A very interesting movie by Bob Clark who has just passed away.Gore and special effects are kept to the minimum,the director and the screenplay focusing more on the family than on the dead man walking.
Bob Clark renewed a theme which French Abel "Napoleon" Gance had broached in the silent era (and remade as a talkie): "J'accuse" .Gance showed the dead soldiers rise from the grave and attack the profiteers of war .Too bad Clark did not follow suit and show the veteran attack those who sent him to war...but after all,it was this over possessive mother who made him join the army (that'll make him a man).The parents 'responsiblity is obvious here.The love the mother feels for her dearest son verges on monstrous -and becomes really monstrous in the final scenes,in every sense of the term.
An unusually inventive use of music creates a disturbing eerie atmosphere,a "something is not normal" feeling,some black humor (the drive in),and the hero swinging in his chair like a robot.All that makes "Dead of Night" a movie worth watching.
NB:Should not be mistaken for "Dead of night" (1946) a scary film made up of sketches.
Like this?Try these....
"Jacob's ladder" Adrian Lyne 1993
"The war at home" Emilio Estevez 1996
