If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Mervyn Johns (Walter) arrives at a secluded house and walks straight into a recurring dream. All the characters are familiar to him but he can't remember why. At the house gathering, Johns predicts what will happen throughout the course of the evening as various guests recount stories of the supernatural to try and disprove psycho-analyst Frederick Valk's (Dr Van Straaten) scientific diagnosis for all things mysterious. We get 5 stories before the ending which ties everything together. Spookily.This is an enjoyable film if you believe in supernatural things. As everyone normal knows, things outside of scientific explanation exist. This film throws a few examples at you. Interestingly, the story that is most spoken about and revered is the 5th story about the ventriloquist Michael Redgrave (Frere) and his dummy Hugo. This is performed well, pretty scary and also realistically psycho-scientific. By that I mean that there is a scientific reasoning that can be applied to the story. I studied psychology for 3 years before I realized that it's all a load of nonsense as they strive pointlessly to make it a scientific study. Like all things, it's probably common sense which is not measurable. The most realistic story is the often neglected 1st story about the car crash victim. Premonitions and dreams that relate to real life events DO happen and I have examples of my own that are too numerous to describe here.In between these two stories, the most memorable segment of the whole film for me is slotted in at number 3 - the haunted mirror. It's a story that portrays an unknowing evil that is relevant for me because I have actually experienced looking in a mirror and seeing something that I know isn't there but blatantly is because I'm looking at it! Again, this isn't the place to elaborate.The film does suffer from poor acting in parts – step forward Sally Ann Howes (Sally) from the Christmas ghost story – story number 2 - and Ralph Michael (Peter) as the husband in the mirror story – story number 3. The film loses a mark for the bad acting on these occasions and another mark for the comedy golfing story – story number 4. However, it has no real damaging effect on the overall experience of the Dead of Night. Check out that room in the mirror stuff ……. and the ventriloquist's dummy.

Dead of Night, as Milton Subotsky admitted, directly inspired the numerous and enjoyable Amicus anthology movies of the 60s and 70s. And it's not hard to see why. This beautifully-written, superbly directed ensemble is one the most memorable supernatural chillers ever made.An architect (well played by Mervyn Johns) makes his way to a farmhouse in the English countryside. He recounts to the occupants the startling fact that he has dreamed all of this before, which encourages his hosts to each recount a story that has recently happened to them - a story in which the supernatural is always prominent.The framing device is one of the cleverest aspects of this movie (though the idea has been done to death since), and the stories are all good. The first is an eerie tale of precognition "Just room for one more inside." The second, concerning Sally-Ann Howes' "Subconscious Thingummajigs" concerns a sighting of a ghostly boy who was previously murdered. It wasn't until I read The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher about the Constance Kent murder that I realised the killing was actually true.Our third tale is the best so far, a chilling account of a haunted mirror. The fourth, the golf story of course, is usually dismissed as the weakest as it gently comedic rather than scary. But this is surely just to relax the audience before hitting them with the full whammy.When we get to Michael Redrave's astonishing performance as the disturbed ventriloquist and his maniacal dummy Hugo - well, just prepared to be afraid. VERY AFRAID. This one of the greatest moments of all supernatural cinema. Wow is it frightening. Even today. I can't praise Redgrave enough for his work here. You have to see it to appreciate it. The film neatly ends with the architect waking from his dream, and starting the story all over again. I've avoided a few spoilers to not give away too much.Rather amusingly British critics of the time thought the film was "sick". Most of us today view it as a masterpiece. How times have changed!

Dead of Night is directed by Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer and Alberto Cavalcanti. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave, Roland Culver, Antony Baird, Sally Ann Howes, Ralph Michael, Googie Withers, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne.This 1945 British horror anthology film has a very creepy atmosphere and is ideal viewing at night or on a rainy afternoon. The film has the look and feel of an actual nightmare, the sequence just before the end where all the stories become linked in a nightmare is a perfect example of this. Things become mixed up, distorted and terrifying, just as they do when you have a nightmare.Architect Walter Craig(Mervyn Johns)is invited down to the house of a friend with the possibility of getting some work. When he arrives there are a group of people also there for the weekend. Craig is struck by the strangest feeling that he has seen them all before. He then realises that he has had a dream about the house and this group of people and he somehow knows what they will all say and do next.Intrigued and amused by his claims that he can predict what will happen the rest of the group all tell stories of spooky incidents that they themselves have encountered. The film is then split into several segments as these stories are shown to us.Segment one concerns a racing driver(Antony Baird)who is injured in a crash. When he awakens in hospital he is struck by an uneasy feeling that something bad is going to happen. He has a premonition which later saves his life. Segment two concerns a young girl(Sally Ann Howes)who during a game of hide and seek encounters a young boy who is the ghost of a murder victim.Oddly the actor who plays the young boy is uncredited. Segment three concerns a husband and wife (Ralph Michael and Googie Withers)who are driven to the brink of madness by a haunted antique mirror which shows a room from the past. Segment four is the weakest of the stories. It has a great deal of comic content which is odd to include in a horror anthology. Two golfers (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne)are in love with the same woman and one of them ends up as a ghost. This one strikes me as just an excuse to show Wayne and Radford in a film, these two appear regularly throughout the 1930's and 1940's as comic characters Charter's and Caldicott, their characters in this film might as well just have been those characters.The fifth and most memorable segment concerns a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave)losing his grip on reality and sanity when he becomes convinced his dummy is actually alive. Redgrave gives one of his best performances as the man losing his mind. The dummy itself is extremely creepy and these sort of stories never lose their ability to freak out the audience.There is a twist at the end which makes the film even more creepy.A must see for fans of The Twilight Zone series and the Amicus horror films, such as Dr.Terror's House of Horrors.

"Dead of Night" may be the first horror omnibus film, and it is still among the best. What makes the film work so well is that it doesn't rely on special effects and gore. Instead the horror is where it should be, in the mind of the beholder. What one sees is never as frightening as what one thinks one is going to see, or what one believes one is experiencing. In addition, just to keep the suspense from becoming unbearably oppressive, the grim proceedings are interrupted by a brilliant comedic turn by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne (famous for their incomparable portrayals of Charters and Caldicott). Also, watch for Michael Redgrave as a ventriloquist dominated by his intelligent dummy in the first of several versions of this often-repeated story device.