10 Scariest Twilight Zone Episodes

[Music] while calling Rod Serling's a Twilight Zone purely a horror series downplays its brilliance within the sci-fi and speculative fiction genres there's no denying that several in the show's episode set out to scare you and weren't ashamed of it and boy don't we remember when they did do you remember now you scream so loud Helen you scream so loud if you've rewatched any of the classic series lately you'll come to see the twilight zone doesn't show its age so much as reintroducing us to why things we came to think of as cheesy actually once worked so well the terrors within the twilight zone are irrational single-minded even often bordering upon omnipotent within the realms of each episode it was a show consistently determined to teach a lesson and it's forays into the horror genre that lesson was packaged alongside sights sounds and characters determined to scare you straight into another dimension talk or comm presents the 10 scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone the howling man The Twilight Zone may have favored modern stories over gothic horror but you can't say it was because they weren't good at the latter in particular the howling man breaches the walls of both eras to spend an unsettling tale about superstition and trust when an American tourist lost in Europe in the years after World War one finds himself begging for shelter at the doors of a hermitage its inhabitants the brothers of truth reluctantly allow Him to recuperate within their walls during the night the man hears an agonized howl coming from one the castles chambers and discovers a man being held captive by the brothers a man they claim is no man at all but the devil himself on top of the brief but effective period of suspense in which the audience is left to wonder who the real villain of the episode is the howling man accentuates the suspense with some of the series moodiest gothic set pieces off-kilter camerawork in an effective soundtrack consisting of patched together stop cues from Twilight Zone Reyes Bernard Airmen and Jerry Goldsmith to construct an atmosphere that would leave Terence Fisher red-faced and envied and when the sky was opens The Twilight Zone has a great record of knocking horror stories out of the park but on occasion it's pure SPECT is ODEs could put them to shame one such case is that of an when the sky was opened an episode that one would be hard-pressed to classify as horror but is one of the most horrifying nonetheless in the story - or was it three astronauts returned from space aboard an experimental craft after having been missing from all radar for 24 hours in contrast to how a horror story would typically play out there's nothing that followed them on the way to earth but there is something that wants to take them back like I didn't belong here when it has its feelers over its victim they are struck by an ominous feeling of dissociation I can disappear as memories mementos and finally history itself are erased to make it as though they never existed with a body that can't be found and a victim that can't be traced there are no allies to be had in the hunt for an active killer that may as well not exist and if you remember that last victim then it probably means you are next in a series known for milking inescapable fate for all it's worth and when the sky was open as perhaps the most merciless example of it to be found in the twilight zone the After Hours verging on simple even by Twilight Zone standards the After Hours centers around a woman going to a department store to buy a golden thimble unable to find it in the gift section she's escorted to the stores ninth floor a dark and deserted room with empty display cases and no staff safer a lone sales lady who was selling one item a golden thimble when she gets out she finds that the gift isn't up to her standards but upon trying to return it she's told that there is no ninth floor and when she sees the sales lady again she's not the same dozing off after a fit of anxiety she awakens to find she's been abandoned and walked in but not alone as quickly as this plot seems to whiz by the claustrophobic set design makes each shot through the deserted store come alive the after-hours manages to pack a number of creepy moments into its talk frame leading into a conclusion that while far from horrific in itself is delivered with such creeping effectiveness it stands tall as an episode that will stay in your nightmares perchance to dream perchance to dream the 9th of 156 original run Twilight Zone episodes was arguably the first one to plunge head deep into horror territory it remains both one of the most unabashedly artsy episodes and one of the MOU so really terrifying perchance to dream deals with a man with a deadly combination of conditions a weak heart and an imagination he cannot seem to control he relates a story to a psychiatrist about how his fears of a murderer hiding in his backseat developed into a sequential dream of an exotic dancer who lures him through the dizzying world of the nightmare carnival she inhabits seemingly determined to push him into a final shock perchance to dream story of a man doomed to a terrible fate away to him in his dreams speed Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street to its premise by nearly 25 years and even eerily predates the true story that directly inspired it it makes you feel as though you are trapped in the body of Edward Hall as he is trapped in a particularly perilous bad dream while Maya the cat girl plays with her cornered prey you can imagine every thump of Edwards accelerating heartbeat just make sure you can stop imagining once you start the Midnight Sun HP Lovecraft once described cosmic horror as the unexplainable thread of outer unknown forces The Midnight Sun is cosmic horror of another sort one in which the terror comes from a precisely known Menace that is nonetheless just as bleak for its characters as any extra dimensional madness inducing being that Menace is global warming and not the mundane real-life mankind could fix this if we really tried global warming either no in this case the planet Earth has left its orbit and is careening towards the Sun at an unnatural rate one month into the catastrophe the earth is already so saturated by the sun's rays that no longer experiences nighttime there is no chance of survival to be found this in the back of our minds we observe the last two remaining tenants of an apartment building struggling to cope with a social follow help proceeding their impending doom counting the hours until the water returns painting cool places lamenting the cold truth that in a matter of months or maybe weeks the human race will crawl to its total death by heatstroke a crawl we see hit a boiling point in the last seconds of the episodes climax heed the Midnight Sun provides a chilling reminder of how fragile a place in the Goldilocks zone can be the dummy Gerry Anderson is a ventriloquist who suffers from a problem common to ventriloquist's and horror media his dummy Willie is alive or at least he thinks it is while his act gets laughs Gerry is driven to drink by his other halfs impish behavior and Gerry's spotty attendance to his own shows has his agent laying down the law for the umpteenth and final time not helping his case Gerry blames the dummy and makes one last-ditch effort to cook up a new Act and a new partner but this proves to be far from curtains for Willie whose voice permeates a wok trunk and continues the sound in this would-be bosses head driving him to mania and finally to a confrontation he's been avoiding for over 110 missed shows a ventriloquist becoming conquered by the character he created as a story that's been done before and done since even another episode of The Twilight Zone but there's no discounting the dummy's place in its small subgenres cannon nor its title as one of the Twilight zones finest psychological pieces didn't you begin someone [Music] didn't you forget Willie the jungle in the jungle Allen Richards is an international businessman whose hatred for superstition VY's an overwhelming fear for the wrath of an African tribe on whose land his business plans to build a hydroelectric dam a fear which is realized when he finds a number of protective magic souvenirs brought back from their latest trip by his wife and burns them in defiance almost immediately afterwards he starts entertaining the thought that he's right to fear for his life his nightmare begins when he gets a phone call and escalates into a hellacious soundscape that turns a simple trip through the park to get home into a paranoid Safari [Applause] which no amount of machines money or good old American grip can help in Traverse and in episode whose budget was probably spent mostly on the inclusion of one surprise guest star the jungle manages to build a nerve tightening atmosphere almost exclusively around stock sound effects and the urban jungles own the unique flavor of terror 22 in what is probably the most genuinely scary adaptation of the EF Benson's story the bus conductor a stripper dancer hospitalized for chronic fatigue is haunted by a recurring dream each night she spends in her hospital room a great thirst followed by a shattering glass and a night nurse outside her room who she is compelled to fall to room 22 the hospital's morgue as she steals herself to enter the nurse emerges with one chilling statement on her smiling lips within its runtime little over 22 minutes 22 manages to replay the sequence thrice scaling up the suspense in little ways in each turn adding to the fever dream mood this was one of a few episodes shot on video which serves to give the picture an uncanny lifelike feel whilst adding an echo II gravity to the dial on this episode makes a good companion piece to perchance to dream but substitutes its sequence dream for a recurring one always ending in the same way as Maya exudes unpredictability the night nurse played simple perfection by Arlene Martel embodies a firm glibness befitting the Grim Reaper as our hero and remains convinced that her dream is really something more the audience is held with the morbid fascination of what lies beyond the nightmare that ends just as it reaches its scariest scene living doll Annabel straighter buys her daughter Christie a talking doll in hopes of helping her through her confidence issues but Christie's emotionally abusive stepfather Eric doesn't care for the idea of his wife buying a doll who spouts trite words of love and his disapproval of the thing only gets deeper when talky Tina goes off script while no one else is listening and begins to deliver a series of increasingly sinister threats even with a title that's about as on-the-nose as one can be living doll ignores easy shocks in favor of playing up one man's helplessness in the face of an implacable enemy who is welcomed into his home and whose true vindictive feelings are known only to him for those of you who go into killer doll tales talking a big game about how you put an end to the doll with a big kick or some similar feat of strength consider one who can't be burned can't be chopped up and who tends towards subtler tactics than brandishing a knife in full view of everyone that story doesn't end with a mangled doll being thrown in the trash it ends with you being thrown away after alienating everyone you care about Telly Savalas plays eric is unsympathetic but with just enough humanity and restraint to make the audience quiver along with him instead of outright rooting for the toy but his attempts at playing nice are about as fruitless as his attempts to destroy the doll and as his control over his castle Falls it becomes clear that Tina refuses to yield until the real root of the young Christie's insecurities is destroyed [Music] it's a good life a boy who holds the power to read minds and to change reality in any way his imagination dictates has isolated a rural town from the rest of the world he lives a simple life eating tomato soup watching television and systematically wishing anyone who dis pleases him says the wrong thing attempts to stop his fun even thinks bad thoughts about him or the world he controls into an unseen cornfield never to be heard from again we follow the few remaining inhabitants of peat fill on a day much like any other as the boy Anthony Fremont creates and kills animals to amuse himself the others spend all their time in an agonized forced euphoria knowing that if a single negative thought is heard even from people the boy seems to lie or his own parents it could be their last [Music] absolutely you wish them away into the cornfield mommy and daddy would real upset but one thing sets this day apart it's another residents birthday and someone had the bright idea to gift him a Perry Como record like the Grendel who plagued Beowulf Anthony hates singing and after realizing he won't get to hear his record at his party or indeed at all the birthday boy gets a little too drunk but I want you to play playlist happy birthday it's a good life mixes the nightmare of an opinionated child with true power with a hair-trigger volatility that comes with a contradictory concept of not thinking any one thing and translates this to the screen in a way that's genuinely disturbing unlike certain other attempts it's a story that rod serling described simply as no comment here no comment at all likely because digging into the volume of subtext you can take from it concerning the necessity of discipline and upbringing the dubious innocence of childhood and the implications of an all-powerful judge could well have gotten it kicked off the air in its time it's a good life can be tough to watch even today and earns its reputation as one of the series most horrifying episodes [Music] well stalkers we hope we shook the dust off some old sources of shivers for you all if you happen to know of some scarier episodes you'd like to reintroduce to us don't be afraid to share them in the comments below and if you'd like to book a return flight to the top horror zone just follow the signpost at the bottom of the video and subscribe [Music]

Channel: Talk Horror

Views: 1,876,743

Keywords: Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone, Twilight Zone, SyFy, Get Out, Jordan Peele, Twilight Zone Reboot, The Howling Man, And When The Sky Was Opened, Twilight Zone Episode, The After Hours, Perchance to Dream, The Midnight Sun, The Dummy, The Jungle, Twenty-Two, living doll, It's A Good Life, The Obsolete Man, The New Exhibit, Martin Balsam, Nightmare As A child

Id: VRC5Enu6WV8

Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ArabiaFats]

The cheat-sheet, top to bottom (because I don't know how to format a countdown on Reddit >.>):

1. It’s a Good Life
2. Living Doll
3. Twenty-Two
4. The Jungle
5. The Dummy
6. The Midnight Sun
7. Perchance to Dream
8. The After Hours
9. And When The Sky Was Opened
10. The Howling Man

My last video wasn't so well-liked here. I'm hoping this one's an improvement, and as with last time, I'd love to hear feedback!

[u/z_m_7689]

I think the creepiest one for me was Mirror Image. It's just so unnerving watching the whole thing unfold and never understanding what's going on or what's going to happen next. I mean, the end of the episode is really underwhelming and all the tension just sort of goes away instead of being released properly, but I still think it's one of my favourite episodes just because of how creepy and immersive it is, especially considering the whole thing's set in two rooms of a bus depot.

[u/SheldonPlankton]

How the heck is man on the wing not on here. I watch that one whenever I wanna feel spooked. Shit’s disturbing with those practical effects.

[u/Repperton]

I think you've got a pretty good list here. Not everything I would have picked but that's one of the best things about TZ, different episodes connect with people in vastly different ways. Good job!

Since you asked for feedback, the TZ music that plays throughout seems to take away from the voice over. It's almost dizzying, Not sure how to keep the atmosphere without the music playing the whole time but I'm sure there's a way.