It’s a cold, sad night for the Brooks family. Christine (Lynn Carlin) wants nothing more than for her son Andy (Richard Backus) to come home from Vietnam and implores the heavens to bring him back. Unfortunately, soon the family receives a letter than Andy has been killed in Vietnam. The thing is, Andy does come back. He shows up at their door with no explanation and sequesters himself in his room, refusing to talk to anyone. Christine is overjoyed to have her son home but Andy’s father Charles (John Marley) feels that something isn’t quite right with Andy. He begins to grow even more suspicious upon hearing news of a trucker who was mysteriously killed earlier than evening. Is Andy responsible? What’s wrong with Andy and should he have come back after all?

I find it pretty darn remarkable that in the same year that Bob Clark cemented the modern slasher genre with Black Christmas that he also gave us this grim, nihilistic anti-war diatribe that also happens to be a damned good horror flick. Backus is excellent as the brooding and increasingly unstable Andy, and the film does a great job of slowly ramping up the terror leading to a fiery climax. Deathdream a.k.a. Dead of Night as a metaphor for PTSD is as relevant today as it was when first released. We expect these soldiers to come back to domestic life just picking things up right where they left off. But when the average person experiences the traumatic events that many who have seen action witness, “normal” is as far from their minds as it can get. Deathdream takes that premise and heightens it to deranged levels. At times, it feels like a senseless film, but isn’t that the point? Clark has given a movie absolutely drenched in a bleak atmosphere of menace where all hope dies, and executes it with a lo-fi precision that feels very deliberate. Throw in early gore effects by maestro Tom Savini (which are admittedly not his best work), and you have an classic touchstone of horror that is still the best version of “The Monkey’s Paw” ever filmed. Deathdream’s reputation as a slow-burn horror showcase is well-earned.

As with Blue Underground’s previous UHD releases, Deathdream looks fantastic. It’s a very dark, murky film and a bad transfer could easily completely ruin a viewing experience. Fortunately Blue Underground’s new 4K upgrade captures the naturalistic look of the film really well with a balanced color palette, deep blacks and nary a blemish to be seen. I would be surprised if this film ever looks better than we have here. The audio comes in a nice, clean 1.0 DTS-HD track with both French and Spanish subtitle options. Along with the beautiful transfer, Blue Underground has given us a very beefy lineup of extras. Ported from the previous edition of the film, we have two audio commentaries, one with director Bob Clark and one with Writer/Make-up Artist Alan Ormsby. BU also gives us a new audio commentary with author/critic Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse) and author/critic Nathaniel Thompson (DVD Delirium) and is full of lots of useful info about the film, Clark and other cast and crew involved. Regarding interviews, we also have ported from the previous release interviews with actors Richard Backus and Anya Liffey, writer Alan Ormsby, composer Carl Zittrer and production manager John ‘Bud’ Carlos, and all are nice additions for those looking for more insight into the film. This release also includes a new interview with actor Gary Sherman who was originally tested for the role of Andy but eventually was replaced with Richard Backus (a good call in my opinion if the also-included Screen Test is any indication). We also have a featurette on Tom Savini’s early special effects career, a ten-minute early student film from Alan Ormsby called “3:45” and the usual assortment of trailers, alternate title sequence and still galleries, all also from the previous release.

Deathdream is special, a chilling and bleak twist on “The Monkey’s Paw” infused with genuine rage and nihilism, and Blue Underground has given us the definitive release of this excellent film with a fantastic UHD transfer and a veritable bounty of relevant extras. If you don’t already own Deathdream and claim to be a horror film buff, then what are you waiting for? This is THE release to get.