amicus and the hammer in the form. I’ve always had a fondness for them. If one was weak there would be another to take its place. Similar to sealing. The comedy is what I know of them. Dark and macabre as The Ladykillers was though, the genuine unease of Dead of Night floored me. It filtered anything. Even an old friend was at the screening. I saw her briefly. The house lights were up, and being quite the cineaste she got up to talk to the staff. I did not know she was at the screening. But then the lights went. And even after the film. I never saw her ..gain!

The ties that bind these stories show the brunt of the time though. Yes, it’s got that calm and somewhat stilted sense of stage blocking and polite enunciation except for brief working-class ticket inspectors and brash Americans in the tales. But Walter Craig, our introduction to the family of people is a modern middle-class architect, our key to the terrors to come.

And they come thick and fast. Each one is a survivor of some uncanny event it’s remarkable how they each shadow the war that is coming to an end outside of the cottage. I know a film is a product of its time, a stolen kiss from Peter Pan would have been far worse in reality as the yoga ingenue lays sardines…but the German professor debunking any spirituality is hard to ignore in the backdrop of the last year of world war 2.

It’s a story of mental health in its way. Not in the psychiatrist but in the way the horror manifests. The reckless race car driver given a second chance, only to avoid his second death is a man’s death wish hitting the reality of his recklessness. Sally’s story of hide and seek going tragically wrong takes us to a more romantic time. A family that was joyful and innocent, but somehow a sibling becomes corrupt and ruins the aristocracy. Famdestroyingning itself which she helps exorcise this haunting. 

But the richest to me was the cursed mirror. A simple story of husband and wife, ready to ‘spend lots of money and have fun’ but in the end the cursed mirror is effective and takes us into real horror at this juncture. A man haunted inside himself. And once this tale begins the humour starts to be dryer and darker throughout the rest of our journey. It’s a great role for the sceptic yet supportive wife. And shows a modern view as she rescues her husband and does all the legwork to bring him back to the world a modern man, not a bride killer. The riches of the past are alluring, but modern life and optimism are what is the message here.

It’s a great interplay throughout the films. While each director takes a different take on the measure of horror to humour. It its so well they know it’s a studio book with its own rules. it And is great for it. I was on the edge of my seat for them all, except the golfers.

More of a slap and tickle hi-jinx, possibly a break, a deliberate farce case the stories are too dour for the general audience in WW2. but the wacky golfers again seem honour bound to be daft to each other, despite the rather pervy ending. It sticks out of all of them as a sketch that went too long sadly. It felt more like school spirit than the spirits of the damned. But it’s all pulled back with our last character. HUGO.

I saw MEGAN recently. It was fun, thrilling and full of spectacle. This film dummy does not play it dumb and brays proudly in its intellect. Animatronics are unnecessary, not a single neck turn. Just a judicious bits mark. Nothing is told about Hugo. Tis all in the lighting and all in the sound. It shows the sparsity of cinema can make the richest and darkest horror.

Seeing this in the cinema was a great idea. It is hard to focus on the classic production stilted dialogue and needs exposition. But in the dark. With the screen. And nothing but the hum of a speaker. Who knows who is in the cinema with you..or not. And that makes it all the more unnerving. 

See it when you can.