Day 7: 31 Days of Horror: Dead of Night (1945)

I love horror movies that focus on a series of different horror stories. That's why I loved R.L. Stine and Are You Afraid of the Dark? when I was a kid. Dead of Night is an awesome horror film because it's full of several different horror stories and how they somewhat relate to one another.

The movie begins with a man arriving at a house, once he is in the house, it triggers his memory of a recurring dream he's been having. The other guests, as well as a psychiatrist there, are interested in hearing about his dream. They are interested in hearing about it because the man claims that they are all present in his dream, although he's never met any of them.

While listening, each character ends up telling a story about their involvement with the supernatural. The two scariest stories involve a psychopath, one that lives inside a mirror and one that lives inside of a ventriloquist dummy or inside of the ventriloquist's head. The other stories are not as frightening, but entertaining nonetheless.

Dead of Night is a classic horror film that shouldn't be passed up. It reminds me of a mixture between The Innocents and The Uninvited with a little dose of The Lady Vanishes (1938). The two silly men, Ralph Michael and Basil Radford, who played the two Englishmen obsessed with rugby in The Lady Vanishes are in Dead of Night. Those two sure made a stellar comical pairing. Michael Redgrave, who played Gilbert in The Lady Vanishes, is also in Dead of Night. The character he plays is much more disturbed and not nearly as lighthearted and funny as good old Gilbert. I love him in this film too, great actor. Dead of Night is awesome.