Tonight’s horror on TV is an episode of The Twilight Zone that is entitled The Hitchhiker. A woman (Inger Stevens) is haunted by a mysterious hitchhiker who continually asks her if she’s “Going my way?”
It’s tempting to call this a companion piece to Carnival of Souls but actually, The Hitchhiker was first broadcast on Jan. 22, 1960, two years before the premiere of Carnival of Souls. So, it would perhaps be more appropriate to call Carnival of Souls a companion piece to the Hitchhiker.
Tonight’s horror on TV comes to us from The Twilight Zone. At first glance, Number 12 Looks Just Like You may not seem like a horror story but, by the end of it, it clearly is. Number 12 deals with the horror of being an individual living in a society of conformists.
This episode was originally broadcast on January 24th, 1964.
Tonight’s horror on TV is an episode of Night Gallery that was originally broadcast on October 29th, 1972. It’s a ghost story that features dancing so, of course, I like it!
Enjoy Spectre in Tap Shoes!
For tonight’s televised horror on the lens, we have another episode of the Night Gallery. In Whisper, a mentally unstable woman played by Sally Field believes that she can talk to ghosts. Her husband, played by Dean Stockwell, spends all of his time driving her to cemeteries and allowing her to commune with the dead. Is he merely humoring her or does he believe as well?
You’ll have to watch to find out!
Whisper was originally broadcast on May 13th, 1973.
In this episode of The Twilight Zone, the Earth has somehow gotten off of orbit is now being drawn closer and closer to the sun. With humanity on the verge of extinction, two women (Lois Nettleton and Betty Garde) struggle to survive as the heat keeps rising.
Full of haunting images of a deserted and sun-baked city, The Midnight Sun is one of the few episodes of The Twilight Zone that has ever given me nightmares. For some reason, the melting painting always gets to me.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Anton Leader. It was originally broadcast on November 17th, 1961.
Tonight’s episode of the Twilight Zone was originally broadcast on January 24th, 1963 and it’s one of the rare hour-long episodes of the original Twilight Zone. In He’s Alive, a very young Dennis Hopper plays Peter Vollmer, an aspiring Neo-Nazi who isn’t having much luck bringing fascism to America until he meets a mysterious benefactor who teaches him the tricks of the trade.
It’s a pretty good (if heavy-handed) episode, distinguished by both Dennis Hopper’s lead performance and a message that is probably even more relevant today than when the show was first broadcast.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Stuart Rosenberg.
Tonight’s episode of The Twilight Zone is a political allegory about a communist dictator in Central America who gets a magic mirror that, he believes, will reveal who is plotting against me. It’s undeniably heavy-handed but, at the same time, it’s a lot of fun to watch Peter Falk play Fidel Castro.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Don Medford. It was originally broadcast on October 20th, 1961.
Much like Thriller, Night Gallery is an old horror anthology series that I’ve recently discovered thanks to reruns on Me-TV. Airing in the early 70s and hosted by Twilight Zone‘s Rod Serling, Night Gallery usually featured two or three stories per episode and even provided a few early credits for director Steven Spielberg.
Of course, Spielberg didn’t direct the episode below but that’s okay. It’s still pretty good. It tells two stories. In A Question of Fear, Leslie Nielsen plays a mercenary who takes a bet to spend the night in a haunted house. In The Devil Is Not Mocked, Dracula talks about how he fought the Nazis during World War II. Interestingly enough, Dracula is played by Francis Lederer who, 13 years later, played the same role in The Return of Dracula.
The episode of Night Gallery was originally broadcast on October 27th, 1971.
Tonight’s episode of The Twilight Zone examines what happens when a freak snow storm breaks out, a bus makes a stop at a late night diner, and reports come in of a UFO landing somewhere in the area. The fun starts once the bus driver realizes that he has an extra passenger. Who is the alien? Or, any other words: Will the real Martian please stand up? This episode is a classic example of how a group of strangers trapped in one location can be used to generate a lot of suspense. It has a great ending as well!
This episode was originally broadcast on May 26th, 1961. It was written by Rod Serling and directed by Montgomery Pittman.
In this early episode of The Twilight Zone, poor and meek Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) is literally the last man on Earth and that suits him just fine. He finally has time to read everything that he’s always wanted to read. This episode is best remembered for Burgess Meredith’s eccentric lead performance and the somewhat mean-spirited twist ending.
Through the Shattered Lens 