Summary
Every episode ofThe Twilight Zoneuses some element of horror in its story, whether it’s psychological, slasher, or crime-drama, which is why it’s tough to choose only a few that are the best to watch over Halloween. It’s up to the viewer to decide what scares them the most, and the writers of this notorious series experimented with a variety of ways to terrify and amaze people.
Halloween isn’t just about being scared. Sometimes it’s about a mystery, an ancient legend, or unexplained phenomena like time travel or UFOs. In the early age of experimental television, viewers could find all of the above inThe Twilight Zone. The following episodes are some of the series' scariest, making for perfect viewing during the Halloween season.
1The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
The Terror Of The Suburbs
All it takes is a few flashing lights, a power outage, and some odd noises to drive humansinto a paranoid frenzyand turn on each other. “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street"starts in an idyllic suburb filled with flower beds and friendly neighbors, and this episode is about how easily all of it can fall apart.
Mysterious events start to occur after what seems like a meteorite passes closely overhead on its way to the ground. Then the random blackouts start, cars won’t run, and two precocious little boys are spreading rumors about monsters and aliens.
The residents of Maple Street are unaware of what’s going on and start to turn on each other, which leads to chaos and even death. The twist here is thatit really was an alien spaceshipthat landed nearby, and they were sent to study human habits when it came to the unknown. Their plan works so well that they prepare to use it in various locations as a way of weakening the Earthlings before they conquer them.
2The After Hours
No Horror Like The Mall
Marsha White is on a mundane errand to buy her mother a birthday present, and she goes to a perfectly normal department store to find one. It’s when she decides that a gold thimble would be the best present that the “Alice in Wonderland” type adventure can begin.
The elevator operator tells her that the thimbles are on the 9th floor, and when she goes there after noticing the elevator has only eight buttons, it’s only a dark room with a single one. Her strange journey eventually leads her to the ninth floor again, and she realizes it’s a storage area for mannequins, one that she will never leave.
3Living Doll
The Original Chucky
One of the earliest uses of the “haunted doll” concept in film or television, but one that’smuch more common today, “Living Doll” is often cited as one of the scariest ofThe Twilight Zoneepisodes. It also helps that some talented names are on the cast list, but the real star is Talky Tina.
Erich is the angry stepfather who’s frustrated by his inability to have a child with his new wife, Annabelle, and he’s also jealous of the amount of attention she gives her daughter, Christie. He even berates the little girl when she calls him “Daddy.” Considering his unsavory character, it feels karmic when the doll starts talking to Erich when he’s alone.
Annabelle threatens to leave Erich because she thinks he’s losing his mind when she catches him trying to destroy the doll and claiming it’s talking to him. She discovers the truth too late after Talky Tina has caused a fatal accident that ends Erich’s life.
4The New Exhibit
A Whole Team Of Murderers
A wax museum is a creepy venue to begin with, so imagine a whole gang of wax figures dedicated to history’s most violent and notorious serial killers. Martin Lombard Senescu is the kind, gentle soul who’s in charge of this particular exhibit, and when his boss sells the building he offers to store the figures in his house until someone else buys them.
Martin starts to obsess over the wax figures and neglects to look for another museum to house them. His wife is frustrated with how distracted he is as well as the mounting costs of air conditioning, and when she tries to do something about it, she’s found murdered. When Martin visits to announce he’s found a buyer for the figures, he’s also brutally murdered.
The episode ends with the wax figures in their new home, another museum, but there’s a new addition. The figure of Martin Lombard Senescu was a quiet man who nobody suspected was a serial killer, but anything is possible inThe Twilight Zone.
5The Howling Man
A Real Demonic Presence
Most episodes ofThe Twilight Zoneare about science fiction or psychological terror, so a story about the occult is slightly unusual. This episode waswritten by Charles Beaumontinstead of Rod Serling, which might be one of the reasons it’s slightly different.
When David Ellington gets lost in a storm and seeks solace in a lonely monastery, he stumbles upon the dark secret of the Howling Man. The monks claim that the noisy prisoner they’re keeping in a cell in the basement is the devil himself, holding his cell closed with a special staff, and of course, David doesn’t believe them and lets the prisoner go.
The devil reveals himself and escapes, and to correct his mistake he dedicates his life to recapturing the Lord of Hell. When he finally does, he tells the story to a housekeeper in the place where he’s staying - and proceeds to make the same mistake he did.
6It’s A Good Life
The Danger Of Childhood
This is one of the most terrifying TV show episodes ever, never mind oneof the most terrifying storiesinThe Twilight Zonelibrary. “It’s A Good Life” is so popular that it even has a sequel in the reboot entitled, “It’s Still A Good Life” which features the main character as a grown man with a daughter who also has terrifying powers.
Serling’s usual opening narration is tinged with terror as he describes a savage monster holding the entire city of Peaksville hostage, and it isn’t until the last few sentences that he mentions the “monster” is a small child. Stay happy, or become a twisted abomination that lives in the moonlit cornfield ofThe Twilight Zone.
