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Dead of Night

Play trailer Poster for Dead of Night 1945 1h 44m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
95% Tomatometer 43 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) goes to Pilgrim's Farm to see a potential client. When he arrives at the house, he gets the feeling that he has been there before. Once inside, he meets a group of people who seem oddly familiar. He tells them that he has dreamt about each one of them and begins to list events that occurred in the dream. Walter's revelations begin a conversation amongst the group, and each person admits to having experienced a strange, unexplainable event.
Dead of Night

What to Know

Critics Consensus

With four accomplished directors contributing, Dead of Night is a classic horror anthology that remains highly influential.

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Critics Reviews

View All (43) Critics Reviews
TIME Staff TIME Magazine It offers the same sort of spine-cooling thrill you get from listening to a group of accomplished liars swapping ghost stories. Oct 13, 2020 Full Review Erle Cox (The Chiel) The Age (Australia) The audience is worked up to thrilling point with one story when it breaks to pick up another... It ls like eating a dinner in which, while you are enjoying toe fish, the plate is snatched away and poultry or dessert is substituted. Oct 13, 2020 Full Review Times (UK) Staff Times (UK) There is much sound acting and directing in Dead of Night, but the handicaps inherent in the form this film chooses prove too much for its ingenuity. Oct 13, 2020 Full Review Carson Timar ButteredPopcorn Dead of Night is clearly an inspired effort that is challenging what has already been done and as a result, is inspiring projects for decades to come. If that isn't the sign of a great film with great filmmakers, nothing is. Sep 19, 2022 Full Review Alexander Shaw The Spectator From such an excellent whole it seems a pity to single out any parts for special praise, but I thought that the direction, acting and writing of the tale of the ventriloquist's dummy was superb. Oct 13, 2020 Full Review Harry MacArthur Washington Star This is a masterful bit of work on the part of all the several directors and screen writers involved in it. It is the sort of thing that can chill you and give you a wondrous bit of fun at the same time. Oct 13, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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david w it only matters if the viewer can absorb the eerie feeling without the gushing blood of modern movies. in forrest ackerman's famous monsters magazine, robert bloch, screenwriter of psycho, said it was the scariest movie he ever saw. that was then. i saw it first on a late night movie show a long time ago, then in a theater, to make sure i got it all. after the old universal movies, i don't watch too many horror shows, but this script and production is so well coordinated it's unreal, and that's the point of this kind of movie. don't let the central presence of bob cratchit (mervyn johns) put you off. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/08/24 Full Review Wayne K With no less than 4 directors at the helm, Dead Of Night is an anthology film, but not in the way I expected. I thought it would be a series of stories with either an overarching theme or a single character who appears in all of them to provide a tenuous link. Instead, it’s based around a room of people, many of whom have an interesting and bizarre story to tell. The stories, of course, vary in quality, and one segment which leans heavily into zany comedy feels out of place. It’s the last segment, featuring a malicious ventriloquist dummy that may or not have a life of its own, which stands out the most, and the ambiguity surrounding this mystery is what makes it the most compelling. Also, while I wouldn’t necessarily call the ending a twist, it’s a pretty shocking revelation that makes everything we’ve seen before feel all the more depressing as a result. Uneven at times, but creepy and affecting when it needs to be. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/04/24 Full Review Joe S One of the great horror and suspense films with a great cast wherein a number of people recount their dreams. It stands up after all this time. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/17/23 Full Review Matthew B Dead of Night is something of an oddity in the history of British horror movies. It was made just after World War 2, a period during which horror had been banned in Britain. However it did not spark a new interest in the horror genre in British cinema. While the film was successful, Ealing chose instead to make feel-good comedies rather than make similar films to Dead of Night. Dead of Night shares similarities with the Amicus films. Typically a group of people gather in one place and then either tell or see a story relating to themselves. Each story ends on a darker note. At the end there is a subversive twist, and it is revealed that the framing story is not taking place in a safe environment as originally thought. Inevitably the stories are of variable quality, though in all fairness there are no terrible ones in Dead of Night. There are some original aspects to Dead of Night. While Amicus typically took its stories from sensationalist publications such as EC Comics, the stories in Dead of Night are in some cases derived from literary sources. The first tale about the hearse driver comes from an E. F. Benson story. The fourth story about the golfers is based on a tale by H.G. Wells. Another unusual feature is that the film has four directors instead of one, representing an interesting amalgam of some of Britain's most talented filmmakers - Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton and Robert Hamer. The subject matter of some of these stories is hardly original. Ghosts, haunted houses, premonitions, a mirror that possesses a man's mind and a ventriloquist's dummy that seems to have a life of its own – these ideas have been used many times since, and they were not new when the film came out either. Still Dead of Night is unusual in telling the stories in a chilling and memorable way that makes them seem fresh. At first Dead of Night seems like a cosy set of mildly chilling supernatural tales designed to entertain rather than disturb the viewer. As the film reaches its finish, it becomes clear that darker forces are at work. Characters lose all sense of their identity as they find themselves possessed by obscure forces beyond their control (Peter Cortland by the owner of the mirror, Maxwell Frere by his dummy, Walter Craig by curious impulses that leave him feeling powerless). There are rooms within rooms, flashbacks within flashbacks, dreams within dreams, stories within stories. Finally the movie dissolves into a swirling collage of images in which all the six stories are blended together. There is a disorientating variety of visual trickery – rapid cuts, Dutch angles, blurred images, claustrophobic close-ups and rapid camera zooms both in and out. Finally the dream-like visions disappear, but the return to normality proves to be deceptive. This brings to an end one of the finest British horror movies ever made. While Dead of Night proved to be a dead end in the development of British horror, it demonstrated to future British film executives that the horror genre was not moribund, and there were still opportunities to make imaginative and spine-tingling films in this genre. I wrote a longer appreciation of Dead of Night on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/04/25/dead-of-night-1945/ Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/23/23 Full Review Jody V Like some film-length Twilight Zone episode as written by studio writers rather than those with a penchant for and skill in writing fantastical stories and psychological dramas, "Dead of Night" did not add up to what it could've been, imo. It also had the issue of what seemed like lesser actors of the time. The typical weaknesses of 40's acting is prevalent- stiff, unrealistic performances mixed with the overt gesture and vocalizations as used by stage actors. So it's a blend of some good ideas and hokey execution. Some scenes work fine, but they tend to be those involving just a couple of the characters together, with further explication or just nice chemistry between actors. So it's a blend of some good ideas and hokey execution. Some scenes work fine, but they tend to be those involving just a couple of the characters together, with further explication or just nice chemistry between actors. Not sure if the idea had been used before, but I'd imagine the ventriloquist's dummy being 'alive' would've been pretty scary for the time. 3 stars Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Very clever concept. Grips your attention right from the start. As it develops, you feel like you're watching top of the list Rod Serling Twilight Zone episodes. A triumph of the imagination. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Dead of Night

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Movie Info

Synopsis Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) goes to Pilgrim's Farm to see a potential client. When he arrives at the house, he gets the feeling that he has been there before. Once inside, he meets a group of people who seem oddly familiar. He tells them that he has dreamt about each one of them and begins to list events that occurred in the dream. Walter's revelations begin a conversation amongst the group, and each person admits to having experienced a strange, unexplainable event.
Director
Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton
Producer
Michael Balcon
Screenwriter
John Baines, Angus MacPhail
Production Co
Ealing Studios
Genre
Horror
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 29, 2017
Runtime
1h 44m