Near the beginning of "From the Dead of Night," fashion designer Joanna Darby (Lindsay Wagner)-during a close call with death-undergoes an out-of-body experience and winds up floating above a Los Angeles swimming pool, becoming the first prime-time hoverer since Shirley MacLaine soared above Machu Picchu two seasons ago.

In short-would that it were-"From the Dead of Night" (8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, WMAQ-Ch. 5) is a gussied-up variation of the old-fashioned zombie genre. It also is ridiculously dreadful-a four-hour session of winter camp that provides further, disturbing evidence that NBC is no longer a class act.

It turns out that the career-obsessed, loft-dwelling Darby has trouble dealing with the recent death of her mother. She also has failed to resolve her feelings about the two men in her life: a rock-solid, uptight type (Robin Thomas), who pooh-poohs spiritual explorations into her bizarre troubles as "mumbo-jumbo," and a free-wheeling anthropologist (Bruce Boxleitner) who thinks there is "something extraordinary" happening.

Clifford Terry, Television critic.