Dead of Night

Disappointing, I expected better from Matheson. In addition to the sluggish 70s tv-movie pacing, 2 of the 3 tales have little impact. To be fair, it's hard to be surprised after seeing decades of these kinds of anthologies, but the 1st story feels like a time travel trifle -w/ an idea from Matheson's superior Somewhere in Time. The 2nd has a twist "stinger" but the overly elaborate ruse is built on the wife being too credulous. The 3rd has suspense, but tips its hand early w/ "accidentally".

Surprisingly good. Not your average made-for-TV movie.

This plays out just like you'd expect an anthology film or TV show would at the time. And just as expected each story is better than the last.

The Jack Finney story was good. Didn't really see much point at all to the second one. The last one was cool, and probably could've been a full feature by itself, with more backstory and exploration of Hackett's motives and so on. Have no idea why she uses a Satanic ceremony and then promptly forgets about that when it works; then again, I guess she was that sort of character. Anyway, the phone call (and final shot) were a lot of fun.

Passes the time.