Dan Curtis’ Late-Night Mysteries (Kino Cult #36) [Blu-ray]

Perhaps no figure exerted a greater influence on 1970s television horror than Dan Curtis. Having created the daytime drama Dark Shadows (1966-71), and while developing The Night Stalker into a weekly series, he produced stand-alone thrillers for ABC Television’s Wide World Mystery. Originally shot on videotape, the four films in this collection have been carefully adapted to HD for this Blu-ray release. Shadow of Fear stars Claude Akins (B.J. and the Bear) as a disgraced police officer hired to investigate crimes surrounding a psychologically troubled housewife (Anjanette Comer). In The Invasion of Carol Enders, the spirit of a car crash victim is reincarnated into the body of another patient (Meredith Baxter, Family Ties). Come Die With Me follows the cat-and-mouse relationship between a cavalier playboy (George Maharis) and the housekeeper who tries to blackmail him (Eileen Brennan, Private Benjamin). A wholesome family experiences a Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice when they are accused of drug trafficking in Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest.