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This section contains information about the representation of phenomena in the entertainment industry: movies, cartoons, books, etc.

Dead of Night

SPOILERS

Added Sun, 27/03/2022
Release date
09-09-1945
Original title
Dead of Night
Феномены
References

"Dead of Night" (English "Dead of Night") is a classic British film almanac of 1945 from five "creepy" stories connected by the framework story of Basil Dearden. The film is a major milestone in the development of psychological horror, which gave rise to many remakes and imitations.

The short story "The Story of Golf" was filmed based on the story of H. Wells "The Inexperienced Ghost".

An inexperienced ghost

H. G. Wells

Book (fiction)|1902

Losers are not only among people. Ghosts also happen to get into an awkward situation. But the experience of a ghost is not worth adopting while you are alive...

It's interesting 

The almanac "Dead of Night" (1945) was filmed at a time when psychoanalysis was gaining popularity in Britain.  This is almost the first horror film whose riddles, in addition to the mystical, allow for psychoanalytic interpretation.

Framework history

Architect Walter Craig drives a car into the territory of a rural estate, where he was invited by the owner to discuss the upcoming redevelopment. There are several people gathered in the living room who seem vaguely familiar to Craig. He begins to remember that he had previously seen them in a dream, and predicts further developments at the party.

The guests are amused by his statements, and they begin to argue with the psychiatrist present in the house about the reality of all kinds of supernatural phenomena. Each of the guests tells a mystical story from his life, and the psychiatrist tries to give them a scientific explanation. In the finale, Craig feels an irresistible desire to kill the psychiatrist and begins to strangle him.

All the stories heard are mixed in the architect's head and begin to intersect with each other until he wakes up in bed at home. The phone rings at the head of the bed. The voice on the phone invites him out of town to a meeting. After saying goodbye to his wife, Craig gets behind the wheel and drives out of town. The initial frames of the movie are repeated…

Short stories

  • "The Hearse Driver" (directed by Basil Dearden): A rider's story about how he received a "message from the other world" warning him not to get on the bus, which eventually falls off the bridge into the river.
  • "Christmas Party" (directed by Alberto Cavalcanti): a girl's story about how during a Christmas game of hide-and-seek she accidentally wandered into a room of an old house, where she met the ghost of a boy killed in the last century.
  • "The Enchanted Mirror" (directed by Robert Hamer): a woman's story about how a mirror from an old mansion in which a murder occurred almost destroyed her family happiness.
  • "The Story of Golf" (directed by Charles Crichton, based on G. Wells' short story "The Inexperienced Ghost"): a humorous story about the rivalry of two golf lovers for the heart of one woman.
  • "The Ventriloquist's Doll" (directed by Alberto Cavalcanti): the famous story about schizophrenia and split personality starring Michael Redgrave.

Phenomena in artwork: Chronorally

The main story of the film is a time loop in which the main character wakes up after a nightmare in his bed from a phone call. The caller invites him to visit a country house. Arriving there, the main character realizes that events are developing in the same way as in his nightmare: he is in the same place, meets the same people and can predict the entire sequence of events. At some point, he feels an irresistible desire to kill one of the guests, after which reality takes on phantasmagoric forms and he wakes up in his bed from a phone call.

The main character of the novella "Christmas Party" wanders into a room in an abandoned part of the house and meets a crying boy there. He tells her that his sister is hurting him and asks the girl to put him to bed. She does this and returns to the rest of the house guests. There she finds out that the boy she met lived in this house many years ago and was killed by his own sister. The boy was completely material and did not show any supernatural properties, so it remains unclear whether the girl met the ghost of the boy or moved during the time when he was still alive.

 

Phenomena in artwork: Extrasensory perception

In the novel "The Coachman of the Hearse", a person who has been on the verge of death and is in the hospital has a vision with a warning about what is coming. He sees a hearse under the window of the hospital, the driver of which turns in his direction and says "There is an empty seat inside." He pays attention to the time on the clock: they show 4:15, although shortly before that it was 9:45 pm. After being discharged from the hospital a week later, the hero of the novel goes to the bus stop and approaches her just at 4:15. A bus pulls up, and the conductor, exactly like the coachman from the vision, says the same phrase. Frightened by the coincidence, the man refuses to go and after a while sees that the bus gets into an accident and all the passengers die.

Phenomena in artwork: Ghost

The main character of the novella "Christmas Party" wanders into a room in an abandoned part of the house and meets a crying boy there. He tells her that his sister is hurting him and asks the girl to put him to bed. She does this and returns to the rest of the house guests. There she finds out that the boy she met lived in this house many years ago and was killed by his own sister. The boy was completely material and did not show any supernatural properties, so it remains unclear whether the girl met the ghost of the boy or moved during the time when he was still alive.

In the short story "The Story of Golf", a ghost haunts his friend, who tricked him into winning a game of golf and thus gained the favor of a girl. Unable to stand the shame, the loser drowned himself in the pond. His ghost appears first in the form of a poltergeist at the place of death, preventing a friend from playing golf: he distracts him with conversations, moves the ball, snatches the club out of his hands. After a while, the ghost materializes and becomes visible, but only to the hunted. The ghost tells that the manifestations of the poltergeist are feasible even for novice ghosts. According to him, he did not have time to learn anything more spectacular as a ghost, as he was striving to get to the wedding, which was scheduled for the near future. Old friends agree on the conditions for ending the persecution, but it turns out that the ghost forgot the gestures necessary to return to the afterlife. As a result, he stays with a friend and is forced to be no more than 6 feet away from him. Tired of the constant presence of a ghost, a friend tries to help him remember the right gestures and accidentally repeats the correct combination, after which he disappears.

Phenomena in artwork: Poltergeist

In the short story "The Story of Golf", a ghost haunts his friend, who tricked him into winning a game of golf and thus gained the favor of a girl. Unable to stand the shame, the loser drowned himself in the pond. His ghost appears first in the form of a poltergeist at the place of death, preventing a friend from playing golf: he distracts him with conversations, moves the ball, snatches the club out of his hands.

Phenomena in artwork: The evil eye, curses and corruption

In the short story "The Enchanted Mirror", a woman gives her fiance an antique mirror that once hung in a room whose owner killed his wife out of jealousy, after which he cut his throat. The mirror begins to influence the man: first he sees himself in the reflection in the entourage of the room in which the mirror once hung. At first, he can willfully return the correct reflection, but soon loses this ability. The normal reflection also returns when the woman holds his hand. At the same time, the woman herself sees an ordinary reflection in the mirror. Soon the man becomes irritable and begins to be jealous of his wife for the best friend at that time. He tries to kill her, but she breaks the mirror, after which the obsession passes.

Phenomena in artwork: Animated objects

In the novella "Ventriloquist's Doll", a doll participating in the comedian's performances turns out to be alive. She has not only her own consciousness, not bound by moral principles, but also the ability to speak and move independently. The doll is trying to negotiate a collaboration with a more promising comedian. At the end of the novel, the comedian breaks the doll, but we can't get rid of her character and begins to speak in his voice. It is unclear whether he is going crazy, or whether the doll's spirit is taking over his body.


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