Dead of Night (1977)

I'm not sure what got this TV movie with a 6.4 on IMDb onto my queue. Someone other than Netflix must have suggested it to me. Anyway, it's not like Night of the Living Dead. It's an anthology more along the lines of The Twilight Zone, starting with a Rod Serling-style narration that explains the title as referring to "a state of mind."

In "Second Chance," a young enthusiast for classic cars restores one from 1926, takes an old road, and finds himself literally in 1926. In "No Such Thing as a Vampire," around the time of Dracula, a woman keeps waking up with a bleeding neck, and her husband and servants can no longer shrug off the village rumors. In "Bobby," a woman appeals to a pagan deity to bring back her drowned son, but he's not quite the same anymore and becomes increasingly hostile.

I think I know why the rating isn't higher: The stories aren't similar enough. The narrator basically admits that they're not really the same genres. In particular, SC makes no attempt to scare; it's merely imaginative in a Back to the Future sort of way, minus the comedy and adventure. Doesn't even go far with the premise. Think of the most benign episodes of TTZ if you've seen them. At least it stars one of the most famous actors in the set, Ed Begley, Jr. (Elisha Cook, Jr. is the only other one I've heard of.)

The main innovation of NSTaaV is its mystery aspect. Between the lack of attacks elsewhere and the many anti-vampire precautions taken, characters can only conclude that the vampire is somewhere inside the mansion, despite a thorough search turning up nothing. We can't help but suspect at least one of the present characters, even tho they're all active by day and not repelled by crosses or garlic. I'd call it a whodunit, but those usually have more than three suspects. The twist is pretty good.

"Bobby" is easily the scariest -- not hard when dealing with children. OK, the actor was just short of 16 when the movie premiered, but I think he's supposed to be younger; he talks in a high voice, and his mom thinks nothing of him calling her Mommy. Apart from that, the first sign of something off about him is that he keeps using the past tense as if unconvinced that he's still alive. He gradually gets brattier, and the brattiness gives way to a Jack Torrence-like playful murderousness. The makers saved the most horrific moment for last before the credits. It's not clear whether Bobby's mom ever gave him a good reason to hate her, but from this and other stories, one thing is certain: To summon supernatural forces, no matter how innocent your intention, is to invite disaster.

The whole anthology runs a mere 76 minutes, with pauses that must have been meant for commercial breaks. This reinforces the resemblance to three episodes of a TV series -- or of two or three separate series. Perhaps fans of such shows are the best audience for DoN.