Deathdream

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This article is about the film. For the album, see Trevor Something.
Deathdream
Dead of Night
Deathdream.jpg
Deathdream theatrical release poster under alternate title Dead of Night
Directed byBob Clark
Written byAlan Ormsby
Produced byBob Clark
Starring
CinematographyJack McGowan
Edited byRonald Sinclair
Music byCarl Zittrer
Production
companies
  • Quadrant Films
  • Impact Films[1]
Release date
  • August 30, 1974 (1974-08-30)[2]
Running time
88 minutes
Countries
  • Canada
  • United States[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$300,000[3]

Deathdream (also known as Dead of Night) is a 1974 horror film directed by Bob Clark and written by Alan Ormsby, and starring Richard Backus, John Marley, and Lynn Carlin. Filmed in Brooksville, Florida, it was inspired by the W. W. Jacobs short story "The Monkey's Paw".[4][1]

Plot[]

In Vietnam 1972, American soldier Andy Brooks is shot by a sniper and falls to the ground. As he dies, he hears his mother's voice calling out, "Andy, you'll come back. You've got to. You promised."

Sometime later, his family receives notice of his death in combat. Andy's father, Charles, and sister, Cathy, begin to grieve, but his mother, Christine, becomes irate and refuses to believe that Andy has died. Meanwhile, a trucker stops at a diner and says he's picked up a hitchhiker who's a soldier. Hours later, in the middle of the night, Andy arrives at the front door of the family house in full uniform, apparently unharmed; the family welcomes him back with joy, concluding the notice of his death was a clerical error. When the father says they thought Andy had died, he replies "I did." The family laughs, thinking this a joke.

In the next few days, Andy displays strange, withdrawn behavior, speaking only rarely, dressing in an concealing manner, and spending his days sitting around the house, listless and anemic. At night, though, he becomes inexplicably animated, wandering the town and spending time in the local cemetery. Meanwhile, local police investigate the murder of a local trucker, who was found with his throat slashed and his body drained of blood.

Charles attempts to confront Christine about Andy's erratic behavior. Christine insists that Charles was too withdrawn and authoritarian toward Andy; Charles counters that Christine made Andy too sensitive by smothering him. Andy continues to display weird behavior: he attacks a neighbor boy who attempts to demonstrate his karate skills, then kills the family dog when it tries to protect the child. Charles witnesses the killing, tells his wife that their son is crazy, and then goes to the bar, where he tells his friend, a doctor, what Andy did.

Charles brings the doctor home, and he offers Andy a free checkup. The doctor later tells Charles about the truck driver and says he needs to inform the police about the suspicious coincidence of Andy's return. Andy visits him at his office in the middle of the night, angrily demanding a checkup, but the doctor can't detect a pulse or heartbeat. Andy tells him, "I died for you, Doc. Why shouldn't you return the favor?" He attacks and kills the doctor with a syringe, then uses it to inject the doctor's blood into his arm. It's clear that Andy is some kind of vampire or zombie who needs the blood of others to reinvigorate his decaying body.

The next day, Charles learns that the doctor was killed and becomes convinced his son is responsible for the deaths. When Christine tells him that Andy is on a double date with his high school sweetheart, Joanne, his sister, and his best friend, Charles gets his gun and goes looking for them. At a drive-in cinema, Andy visibly decays due to lack of blood. He attacks and kills Joanne and his friend while his sister manages to escape. The other patrons witness the attack. Andy flees in the car before he can inject his victims' blood, running over and killing one of the patrons.

Andy returns home, where his mother protects him from his father. Charles commits suicide when he sees the monster his son has become. As Christine is driving Andy away, he is shot twice by police, and their gunfire sets the car on fire. The police pursuit ends at the graveyard where Andy had been spending time. They discover his decayed corpse writhing in a shallow grave beneath a tombstone on which Andy had scrawled his own name and the dates of his birth and death. Christine sobs as she tries to cover the corpse with dirt. Her car explodes, and she tells officers, "Andy's home. Some boys never come home."

Cast[]

  • Richard Backus as Andy Brooks
  • John Marley as Charles Brooks
  • Lynn Carlin as Christine Brooks
  • Anya Ormsby as Cathy Brooks
  • Jane Daly as Joanne
  • Mal Jones as Sheriff
  • Henderson Forsythe as Dr. Philip Allman
  • Norman William Beauchamp as Cop
  • William Mason O'Neil as movie theater extra.

Production[]

Filming took place in Brooksville, Florida,[5] in the fall of 1972, under the working title The Night Walker.[6] It's copyrighted 1972.

Release[]

Deathdream opened in Tampa, Florida on August 30, 1974.[7]

Critical response[]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Deathdream holds an approval rating of 83%, based on 12 reviews, and an average rating of 6.72/10.[8]

Chuck Middlestat of the Albuquerque Journal deemed the film a "light-weight spooker that starts off pretty slowly but builds into a good nail-biter in the last half-hour," but noted the dialogue as weak, adding that "the actors... do as well as they could with sophomoric lines."[9] Glenn Erickson of DVD Talk wrote, "The reason Deathdream works is its superior dramatic staging. The actors are excellent, especially John Marley and Lynn Carlin, both honored for their roles in John Cassavetes' Faces. Clark stages the domestic scenes with a fine simplicity and what we remember the most is the looks of bewilderment on nicely-framed faces."[10] Paul Corupe of DVD Verdict wrote, "Deathdream, the second collaboration by director Bob Clark and screenwriter Alan Ormsby, is a marked artistic and technical leap forward from the pair's overrated debut feature, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. A modern spin on the classic "be careful what you wish for" theme, Ormsby's screenplay balances a pointed Vietnam War allegory with pulpier aspects—a "shock" ending, distinct moments of morbid comic relief and beyond-the-grave retribution ripped from the pages of a 1950s horror comic."[11]

In The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle wrote, "Though not very lively and ultimately anti-climactic, the movie sustains a calculated mood of off-centered awkwardness from start to finish, and is buttressed by strong acting and plausible dialogue."[12] Glenn Kay wrote in Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide that Deathdream is "one of [Clark's] creepiest and most thought-provoking works".[13]

Home media[]

Blue Underground DVD released a special edition of Deathdream in 2004.[14] In 2017, Blue Underground released a 2K resolution edition on Blu-ray.[14] Special features include an audio commentary by Bob Clark,[15] an audio commentary by Alan Ormsby,[15] the featurette Tom Savini: The Early Years,[15] the featurette Deathdreaming: Interview with Star Richard Backus,[15] alternate opening titles, extended ending sequence,[15] trailers, and a poster and still gallery.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  2. ^ Jones, Bruce (August 30, 1974). "Film Technicians Seek More Florida Movies". The Tampa Times. Tampa, Florida. p. 41 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  3. ^ Vatnsdal 2004, p. 193.
  4. ^ Cavett Binion (2009). "Deathdream". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2009-12-31. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
  5. ^ Smilianich (August 31, 1974). "'Dead of Night' Gets the Message Across". Tampa Bay Times. p. 5-B.
  6. ^ "'Night Walker' returns in 'Dead of Night'". Tampa Bay Times. August 30, 1974. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  7. ^ "Dead of Night". Collections Canada. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  8. ^ "Dead of Night (Deathdream) (1974) (2018) – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Fandango Media. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  9. ^ Middlestadt, Chuck (December 14, 1974). "Script, Pace Hurt Bail-Biter Thriller". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. p. C-4 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  10. ^ Glenn Erickson. "Deathdream". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
  11. ^ Paul Corupe. "Deathdream". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
  12. ^ Dendle, Peter (2001). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-0-7864-9288-6.
  13. ^ Kay, Glenn (2008). Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. Chicago Review Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 9781569766835.
  14. ^ a b Dillard, Clayton (November 28, 2017). "Blu-ray Review: Bob Clark's Deathdream Joins the Blue Underground". Slant Magazine. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Coffel, Chris (November 7, 2017). "First Look at 2K Restoration of Bob Clark's 'Deathdream!'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved May 11, 2021.

External links[]

Bibliography[]

  • Vatnsdal, Caelum (2004). They Came From Within : A History of Canadian Horror Cinema. Arbeiter Ring Publishing. ISBN 1-894037-21-9.
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