Death Dream, 1972

Dead Of Night

AKA: Deathdream
Year released: 1972
Directed by: Bob Clark (Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, Porky's)
Starring: a lot of people who did soap operas and crappy 70s/80s TV shows. Oh, and Tom Savini's first horror movie make-up effects.

Okay, so who here has not read The Monkey's Paw? Show of hands, please.

Right, so - just so you know, you cannot be a legit horror fan if you haven't read this story. It's goddamned mandatory reading for horror aficionados. Even if you hate it, you have to read it. No excuses. Look, I even found it for you: The Monkey's Paw, by William W. Jacobs. If you haven't read it yet, do so now. I'll wait. You're welcome.


Alrighty then.
So, Deathdream - also known as Dead Of Night - is basically the tale of The Monkey's Paw, skipping wishes #1 and #2 and proceeding directly to Wish #3. It's 1972 and the whitebread Brooks family doesn't need to wish for money. They are living the suburban dream; station wagons, backyard barbecues and the latest polyester fashions. Life is pretty much picture perfect, until the news reaches them that their only son, Andy, has been killed in Vietnam.

Father Charles and sister Cathy are devastated, plunged into darkest mourning. But mom Christine absolutely refuses to accept that her son is gone. She doesn't so much as will her son back to life as she literally refuses to allow him to die. Christine gets her wish and Andy comes home. But he's not the same Andy.

Their fun-loving, totally normal son has been replaced by a zombie. He's pale, withdrawn, antisocial. He spends his days staring at the wall and barely speaking. Once night falls, he's off playing in the cemetery and injecting himself with fresh blood harvested from his casually executed victims to keep his rotting body semi-animated. Andy could really be any young soldier returning from the horror of the Vietnam War: shellshocked, subject to violent mood swings, obsessed with needles full of pain-easing fluids.

This was director Bob Clark's first big deal horror movie. Best known for his later comedies (Porky's and A Christmas Story) Clark nevertheless knew how to make a real honest to god fucking horror movie. This film makes a long, dark Norwegian winter seem jolly by comparison. Watching it is like having your soul scrubbed raw with a Brillo pad. There is nothing at all funny happening here. It's absolutely agonizing to watch this family rot right along with Andy. Every virgin is sacrificed, everything innocent is destroyed and nothing will ever make it all better again. It's - in a single word - shattering.



Director Bob Clark and writer Alan Ormsby would team up again two years later for Black Christmas, which was every bit as dark and cruel as Deathdream at its core, but also had a hell of a lot of rude humor in it to alleviate the despair along the way. There's no hope to be found in Deathdream. And there absolutely shouldn't be. The Vietnam War destroyed the idyllic daydream of the 50s and 60s. There's no Band-aid big enough to hide that gaping wound.