'70s Class: Dead of Night (1977)

 After 30 years and with a new Director, will this one be even better?

1977's Dead of Night is a TV Movie Directed by Dan Curtis.  All of the Segments (with one caveat) were Written by the late great Richard Matheson.  It was supposed to be a Series, I think.  There are conflicting reports on this, as Wikipedia references a 1969 Pilot Version (which I'll have to check out).  Why would there be a Pilot Version, no sale and then a TV Movie 8 years later?

To be fair, this is the same Dan Curtis who made 2 Pilots in the same Year for the same Station to hedge his bets.  One went to Series- Kolchak the Night Stalker- and the other- The Norliss Tapes- did not.  Even so, the timeline is weird and, well, I can't exactly ask Dan Curtis now, can I?

I'll tell you now that this one lacks the structure of the 1945 Film and is just a bunch of stories.  They couldn't even afford a Framing Device, apparently, as we just get a Narrator at the beginning and that's it!

Will this Trilogy of tales of Terror be as memorable as those other Trilogies of Terror by Curtis?  To find out, read on...

Our one-time Narrator explains that 'Dead of Night' is not a time or a place...well, not exactly.

It is the part of our minds that can handle the dark, scary stuff...or something.  Look- it's a good title.  Moving on...

Our Hero- Ed Begley Jr- buys and restores a very old car that was once wrecked when its Driver tries to cross in front of a train.  He takes out for a drive one night (with the shutters exposed).

He sees a similarly old car drive by and is surprised.

When more drive by, he knows that something is up!

As it turns out, the Car took him back in time to when it was wrecked in the 1920s.  The Car is stolen from him while he's gawking at people in Town.

He wakes up the next morning like nothing happened, meets a girl and later meets her grandparents.

Grandpa gives him an old Car- the same one from before.

He slowed them down briefly when they took the Car and that made them not hit the train and die, so now a whole family line exists.

Hey Narrator- you still back there?  

Anything to say?
Nope.  Awkward Cut it is then to...

A woman is convinced that a Vampire is targeting here, as she keeps waking up feeling weak, her blood missing and strange wounds on her neck.

Her Husband- the original Avenger- is a skeptic, while their Housekeeper- the big-head guy from House on Haunted Hill- is a believer.

To make a long(ish) story short, it turns out to all be a long con by the Husband.

He invites an Expert over, but drugs him that night.  He takes blood via syringe from the wife and puts some on the guy's mouth.

He drags him upstairs and puts him in a coffin for the Housekeeper to find and kill.

He monologues to, well, nobody that the man was his Wife's Lover and... that's it.  Evil wins.

One last chance?

Any Commentary on that Story?  A pun?
Anything?

A woman is done mourning the death of her Son- named Bobby, duh- and has now moved on to Black Magic.

Her entirely offscreen Husband is in the dark about this whole thing as she does the ritual...

...which works, or seems to, at least.

Bobby is really weird and suddenly turns violent.  He chases her around the House and tries to attack her!  He taunts her the whole time, to boot.

She shoots him and he falls out a window...but he won't stay down.

In the closing moments, he reveals that since she killed Bobby, he didn't want to come back, so he sent a Demon in his place!

Cut to black and... yeah, that's it.

A very random collection of Tales in search of something more.  Am I the only one who likes/needs/prefers some sort of connective thread in my Anthology Films/Shows?

The Tales here are all fine, but there's also nothing that they really have in common.  One involves a time traveling car and a closed loop Plot.  One involves a Vampire...or does it and a general bit of Gaslighting.  The final one involves a bit of accidental demon summoning- as you do.

Is there a Theme here that I missed?
This, again, could be alright if the Story is the Theme- see The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt or Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.  Hell, even Tales That Witness Madness was connected by the Asylum.

For better or worse, this is just 3 Stories that Richard Matheson had Written (although he actually just Adapted the first one) and Dan Curtis liked.  I guess they couldn't work in any other Format and these Anthologies were still popular at the time.

I like the Stories, Actors, Writer and Director all fine, but this just needed something else.  Maybe if they did them again.  Oh right- 'Bobby' was redone in 1996 for Trilogy of Terror II...

Next time, it is back to the DVD pile to clear up some room.  Maybe something nice and foreign will do the trick.  Stay tuned...

Rare TV Flix: The Norliss Tapes

It is neat (but empty) piece of 1970's TV History.  

Today's 'film' is The Norliss Tapes, a Backdoor Pilot for a TV Show that never surfaced.  This all goes back to Dan Curtis, a man whose Career in Television would parallel that of Rod Serling before him and Chris Carter after him.  He's most known for the low-rated, but well-regarded show Kolchak: The Night Stalker, although he actually only worked on the Original TV Movie.  

He also made Dark Shadows, but (thankfully?) didn't live to see Tim Burton bastardize the show into a Film.  As the son of a huge Dark Shadows fan, it was a rough time.  

Around the time that the Night Stalker film aired, he also made this.  The best guess people have is that Curtis was just trying to maximize his chances of a Show being picked up.  It kind of makes sense if you think about it.  If they are deciding between 10 pitches and Curtis has one, there is about a 10% chance of getting picked up.  If Curtis now has 2 shows, his odds, well, double.  That seemed to work out, although in the favor of Kolchak and not Norliss.  

The Story is a neat one and has *some* parallels to the more famous tale.  A man named Norliss is working on a book about the Occult when he goes missing.  The answer lies in his titular Tapes.  

To find out (some of) what happened to him, read on...

Mr. Norliss is a man writing a Book on the Occult.  

He tells his Publisher that he needs to see him right away- it's urgent!

Before they can meet, however, he goes missing.  

The only clue: his Tapes.

An Investigator decides to play Tape #1 to find some answers...

Norliss, as it turns out, is hired by a woman (Angie Dickinson) to investigate a break-in at her Studio by...her husband?

Naturally, there's a catch: he's dead already!

Norliss checks every lead.  

In the meantime, this Film/Pilot gives us a Poor Bastard of Cinema to cover later.

Some man/ghoul is killing people and draining their blood.  To what end?

 Angie and the above Mystic (who gave her husband the ring that made him a ghoul) go to the Crypt to take the ring and end the curse.

Yeah, this will end well...especially since they left at like 4:55 in the Afternoon!

The Mystic is killed, but the ghoul lets his wife escape, shedding a tear.  

A monster with a heart- yowza!

I do have to ask why Zombies were always blue around this time.  Who decided that?

The ghoul has a goal (try saying that five times fast!): to bring this Demon to life via a Sculpture.  

As for the blood, it was used to make the clay.  Ew.

Rather than stop him from finishing, Norliss makes a magic circle to seal it in and a fire breaks out.

If you ever wanted to know what a 1970's TV Version of Marvel's Mephisto would have looked like, here you go.

The fire kills (more, I guess) the ghoul, but it is unclear if the demon got out.  

You want closure or something?

With the case over, the tape ends.  

The Investigator moves on to Tape #2, which is where the 'film' stops cold.  

See you in the...oh...crap.  The End.

Well, crap!  Honestly, the whole thing is pretty good.  I almost wish that it had turned out to be bad, just so I wouldn't be sorry that nothing more came of this.  The worst part: I didn't know this information going in.  I figured that it was just some obscure, TV movie like Cardiac Arrest, Alien Abduction or recent fare like Mask of the Ninja.  

No, this is a tale without closure- which even Bates Motel has a bit of- and something that makes you want to see more.  There are a number of Threads on its IMDB Forum of people saying the same thing, even some forty years later!  This is one of those rare times that I am upset that the movie is good.  

Don't get me wrong- it's not perfect.  The pacing and use of random kills is a bit odd at times.  For modern fans, the conventions of the day may not be as interesting.  

On purely its own merits though, The Norliss Tapes is a good glimpse at what could have been.  

Hey CBS, you haven't made a somewhat-disappointing Remake of this Show that you can cancel after only a few Episodes yet.  

I've seen the Ratings- you can't do worse (not counting Big Bang Theory)!  

I'll leave you like this film left me- wanting...

Next up, a Rare find from Italy.  It is trash, but you have to make it to the End to really see the beauty!  Stay tuned...

Forgotten Sequels: Trilogy of Terror II

The original Trilogy of Terror is a pretty well-respected horror anthology film from the 1975 starring Karen Black.  Trilogy of Terror II is a fairly-obscure horror anthology film made for television in 1996 starring Lysette Anthony.  

The whole 'sequel' aspect of the film is a bit vague, since all of the original film's stories ended badly, not exactly setting up a 'what has happened since' atmosphere.  What is this movie really?  It's a trilogy of horror tales that are unrelated, save for sharing the same actress in all three.  As a bonus, the last story brings back the Zuni Doll from the first film for another round of murder.  

One of the tales- the middle one called 'Bobby'- is based on a Richard Matheson short story, which is a nice touch too.  

Besides the title and the vaguely-similar formula, is this really a sequel?  No.  Is it good?  Find out in my review of...

The first tale is called 'The Graveyard Rats.'  Holy Bob Geldof, Batman!  The film begins with a jerk of an old man taunting his current-wife by showing her a sex tape of her and another guy.  He taunts her some more by saying that he will cut her out of his will if she cheats again & he'll release the tape if she leaves him.  Naturally, she leaves him and goes right to her man (Geraint Wyn Davies).  You're not bright, are you honey?  

He comes up with the idea of killing the man, which makes her nervous.  Look for that to change though.  Their scheme is a bit dramatic, but it works.  They go out to the country to bury him, although they run into the undertaker (not the wrestler) who warns them about the presence of rats near the crypt designated for burial.  They ignore him and do it anyways.  

The next day, the woman learns that the company's assets have been liquidated & all of the money is in a series of Swiss bank accounts.  The problem: the codes are hidden.  The duo figure that they must be hidden in the man's watch, so they go to dig him up.  They find the undertaker trying to rob the grave, so they kill him.  When they find the codes, the woman kills Davies.  The body gets dragged away by some rat puppets...er, I mean rats and she fights back.  

After a struggle, she flees through the tunnel, but ends up in the wrong grave.  Sucks to be you.

The second tale is named 'Bobby' and is hopefully less depressing than Bobby's World!  Anyhow, this involves a woman (Lysette Anthony in a bad wig) putting up a pentagram and bringing her dead son back to life.  Oddly, she's in her ocean-side house all alone, despite referencing a husband later.  

The kid comes back and, at first, takes the whole thing in stride.  He begins to ask questions, however, and decides that he wants to play Hide & Seek.  This turns dark when he throws a block at the mother & starts to talk all evil and such.  It comes across as a bit silly since the kid can't act that well, but I'll give them points for trying.  

There is a pretty interesting bit where he pretends to be the husband while on the phone.  He chases her around for a bit, smashes some stuff up and continues to talk all evil.  Eventually, he corners her, and she shoots him.  She feels bad about it but feels even worse when he shoves her down the stairs.  

By the way, we're two-for-two on people being shoved downstairs in these tales.  He explains that Billy didn't come back but sent him instead.  We get a freaky monster mask shot and the tale ends.  Poor Ms. Anthony.

The final tale involves the return of the Zuni Fetish Doll, which makes for some awkward credits involving a story credit for the first film, a character credit and a new writer.  The doll was found at the scene of a double murder and was brought to a lab to be studied.  Oddly, they bring it to a history museum instead of, you know, a police lab.  

After the woman scientist (Lysette, of course) scrapes a bunch of the ashes off, she leaves the room to go have pizza with the two guards.  Nice shout-out to Dark Shadows with one of the guards reading a comic book of it, by the way.  When she comes back, the doll is missing and the scientist suspects that it's the same killer from the first scene that took it.  Well, she's partly-right.  The one guard stalks the creature and, because we got a minor bit of pathos set-up, has the longest build up to death.  Eventually, the Doll bites the hand off of an Indian statue, causing it to fire the nocked bow on the display.  That's Final Destination territory, movie!  

It kills the other guard off-camera and chases our heroine around.  Despite being an efficient killer, it just stabs her a lot and doesn't kill her.  

This goes on for roughly ten minutes before she dunks it in some conveniently placed acid.  She goes to check on it...for some reason and gets possessed by it...or something.  

Either way, she has razor teeth and kills a guy.  The End.

This is much better than I thought it would be, honestly.  Mind you, I thought that it would be a really lame cash-in film that featured tired clichés and no scares.  While there are some clichés, the whole thing works pretty well.  

It would have been nice to have some sort of framing device, but I guess that's too much to ask.  I do have to ask why they would have the second tale, given that it is the same story as Sometimes...They Come Back.  Mind you, it's based on a Matheson tale, but the film was much more recent to this one's release.  The first tale is also pretty similar to George A. Romero's tale from Two Evil Eyes, a film made six years earlier.  The final part is a nice bit of fan service to the first film, even if it is a bit silly.  

The effects work in the film is decent, although the rat puppets are a bit obvious.  If you're not the biggest horror fan in the world or as jaded as I am, a lot of these decent tales will seem quite impressive.  For long-time horror fans, this is good, but will not replace the original to any of you. 

 If you can find it somewhere cheap, I'd actually recommend it.  Just don't go too far out of your way.

Up next, Blockbuster Trash brings you another Asylum film.  Well, at least this doesn't star shitty rappers...oh crap!  Stay tuned...