And then suddenly he DOES come home but not as his family and friends remember him. Especially the mother refuses to accept her beloved son's departure and stays up entire nights, praying & wishing for Andy to come home. Andy is indeed reported killed in action shortly after, and the drama affects both the parents differently. Rightly so, because the story then cuts to the dinner table of a seemingly random American family who are very busy making plans for when their son Andy returns home from Vietnam, and you literally sense tragic news is about to knock them down. Right from the excruciatingly sober opening credits, showing the frozen image of a soldier dying in agony after taking a bullet in the chest, you immediately realize this won't become just another outrageous splatter flick with zombie-soldiers and gratuitous massacres. "Deathdream" is primarily an unsettling shocker, but it definitely also qualifies as a subtly powerful anti-war protest and even as a depressing middle-class family drama. But back then he definitely was the man, because he was single-handedly responsible for one genre-defining slasher ("Black Christmas"), one playful yet creepy zombie classic ("Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things") and then this one: a unique and genuinely intriguing horror-sleeper. Unfortunately, he reverted to making lame & mainstream comedies during the 80's and 90's and - even more unfortunate of course - was his untimely death earlier this year 2007 as a result of a car accident.
Bob Clark was such a fantastic and visionary filmmaker during the early 70's and directed no less than three very important and hugely influential horror movies in a row.