From the Dead of Night

I haven't seen this movie in quite some time, but I seem to recall that when I watched it, I couldn't find any mention of the fact that it was based on the book Walkers by Gary Brandner, author of The Howling novels.

The movie itself wasn't bad, but it bothered me that they felt the need to make the character of Joanna a fashion designer living in (if I remember correctly) a loft, instead of an employee of a magazine living in a small house as she was in the book. I guest the makers of this film felt that an average person wasn't glamorous enough to be the main character. Where-as the Joanna in the book comes across as the kind of person you might actually know, the Joanna of the film seems more like she stepped out of a typical prime time soap opera like the recently cancelled Titans.

Of course the changes don't end there. For some reason the filmmakers also decided to change the names of all the major characters. Peter Landau becomes Peter Langford, Glen Early becomes Glen Eastman, Dr. Warren Hovde becomes Dr. Walter Hovde. I forget what Joanna's last name was in the movie, but they probably changed that too.

If I hadn't read the book first, none of these things would matter to me, but since I did, I couldn't help wondering why they felt they needed to make so many changes to what was already a fine story.

I saw this when it was originally on television and I found it to be a well acted, suspenseful movie. I finally got the DVD and I don't know if this is the whole TV release or if it has been cut to fit one DVD.

I had remembered it being a mini series but it may have just been a two- part TV movie. It definitely wasn't the length of a normal TV movie as it had more than one part on different days when viewing.

I think it is a good film and well worth viewing if you are interested in the subject matter. I think they left in parts that would seem stretched at the time length of an ordinary TV movie.

It basically deals with Johanna's attempt to save her own life because of the length of time lapsed in her death experience and how she solves the issue of not being killed to bring her back to the light. Remember this was done in 1989 prior to a lot of movies that have since been released in theaters on this topic and it was for TV viewing audiences. They did an excellent job considering the time frame it was shown and the topic. I have never found it boring at any time and this is the reason I purchased it when I discovered it was on DVD. It was adapted from a 1980 novel called "Walkers" by Gary Brandner who also wrote "The Howling." Someone mentioned Flatliners which came out the next year but it doesn't remotely have anything in common with this movie other than the life after death theme which is explored differently and came from a screenplay. "Watchers" is much older than this. So there is no comparison whatsoever between these two movies. I liked them both but "From the Dead of Night" was a unique idea and I have never seen any movies quite like this one other than the subject of Near Death Experience. It is more suspenseful than scary in my opinion but individual viewers will vary on how it impacts them.

A fashion designer trips over a cat and falls into a pool, hitting her head on something floating on the surface. With rather cheesy effects (this was a TV movie) she floats up out of her body. She floats through a tunnel of rings of swirling orange smoke, and black rigid figures tip into her view (they look like the mannequins in her apartment). I almost thought I was watching a Jess Franco movie.... As her friends revive her, a black arm grabs her by the wrist, and she has to struggle to get loose. When she is revived, she remembers everything, and has a nasty bruise on her forearm.

Shortly thereafter, she nearly gets hit by an out-of-control car that comes up on the sidewalk behind her. On Halloween, she decides with her boyfriend to go to Mexico for a vacation. When she gets there, she's surprised to find it's the Day of the Dead. They're annoyed by another American tourist who keeps following them, and he almost drowns them.

The designer is encouraged to join a group of people who've had near death experiences. They've all experienced the tunnel, but not the black figures or the repeated near escapes from death. One of them has, and he's very anxious. She's also encouraged to meet with a psychic.

A Doctor tells her about people he calls "Walkers" (the name of the novel this was based on). They're people who supposedly died of one cause that, when examined, prove to have died of another cause. Thus it's like they continued walking around after dying until they died again, but he blames it on poor record-keeping.

I watched this on the 102 minute video, and it felt awfully long. I can't imagine that there's actually a 192 minute version! Perhaps if it was meant to be watched over two or more nights on TV it would better be watched that way than in one sitting.

I've only read one Gary Brandner novel, Floater, and if it is representative of his work, he's not the most original of writers. Floater had the common plot of: picked on kid kills people in revenge. Even the variation was pretty common: picked on kid dies and kills people years later in revenge from beyond the grave. And in fact it has a point in common with this movie, in that the kid practices astral projection, and when he is drowned he floats up out of his body as here. I don't know how closely From the Dead of Night follows his novel Walkers. I understand the Howling movies don't bear much resemblance to his novels.

It's quite a slow movie, and the special effects and cinematography are really held down by the (presumably) low budget and made-for-TV shortcomings. There are a lot of easily recognizable character actors in it. It also feels very dated, more early to mid 1980s than 1989. I found it to be boring. A much better low-budget movie covering similar subject matter that I don't think has dated as badly is Sole Survivor (1983) (arguably the inspiration for the 2000s Final Destination movies). It blows From the Dead of Night away.

Recently bought this one on DVD in the UK. Found the plot extremely interesting, even chilling but was very DISAPPOINTED by the PICTURE QUALITY which was absolutely ABYSMAL - washed out and faded colours, misty image lacking in sharpness - muffled and unclear voices - also the theme and background music was HOPELESS ! For such a spooky and terrifying plot the could have used more powerful and anguishing music. What a shame to see such good and beautiful actors so badly portrayed aesthetically. The film is long but the suspense is maintained until the very end. Unfortunately the fact of buying it on DVD does not garantee a good picture, contrary to what I expected. But for the plot alone I would give 9/10 - most original !

Seems to me that a lot of the posts for this movie are from Lindsay Wagner fans and TV watchers. I'm neither of those and am putting forward my point of view as a horror/SF fan - perhaps providing a little bit of balance to the comments here that seem to consist of 'this is really scary' and 'Lindsay we love you.'

I watched this movie hoping for some chills and it certainly delivered...eventually. There's lots of good things on offer including some very tense scenes, reasonable acting and good direction (check out the scene where Joanna is in the lift and feeling claustrophobic - excellent stuff.) It's not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it passed the time and had a few good frights.

On the negative side, at times it's painfully slow. Some scenes are shown more than once - for example we get a long panning shot of a a woman reading tarot cards, then later in the film we get the same shot again. This is probably because the original TV movie was shown in two parts, so the audience wouldn't have noticed and it might help them to recap the plot. I did notice and was tempted to hit fast-forward more than once.

As for the plot, despite what some others have said, it has little originality. If you've seen 'flatliners' (admittedly released one year later) you'll notice similarities immediately.

Much of the spookiness is engineered using cliched stuff such as skulls, candles and the ever reliable tarot cards. I almost jumped out of my seat with shock when the woman did a tarot reading and turned over the......*gulp*....'death' card. Scary stuff.

It's obvious from the start who Joanna is going to fall in love with (If he's good enough for Delenn he's good enough for anyone!) and the ending is unsurprising and actually a bit of an anticlimax. It's on the lines of 'oh look - if we just do this everything will be alright in the morning..'

To sum up, I got this DVD for about four pounds in the UK and don't think it was worth the money. It's exactly what is says on the tin - a TV movie with everything you'd expect from one. Watch it if it comes on cable, borrow it from a friend if you must but don't buy it, unless you're a big fan of Lindsay Wagner.