5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Dead of Night,’ the Movie From the Creator of ‘Dark Shadows’
The sun is setting earlier these days, and the air is chillier … but if you could use even more chills, tune in for Svengoolie‘s presentation of the 1977 made-for-TV horror anthology Dead of Night on Saturday, Sept. 28, in the latest installment of his MeTV series, Svengoolie Classic Horror & Sci-Fi Movie.
Though you may have never heard of Dead of Night, it shares a lot with the 1975 horror anthology classic Trilogy of Terror, including a director, a screenwriter and a style: The movie is comprised of three dark, pulpy horror stories with sinister twist endings. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the 1945 horror film of the same name (though the title may be an homage).
So get ready to spend a long, dark evening with some fun facts about Dead of Night.
1. The Film Was Directed by a TV Horror Icon …
Credit: Everett Collection
Dan Curtis was one of the pillars of ’60s and ’70s horror television. He created Dark Shadows, the supernatural soap opera famous for brooding vampire Barnabas Collins, in 1966; Curtis directed numerous episodes during its five year run, as well as the spinoff feature films House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971).
But even if you’re not a fan of the Collins clan, you might know Curtis’ work. After the series wrapped in 1971, he produced 1972’s made-for-TV movie The Night Stalker and directed the 1973 sequel, The Night Strangler (though he was not involved in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series). But his best-known made-for-TV movie work was directing the hit 1975 ABC Movie of the Week Trilogy of Terror. The anthology film starred Karen Black in four different roles, most unforgettably as a woman stalked by an evil doll. In 1976, he again directed Black alongside Bette Davis in the horror thriller Burnt Offerings.
2. …And Written by One of the Greatest Horror & Sci-Fi Writers of All Time
Courtesy of Everett Collection
If you’re into classic horror and sci-fi TV, you’ve probably seen the name “Richard Matheson” pop up across the ending credits of a number of shows. But Matheson is more than just a man who got a lot of royalty checks in the ’60s and ’70s; he’s one of the most influential modern American horror and sci-fi writers.
Matheson got his start writing for pulp magazines in the 1950s, and almost immediately his work found a home in Hollywood. His 1954 novel I Am Legend has been adapted into several movies, including 1971’s The Omega Man and 2007’s Will Smith film of the same title. His 1956 novel Shrinking Man became 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, produced from Matheson’s own screenplay. He similarly adapted his short story “Duel” into the script for Steven Spielberg‘s first film in 1971.
But Matheson might be even better known for his work on shows like The Twilight Zone, where he wrote 16 episodes including the classic “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” He adapted Poe stories for Roger Corman and collaborated frequently with Dan Curtis, penning the screenplays for both Kolchak movies, Trilogy of Terror and Dead of Night. Matheson continued to work on programs like Amazing Stories through the ’80s, and produced novels and short stories almost up until his death in 2017. When he passed, Spielberg remarked, “For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov.”
3. It Was Ed Begley Jr.’s First Major Role
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Today, actor Ed Begley Jr. has a massive filmography and is known for everything from his close working relationship with director Christopher Guest to his role as a hunky doctor on St. Elsewhere to his environmental activism. But in 1977, Begley had primarily appeared in smaller TV roles on shows like Mannix, Happy Days and Starsky & Hutch. Dead of Night‘s first segment, “Second Chance,” was Begley’s first opportunity to play a lead in a major production. In it, he plays a man who restores an old car that was crushed in a train accident — and in doing so, is transported back to the moment when the original tragedy occurred.
4. It Was Supposed to Be a TV Show (Maybe)
Curtis originally wrote a pilot for another TV show called Dead of Night, to follow up on the success of Dark Shadows. Only the pilot was ever produced, which was released as a 1969 TV movie called Dead of Night: Darkness at Blaisedon. In that pilot, a pair of supernatural detectives are summoned to a gothic mansion, recently inherited by a woman who fears that it is haunted. It is believed by many that Dead of Night and Trilogy of Terror were comprised of ideas created for that show and never used, though there’s no definitive proof — but Dead of Night: Darkness at Blaisedon was included as an extra on the DVD release of Dark of Night.
5. One Segment Was Remade 19 Years Later … by the Original Director
Though many fans consider Dead of Night an informal sequel to Trilogy of Terror, that film got an actual sequel in 1996, when Trilogy of Terror II was released as a Halloween special for the USA Network. Again directed by Curtis, Trilogy of Terror II includes three segments: one all-new segment, one direct sequel to Trilogy of Terror‘s infamous possessed doll story, and one segment that is simply a remake of Dead of Night‘s final segment, “Bobby.” An eerie tale of a grieving mother who gets more than she bargained for after using the occult to bring back her dead son, the 1996 remake of “Bobby” is almost exactly the same as the 1977 version, even working from the same script. This puts Curtis in the small selection of directors who have remade their own work, which includes Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Mann.
Svengoolie will air Dead of Night Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, on MeTV at 8pm ET.
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