1974's Deathdream (also known as Dead of Night) is loosely based on the short horror story, "The Monkey's Paw." It's a classic, be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale, kind of like Pet Sematary but without the Maine accents.
A Florida couple's son is killed in Vietnam - or so they're told, when a family friend delivers the notification telegram. But for some reason (either his mother's prayers or the dead soldier's own will), Andy shows up at home. He's changed, but at first it seems that it may just be his 'Nam experience that has left psychological scars; he refuses to talk about the war and he resists seeing friends or doctors. Then bodies start turning up (as they always do), drained of blood. It turns out that Andy has been killing people and injecting himself with their blood to try to stave off his own body's deterioration. It only works for so long, and after a killing spree, he flees to the local graveyard, with his mother following him, wailing loudly, and finally dies, again.
I dug a lot of this movie, a tense little creeper that sucked me in in spite of myself. It was shot on location in Florida and the house is amazing, with sleeping porches and gorgeous trim work. The sound design is very eerie and effective. The 70s outfits are ROCKIN. And the body count is impressive for a PG flick SPOILERS: trucker, Butchie, Doc, Joanne (very pretty), Bob, random dude who had the misfortune of being at the drive-in movie, dad, cop (maybe).
I had no idea what to expect going in but Deathdream ended up being a decent movie: slow in parts but fairly well-acted, plenty creepy and the last 15-20 minutes were excellent.
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