Even in any case these a long time, the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone are nonetheless terrifying as we speak. The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling wished to put in writing TV exhibits about real-world atrocities just like the homicide of Emmett Until, however he struggled to get these scripts produced, as a result of within the ‘50s and ‘60s, advertisers had been very cautious of the form of content material their purchasers’ advertisements had been related to. So, Serling discovered a intelligent workaround: he would allegorize real-world horrors like racism and the Purple Scare via supernatural horror tales about aliens and monsters.
In some instances, the allegories that Serling got here up with had been much more disturbing than the real-life terrors they had been allegorizing. The Twilight Zone captured the relatable worry of flying via the story of a gremlin on the wing of a airplane that just one anxious man can see. It captured the worry that the planet will inevitably meet a grim destiny out of humanity’s management via the story of Earth slowly drifting into the Solar. Not all of The Twilight Zone’s greatest episodes had been an all-out spookshow, however the scariest episodes nonetheless give me the creeps as we speak.
10
Nightmare At 20,000 Toes
Season 5, Episode 3
Season 5’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Toes” is one in every of The Twilight Zone’s most iconic and recognizable episodes — a lot in order that it was remade for the film adaptation. It revolves round a person aboard a passenger airplane, who sees a gremlin on the wing, sabotaging the equipment. Naturally, nobody believes him, so he begins to lose his thoughts. All these years later, everybody can nonetheless relate to a debilitating worry of flying, and this episode is an ideal horror metaphor for the common anxiousness round hovering via the sky in a steel field.
9
And When The Sky Was Opened
Season 1, Episode 11
There are not any supernatural monsters in season 1’s “And When the Sky Was Opened,” however its twisting of actuality is arguably much more disturbing than any monstrous risk could be. When two astronauts return from humanity’s first voyage to area, they confuse the authorities with their vivid reminiscences of a 3rd astronaut who doesn’t appear to have ever existed. This episode is a fantastically crafted piece of mind-bending Lovecraftian horror. Even in any case these years, the idea of perceiving the world otherwise than the way it actually is and questioning your individual actuality is a typical (and devilishly efficient) horror trope.
8
Twenty-Two
Season 2, Episode 17
Within the season 2 episode “Twenty-Two,” a younger girl experiences a recurring nightmare by which she all the time results in Room 22 — the hospital morgue. Most Twilight Zone episodes are extra notable for his or her plot twists and character work than their visuals, however “Twenty-Two” is terrifying particularly due to its visible fashion. Within the palms of director Jack Smight, who would go on to helm Airport 1975, the episode’s dream sequences are actually unsettling. They’re much less flashy than the nightmare scenes in Jacob’s Ladder and A Nightmare on Elm Road, however they’re simply as horrifying.
7
The Masks
Season 5, Episode 25
In season 5’s “The Masks,” a dying man requests that his heirs all put on masks to a Mardi Gras social gathering in an effort to earn their inheritance. That is one in every of the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone for one easy purpose: the masks themselves are terrifying. The story isn’t scary by itself — it’s a kind of normal household drama, with some twists and turns — however the visible of the masks is deeply unnerving. The ultimate shot of the episode, with the heirs unmasking to disclose that their faces have morphed to resemble the masks, is not possible to unsee.
6
The Howling Man
Season 2, Episode 5
Whereas taking shelter from a horrible storm at a European monastery, a person is disturbed by an ominous howling sound in season 2’s appropriately titled “The Howling Man.” He’s advised that the howling is coming from the Satan, who’s being held prisoner. Any on-screen depiction of the Satan is certain to be horrifying, since he’s the incarnation of all of the world’s evil, however “The Howling Man” makes him notably scary by specializing in humanity’s incapacity to acknowledge the Satan. He solely takes on the acquainted look of the Prince of Darkness when he’s been free of captivity.
5
The Midnight Solar
Season 3, Episode 10
In season 3’s “The Midnight Solar,” humanity prepares for the worst because the Earth steadily drifts towards the Solar. Because the world will get hotter and warmer, some individuals flee to the coldest components of the planet to cling to some treasured additional hours, whereas others simply keep the place they’re and await their grim destiny. This episode terrifies me purely as a result of it’s so bleak and hopeless. It’s not a matter of if everybody will die a horrible loss of life, however when, and it builds to a surprising last twist that doubles down on that hopelessness.
4
The After Hours
Season 1, Episode 34
Season 1’s “The After Hours” begins off with the harmless sufficient premise of a girl looking out the cabinets of a division retailer for a gold thimble. In her quest to search out the thimble, she talks to a salesman and an elevator operator. However she finally involves the surprising realization that everybody she’s spoken to is a model — and so is she. “The After Hours” executes this rug-pull masterfully; nobody noticed it coming, which makes it all of the extra chilling. When you’ve seen this episode, you’ll by no means take a look at mannequins the identical method once more.
3
Night time Name
Season 5, Episode 19
The season 5 episode “Night time Name” revolves round an aged girl who’s confined to her mattress and begins receiving mysterious cellphone calls on a useless line. The faint whimpering on the opposite finish of the cellphone will hang-out you lengthy after the episode is over. The Twilight Zone’s TV adaptation adjustments the ending of the unique brief story it’s primarily based on. The brief story is extra sinister, by no means revealing who’s on the opposite finish of the calls, however the TV model provides a extra tragic bent by figuring out the caller.
2
The Hitch-Hiker
Season 1, Episode 16
Throughout a cross-country highway journey in season 1’s “The Hitch-Hiker,” a younger girl named Nan Adams retains seeing the identical matted hitchhiker together with the highway. “The Hitch-Hiker” makes use of a well-worn twist that may be seen in numerous different horror tales — revealing that Nan has been useless the entire time — but it surely’s one of the efficient examples of that twist. It makes nice use of the recurring motif of the hitchhiker because the harbinger of loss of life, and it manages to make the twist as heartbreaking as it’s surprising.
1
Dwelling Doll
Season 5, Episode 6
There are a variety of spooky episodes of The Twilight Zone that also creep me out to today, however simply the creepiest episode of the entire sequence is season 5’s “Dwelling Doll.” Telly Savalas stars as an abusive, impotent stepfather named Erich. He takes out his frustrations over his incapacity to have kids of his personal on his spouse’s younger daughter, Christie. When Christie will get a brand new wind-up doll, Talky Tina, it begins threatening Erich. When Erich is alone with the doll, it swaps out its catchphrase for extra menacing traces, like “I don’t such as you.”
Associated
One of the vital iconic traces from the unique The Twilight Zone was practically modified because of an error by Rod Serling, however luckily, it was corrected.
“Dwelling Doll” was a forerunner to evil doll films like Baby’s Play and Annabelle, in addition to M3GAN’s story of a killer doll defending its child. It’s an ingenious horror idea; it takes one thing completely harmless and places a sinister spin on it. The Twilight Zone had a variety of scary episodes, however the one the place a doll desires to kill Telly Savalas is the creepiest one of many bunch.
10/10
- Launch Date
-
1959 – 1964
- Showrunner
-
Rod Serling
- Administrators
-
John Brahm, Buzz Kulik, Douglas Heyes, Lamont Johnson, Richard L. Naked, James Sheldon, Richard Donner, Don Medford, Montgomery Pittman, Abner Biberman, Alan Crosland, Jr., Alvin Ganzer, Elliot Silverstein, Jack Smight, Joseph M. Newman, Ted Put up, William Claxton, Jus Addiss, Mitchell Leisen, Perry Lafferty, Robert Florey, Robert Parrish, Ron Winston, Stuart Rosenberg
- Writers
-
Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, Jerry Sohl, Henry Slesar, Martin Goldsmith, Anthony Wilson, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Invoice Idelson, E. Jack Neuman, Jerome Bixby, Jerry McNeely, John Collier, John Furia, Jr., John Tomerlin, Lucille Fletcher, Ray Bradbury, Reginald Rose, Sam Rolfe, Adele T. Strassfield
