Dead of Night is the classic British horror film, indeed the classic horror film. No expense was spared making it; obviously, film was, at one time, considered an essential industry over here. This is a portmanteau film - that is, it consists of a series of different short stories connected by linking episodes. In some films of this type, the stories are all directed by the same person; in this instance, there are five cautionary tales and four directors. With one exception - a golfing anecdote based on a short story by H.G. Wells - they are all tales of horror and mounting fear.