Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

calvinnme I watched this again after a too-long gap of about six years. Were there many anthology films made during this time? "Flesh and Fantasy" (1943) comes to mind but "Dead of Night" is superior. The plot involves an architect who arrives at a country house for work, in a recurring nightmare, and he's terrified because he knows how this nightmare is going to end... At the house there are a number of guests and they soon fall into talking about their own horrifying supernatural tales. The stories of each of the guests range from semi-comical (the "golfing" episode was my least favorite, although there was one chilling moment even in that one) to the terrifying (the best of the lot, imho, is the 'ventriloquist' episode). Some have speculated that Rod Serling probably drew heavily on "Dead of Night" when writing a number of scripts for "The Twilight Zone" (as just one example, the scene where the dummy bites the hand of the ventriloquist is copied almost exactly in the TZ ep "The Dummy"). I'm not sure if this movie was a blockbuster at the time, but I think it was ahead of its time in terms of depth of concepts, in that there is more than meets the eye.

Nigel P Ealing films, the warm and cosy home of lovingly crafted British comedies, branched out into slightly more unnerving territory with this early anthology. At a country house, in an age where, following communal afternoon tea, the local doctor likes to offer round the cigarettes, Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) turns up and recognises the ensemble (none of whom he has ever met) from his recurring dreams.In this world, where everyone speaks in the clipped tones of racing horse commentators, ("I can't leave. This is Mr Craig and I'm a character in his dream." "Oh how do you do? Such fun, charades!") the anecdotal stories everyone tells merely confirm Craig's suspicions. He can see their future: he knows what is going to happen.I cannot knock a 72 year old production for being dated, so I won't. But it is. The extreme politeness and styles are often difficult to get past, even harder to take seriously. To begin with, such chills as there are are very tame and wholesome. The segment featuring the malevolent mirror is where things pick up, giving the impression 'Dead of Night' is unveiling its frights in a measured way. Until the following dreadful golfing farce sequence lets things down. "Totally incredible and decidedly improper," to quote Mrs Foley (Mary Merrall).If you can sit through that segment, the best and most widely remembered is saved till last. Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave) is a ventriloquist, performing and popular with packed audiences every night. So when it becomes apparent that the dummy Hugo appears to be the controlling element of the partnership, initially amusing music-hall scenes become genuinely tense. This is partly due to the writing, in which Hugo's comedy jibes to his partner become increasingly spiteful, and Redgrave's performance, in which the showbiz charade slips and he becomes edgy whilst still continuing with the act.The Director for this final segment is Alberto Cavalcanti, who eschews the brightly lit jollity of the other stories and coaxes an intense performance from Redgrave. To say this finale is the best of the bunch is understating things. In its way, it is a masterpiece.In case Walter Craig's plight has been forgotten in all this, the twist ending gives the film's climactic moments a nice sense of closure.

jungophile This British anthology film of "Twilight Zone" type stories (15 years before that famous TV series debuted) is one of Martin Scorcese's favorite scary films. After just viewing it this morning, I must say it is very odd that this quite effective and occasionally chilling horror anthology is the solitary attempt by Ealing Studios to make a scary movie.The trick of the movie (and if you haven't seen it, stop reading here if you don't want the magic of the film spoiled) is that it ends where the story begins; a perpetual reoccurring dream of an architect ensnared in its sinister clutches. However, once you examine the narrative, an obvious fallacy reveals itself.The nut of the matter is this: in order for the dream (and presumably, the film) to start up again in what we would consider "normal" reality, the architect, Mr. Craig, has to fall asleep in his bed back at home with his wife. However, during the course of the story's unfolding at Pilgrim Farm where all the house guests relate their tales of the supernatural, there is the sticky question of when it is that Mr. Craig falls asleep, and an even stickier question of how his body would be returned to his bedroom in the city.Therefore, the only feasible explanation left for us is that Mr. Craig never wakes up. In fact, when we see him waking up near the end of the movie, he is actually still asleep and only dreaming that he is waking up. But even this explanation seems wanting; why would this architect dream about all these strangers at a country farm he's never been to in the first place? Here is where the argumentative dialogue between the characters needs to be examined. With the exception of the psychiatrist, who represents the voice of reason and Newtonian cause-and-effect governing our reality, all of the other characters defend the architect's view that supernatural events sometimes impinge on our mundane reality. The only premise that makes sense to me, therefore, is that the film itself is holding itself up as a mirror to this pro-supernatural view, with the skeptical psychiatrist acting as a foil to generate the necessary tension. In sum, the key to opening this Chinese puzzle box is in recognizing that we the viewers, due to our willingness to suspend disbelief, automatically presume that Mr. Craig is an actual character. He is not. In a sly way, in his role as the "architect," he represents the film itself.As a post script, let me add that I think Stanley Kubrick must have seen "Dead of Night" and enjoyed it, for there is more than a bit of this dynamic psychological tension generated in his adaptation of Stephen King's "The Shining" (1980). For example, in "Dead of Night," one of the scarier tales concerns a mirror holding a separate spatio-temporal reality within its frame, a portal to another dimension; a narrative device Kubrick and his co-writer Diane Johnson make ample use of in imbuing the Overlook Hotel with a treacherous ambiance that ensnares its doomed protagonist Jack Torrance.Speculation on this film's influence on Mr. Kubrick aside, however, "Dead of Night" is wonderful entertainment and remarkably ingenious. My only regret is that I didn't get to see it late at night on TV as a boy, as many of the fortunate reviewers here on IMDb have delightfully related; I'm sure it would have scared the crap out of me, too. Mr. Scorcese, if you ever happen to read this, thank you for turning me on to this thought-provoking film!

Claudio Carvalho The architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) drives to a farmhouse in the countryside of London and he is welcomed by the owner, Eliot Foley (Roland Culver), who introduces him the psychiatrist Dr. Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), his friend Joan Cortland (Googie Withers), his young neighbor Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) and the race car driver Hugh Grainger (Antony Baird). Craig tells that he has the sensation of Déjà vu since he had had a nightmare with them in that house but one lady is missing. However Mrs. Foley (Mary Merrall) arrives completing the characters of his dream.The skeptical Dr. Van Straaten does not believe in supernatural but the guests tell supernatural events that they have lived. Grainger had a car accident and then a premonition that saved his life; Sally had met a ghost during the Christmas; Eliot and his wife had lived an evil experience with a haunted mirror; two golfers that loved the same woman and decide to dispute her in a game, but one of them dies and haunt the other; and Dr. Van Straaten tells the story of a ventriloquist with double personality that is dominated by his dummy. But when Dr. Van Straaten accidentally breaks his classes and the power goes out, the nightmare begins."Dead of Night" is an original horror tale that is certainly the source of inspiration to "The Twilight Zone", "Tales From The Crypt", "Vault of Horror", "Creepshow", "Tales From the Darkside: the Movie" where the screenplay discloses a main story and many segments. The final twist is totally unexpected and a plus in this little great movie. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Na Solidão da Noite" ("In the Solitude of the Night")