October 3rd - DEAD OF NIGHT (1977)

First off, before I begin, I just want to say...GO GIANTS!

There, now that we got that out of the way, lets go on for the 3rd film for this month. This is the 1977 made for television anthology film Dead of Night. From the people who brought us Trilogy of Terror comes another made for TV horror anthology film but this one falls way short. In fact, I found this dull and pointless.

The first story is so forgettable, I forgot what the title of that story is. Ed Begley Jr stars as a college grad who fixes up an old car and gets sucked back in time to change some history around. It's very brief and feels like a bad Twilight Zone episode. Whimsical nonsense.

The second story, There is No Such Thing as Vampires is ok but also very brief. This is a period piece about a family that is being stalked by an unseen vampire...or is it. I actually enjoyed the twist to this but the story is so short, it couldn't build any tension or make me care about any of the characters.

The third story, Bobby, is the story I have heard for years that scared the living shit out of everyone who saw it at the time. A woman performs a satanic ritual in her home to bring back her dead son. Minutes later he appears but is not what he seems. Like the other stories, not much tension or character is built due to such a short time length. I was also annoyed by the child's constant teasing of his mother. I don't see how this was scary or disturbing. I found it annoying.

Dan Curtis who I normally love (Trilogy of Terror, Night Stalker) directed the film and Richard Matheson (writer of several Twilight Zone episodes and author of the scariest book I have ever read, Hell House) wrote the stories. I expected much better. This seemed like it was thrown together quickly, maybe to cash in on Trilogy of Terror. Either way, Dead of Night didn't do much for me.

Giants.