Dead of Night

British horror movie consisting of short tales. A group of people meet in a country house and one man declares he has seen the meeting in a dream and that everyone was horribly murdered. Other guests recount their own supernatural experiences, including a premonition of disaster and a crazed ventriloquist dummy. Then the first man says he has a horrible feeling that the killer in his dream was himself, and begins to butcher them. He then wakes up from the nightmare, drives off, and arrives at the same country house. The film ends as it began, in a supposedly infinite loop.

There are segments:

"Hearse Driver"

"The Haunted Mirror"

"Christmas Party"

"Golfing Story"

"The Ventriloquist's Dummy"

plus the "Linking Narrative"


Not to be confused with the 2011 Dylan Dog movie.

Tropes used in Dead of Night include:
  • Anthology Film: The movie is actually an omnibus, or Anthology of stories, tied together with a central narrative.
  • Demonic Dummy: Hugo...
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: the dummy strangling the architect after he has gone to jail, just before he wakes up into the endless loop.
  • Mirror Universe: In "The Haunted Mirror", an antique mirror reveals the room it was once in.
  • Or Was It a Dream?: The whole story.
  • Played for Laughs: "Golfing Story" is not at all scary, unless you find it to be Nightmare Fuel
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In "Hearse Driver", a young man is in hospital, and is reading a book late in the evening, then sees a stir at the curtains, and notices the clock has jumped from 9:45 to 4:15. He gets up to open them, and sees sun shining brightly. He looks out and sees a hearse driver say ""just room for one inside, Sir." He shuts the curtain, it is 9:50, as it should be. When he leaves he is about to catch a tram. The tram driver looks just like the hearse driver and says "just room for one inside, Sir." He shudders and runs off the tram, only to see it dive off its tracks with everyone on it going to their doom.
  • Round Robin
  • Undead Child: There is one at "The Christmas Party". Or is there?
  • Ventriloquism: In "The Ventriloquist's Dummy", Michael Redgrave plays an disturbed ventriloquist.
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