A Television Time Capsule With Teeth

Read Time:5 Minute, 39 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Dead of Night (Special Edition) (Blu-ray)
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Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Year Released: 1977, Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2025
Runtime: 1h 13m
Director(s): Dan Curtis
Writer(s): Richard Matheson, Jack Finney
Cast: Joan Hackett, Patrick Macnee, Anjanette Comer, Horst Buchholz, Ed Begley Jr., Lee Montgomery, John Dehner, Ann Doran, E.J. André, Christina Hart, Elisha Cook Jr.
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.kinolorber.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: Dan Curtis’ DEAD OF NIGHT plays like a séance conducted through a TV antenna — flickering, imperfect, yet oddly intimate. First aired in 1977 and now preserved through Kino Lorber’s new release, this trio of stories captures the singular magic of broadcast horror: the sensation that something dark could slip through your living room at any moment. It’s uneven, yes, but within its framework lies the DNA of an entire generation’s fear.

Curtis, already legendary for DARK SHADOWS, returns here to the realm that made him a household name: gothic Americana filtered through television. Working from scripts by THE TWILIGHT ZONE veteran Richard Matheson and novelist Jack Finney, he orchestrates three distinct tales that move from contemplative fantasy to psychological unease to pure nightmare. What makes this anthology endure isn’t its scares alone—it’s the mood, the sense that every flicker of light hides a story aching to be told.

The first segment, SECOND CHANCE, finds Ed Begley Jr. restoring an antique car that unexpectedly drives him straight into the past. It’s a gentle, reflective piece that feels more mournful than horrific, anchored by Begley’s sincerity and Finney’s fascination with temporal longing. Curtis films it with a patience rarely seen on television of the era; for a while, the anthology forgets it’s supposed to frighten. Instead, it aches. Something haunts the idea of slipping backward into a quieter world, realizing that nostalgia itself can be a ghost story.

Next comes NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE, an ornate chamber piece that plays like Matheson doing Bram Stoker by way of a TV mystery. Patrick Macnee leans into the gothic melodrama with relish, while Anjanette Comer and Horst Buchholz add intrigue to the tangled love-and-blood triangle. It’s the segment most obviously indebted to Victorian horror, but it’s also the one that shows the limitations of the format. The twist lands, but without the bite its setup promises. The tone wavers between parody and sincerity—fun, but not particularly frightening.

Then comes BOBBY—the reason this collection really has roots. Joan Hackett delivers one of the decade’s great televised performances as a grieving mother who calls her dead son back from the grave. Lee Montgomery, playing the boy who returns, turns what could have been campy into something chilling. Curtis shoots the entire episode like a fever dream, the shadows swallowing the edges of the set as Hackett’s composure erodes. It’s a study in dread and denial, the kind of story that could only exist in the emotional shorthand of television. The final moments remain seared into viewers’ minds, and it’s no wonder Curtis later remade this same segment for TRILOGY OF TERROR II—once seen, BOBBY is unforgettable.

The transfer in Kino Lorber’s Special Edition respects the film’s original texture rather than polishing it away. The grain stays intact, giving each segment its era-authentic look. The extras add genuine value: Tim Lucas’s commentary delves into the collaboration between Curtis and Matheson, and the inclusion of the long-lost 1969 pilot, A DARKNESS AT BLAISEDON. This makes it more than a simple reissue—it’s a reclamation of a forgotten corner of horror television.

In the broader context of Curtis’ work, DEAD OF NIGHT is an intriguing middle child. It lacks the cultural imprint of DARK SHADOWS and the menace of TRILOGY OF TERROR, but it demonstrates a filmmaker who understood how to weaponize restraint. Where modern anthologies lean on excess, Curtis crafts menace through composition and quiet.

There’s also a strange comfort to its modest scale. The sets are minimal, the effects practical, and yet every frame carries intention. Watching it today feels like paging through a yellowed scrapbook of television’s experimental years. The anthology format let Curtis test the boundaries of what TV could show—grief, guilt, the supernatural as emotional metaphor.

As a whole, DEAD OF NIGHT stands as a testament to when television horror had to rely on imagination over spectacle. It may not terrify modern audiences, but it understands something timeless: that real horror doesn’t need volume or violence—it needs yearning, loss, and the whisper that the past might not stay buried. It’s flawed, nostalgic, and undeniably effective. Not a masterpiece, but a memory worth preserving—especially now that Kino Lorber has given it a new life before the static finally fades to black.

Product Extras:
• NEW Audio Commentary by Novelist and Critic Tim Lucas
• Introduction by Jeff Thompson, Author of The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis
• Dead of Night – A Darkness At Blaisedon (HD Up-Res): 1969 TV Pilot (51:53)
• Robert Cobert's Music Score Highlights
• No Such Thing as a Vampire: Deleted Scenes
• Deleted Extended Opening Title Sequence
• Newly Commissioned Cover Art by Tom Hodge/The Dude Designs
• Optional English Subtitles

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[photo courtesy of KINO LORBER]

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