TV and Movies

[Jordan2]

Well, it's that time of year again, the marathon starts Tuesday December 31 at 6:00 am on Syfy. I will be trapped in The Twilight Zone!

[spiderw]

Yes, the Twilight Zone is one of the best series of its genre.  I watched it when it was on TV originally and still love each episode and never tire of the show.  

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

[threecees]

Syfy schedule:

[threecees]

[threecees]

[denisemb]

Yeah, but what is everyone's scariest episode?

Eye of the Beholder - yaaaahhhhh!!!

[phoenixbrd]

Eye of the Beholder....Tuesday 12/31 9:00 pm

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@denisemb wrote:

Yeah, but what is everyone's scariest episode?

Eye of the Beholder - yaaaahhhhh!!!

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[phoenixbrd]

For your viewing pleasure:

13. The Eye of the Beholder

Ask anyone to name a Twilight Zone episode off the top of their heads and there's a good chance they'll say something about the "pig face doctors and nurses," and for good reason. The Eye of the Beholder is one of the unofficial "ambassadors" of Twilight Zone storytelling--a perfect example of the suspense that made the show what it was and a fantastic gateway into "another dimension." It may not be the most traditionally scary episode, but it's certainly one of the most memorable.

12. The Howling Man

Set in an isolated monastery on a dark and stormy night, The Howling Man is the story of a group of monks who believe they've caught and imprisoned the literal devil, who is now screaming for help deep within their dungeon. This would be all well and good, until an outsider comes to them seeking shelter and begins to question whether or not the monks actually have the devil--or if they've simply decided to start torturing some random man. Somehow, both options wind up seeming equally terrifying.

11. To Serve Man

Of the many episodes that have reached meme status in modern society, To Serve Man ranks up there with the very best of them. From its towering, humanoid alien invaders to its bleak, dramatic twist--"It's a cookbook!"--the prospect of mankind being duped by an invading force of cosmic cannibals has never been better. It might not be the most terrifying idea for us today, but something about Lloyd Bochner resigning himself to death in the episode's final moments, realizing that "sooner or later, we'll all be on the menu" is straight up chilling.

10. Come Wander With Me

The final episode of the show to ever be filmed (though not the final episode to air), Come Wander With Me is the haunting story of a folk singer who tries to take a shortcut to inspiration and pays for it--but that's not what makes the story so terrifying. In a bizarre, unexplained series of timeloops, the main character, Floyd Burny, is stalked by a cloaked figure for the whole first act--and no one seems to notice or acknowledge it at all. They're just standing there in the background of shot after shot. It's terrifying.

9. Where Is Everybody?

From the last to the first--Where Is Everybody is the first episode of the first season of the show, and what a way to kick things off. The story of an air force pilot who finds himself in a strange, abandoned town with no memory of who he is or why he's there--and he can't seem to find a single living soul to give him answers. It's haunting, ominous, and the twist at the end is downright bleak.

8. The Fever

Addiction is a terrifying thing in its own right but when it becomes a star player in the Twilight Zone, things get even worse. In The Fever, a man named Franklin Gibbs succumbs to his gambling addiction in the most horrifying ways as he's stalked by a sentient slot machine that chokes out his name ("Franklin…") in one of the worst voices we've ever heard.

7. Living Doll

Who doesn't love a good haunted doll story? Talky Tina has become one of the most iconic spooky dolls in history and it's all thanks to Living Doll, the episode about a young girl whose doll starts to terrorize her parents by making all sorts of veiled threats--threats that may (or may not) amount to literal murder. "I'm Talky Tina and you'd better be nice to me!

6. Night Call

Getting a phone call in the middle of the night is always a jarring experience, but in the Twilight Zone it's downright horrifying. Night Call is an episode focused on an elderly widow who is plagued by late night calls from an absolutely chilling voice who can't seem to hear her demand they stop calling. The voice itself is enough to terrify anyone watching but the twist at the end just ices the cake--not only is Night Call one of the scariest episodes, it's also one of the saddest.

5. It's A Good Life

What could be scarier than living under the thumb of an omnipotent, all powerful 6-year-old? In It's A Good Life, that's the exact question being asked as an entire town is terrorized by a young boy named Anthony Fremont whose god-like abilities allow him to create and destroy anything he wants--which usually amounts to sending people "to the cornfields" never to be seen or heard from again.

4. Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

"There's...something on the wing. Some….thing!" Everyone knows Nightmare At 20,000 Feet thanks to William Shatner's over-the-top acting, but not everyone remembers just how horrifying it actually is beyond the camp and the silly costumes. Something about being the only witness to a monster, trapped inside of a tiny room you can't escape from, while everyone thinks you're going crazy is just beyond unsettling.

3. The Dummy

Look, ventriloquist dummies are just scary. It doesn't really matter what the context is, something about them just provokes this primal fear response in people--and naturally, that fear is only made even more intense when they're tossed into the Twilight Zone. The Dummy tells the story of dummy named Jerry who is sick of playing by his partner's rules.

2. The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street

Sometimes the scariest threats come from inside our own heads, and that's exactly what The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street seeks to explore. An episode all about Cold War paranoia and people turning on their neighbors, we get a front row seat to a small community imploding as they firmly believe a monster has infiltrated their midst.

1. And When The Sky Was Opened

No other show articulates existential dread quite the way the Twilight Zone does, and no other episode manages to make it quite as terrifying as And When The Sky Was Opened. The story of a team of experimental pilots who survive a freak accident, only to realize that they're each one by one fading out of existence--like, totally fading out of existence, as in no one but the other pilots even remember them at all. It's just the right brand of horror to get under your skin in all the worst (best) ways.

•  
• Robert Redford in Nothing in the Dark and the Hitch-Hiker. 

[Shelbelle]

My fave is The Masks!!!

[Jordan2]

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@denisemb wrote:

Yeah, but what is everyone's scariest episode?

Eye of the Beholder - yaaaahhhhh!!!

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@denisemb Eye Of The Beholder is very predictable, you never see the nurses and doctor's faces, they are always in the shadows. They also had to dub Donna Douglas' voice, that would have been a real tip off!