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Released at a time when the portmanteau was an unknown concept, "Dead of Night" was the first British horror film, a genre banned from being produced during the war, to adopt the unprecedented format. Featuring individual sequences of a mysterious or supernatural bent, a framing device established the circular plot with each segment seamlessly seguing into the next. Neatly connecting each of the stories depicted as anecdotes to make for an indispensable, nightmarish whole, the film must be viewed in its entirety, but that is not to say each story is equivalent in terms of quality. It should be said that the various tales are bizarre and unique, one is even comical in its light-hearted tone, but looping them together as if they are collectively of doom-laden, parallel importance is what renders the film as an influential setup of the horror genre, implementing the convention of the recurring nightmare that eternally circles on itself.
"Dead of Night" innervated the horror genre in the UK, arousing more interest in the scene and enabling more productions to be commissioned, although none had quite the same impact. Perhaps the spasmodic effectiveness and eeriness of the compendium arrangement is wholly attributable to its multiple directorial contributions, excellent camerawork, smooth editing and accomplished special effects, but the final story is in itself a standalone spooky classic that lingers in the mind long after the film has ended.
