Director Bob Clark makes his triumphant return
to Horrorfest with 1972's DEATHDREAM. You might know him for his Horrorfest
appearance from a few years ago, BLACK CHRISTMAS, but he's more famous for an
entirely different Christmas movie – the family comedy A CHRISTMAS STORY. I
love when directors hop genres and this is about the biggest hop you can make.
DEATHDREAM (also known as DEAD OF NIGHT) stars
Richard Backus as a young US soldier who, in spite of being reported dead in
Vietnam, inexplicably returns home to his family. His mother (Lynn Carlin)
welcomes him with open arms – she refused to believe he was dead in the first
place, anyway. His father (John Marley) is suspicious, though, especially when
the returned soldier starts acting weird.
At first he's just withdrawn, emotionless and
quiet. But it's not long before he strangles the family dog to death. So,
something's up and it's probably not PTSD.
As viewers, we eventually get enough glimpses
to know that something's not right. The returned soldier is spending time at
the local cemetery, he prefers to go out at night. By the time he's on a double
date with his sister (Anya Ormsby) and his pre-deployment sweetheart (Jane
Daly) we're pretty sure he's undead.
Backus doesn't have much to do as the undead
soldier – he's creepy, but quiet and blank-faced, as the role demands. The
actor really showcased here is John Marley as the father. He takes the death of
the dog hard, blames himself for the way his son has apparently turned out
(though he deflects blame onto his wife) and takes to heavy drinking to avoid
all of these problems.
This is a horror movie for sure but most of
the real tension comes from the fighting family, so in that sense it is
believable and has a little more to say than your average fright flick,
especially with the implications of the boy who goes to Vietnam and comes back
a changed man.
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