You're traveling through another dimension... Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most disturbing, terrifying or otherwise creepy moments from the original “Twilight Zone” series. Consider this a SPOILER alert!
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00:00 "We get down to business."
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most disturbing,
00:08 terrifying or otherwise creepy moments from the original 'Twilight Zone' series.
00:13 Consider this a spoiler alert.
00:15 "Well it doesn't make very much difference because sooner or later,
00:18 will all of us be on the menu."
00:19 Number 20.
00:22 The Empty Town.
00:23 Stop over in a quiet town.
00:25 Some of the creepiest moments from the original 'Twilight Zone'
00:28 aren't always the loud, crazy reveals,
00:30 but those tense and pensive scenes of confusion and foreshadowing.
00:34 This was seen in episodes like 'Where Is Everybody?'
00:36 as well as in 1964's 'Stop Over in a Quiet Town.'
00:40 There's an uncanniness to the fake materials present within the strange town
00:44 that Millie and Bobby Frazier wake up in after a night of drinking.
00:47 "Be nice, baby. Hey, sweetheart."
00:50 The couple can recall a strange shadow appearing over their car the night before,
00:57 but the desolation of the town and the distant,
01:00 echoing sound of a child's laughter nearly drives them to madness.
01:03 "We're being watched."
01:05 "No. Now you're getting delusions."
01:09 "Was that a delusion?"
01:13 It isn't until the final frightening reveal that it all begins to make sense.
01:27 Number 19.
01:28 'The Jack in the Box' - 'It's a Good Life'
01:30 'It's a Good Life' is one of the most famous episodes from the show's original run,
01:34 and it was even included as a segment in 1983's 'Twilight Zone' the movie.
01:38 However, while that adaptation benefited from its outlandish special effects,
01:50 the OG reveal of 'The Jack in the Box' doesn't take a backseat to anyone.
01:55 "Won't somebody take a lamp or a bottle or something and end this?"
01:59 "You're a bad man."
02:02 We don't need to necessarily see the entire transformation,
02:06 as our minds automatically go to how grotesque a human/toy hybrid would probably appear.
02:11 'It's a Good Life' shoots actor Don Kiefer in close-up,
02:21 while the shadow of a Jack in the Box is projected on the wall.
02:25 The cast's reactions pretty much say it all.
02:28 Anthony Fremont, a young child with the powers of a god, punished a very bad man.
02:34 "And you mustn't think bad thoughts about me either, or I'll do the same thing to you."
02:38 Number 18.
02:43 'Anne Calls to Her Past Self' - 'Spur of the Moment'
02:46 If we could somehow contact our younger selves and warn that person to not make
02:50 a dreadful life-altering mistake, would we do it?
02:54 Could we do it?
02:55 And if so, would it work?
02:56 1964's 'Spur of the Moment' attempts to present such a situation,
03:05 albeit with a bummer twist ending only possible in the Twilight Zone.
03:08 The image of a desperate woman in black chasing a younger woman on horseback
03:17 is initially played for intensity and fright.
03:20 "I think if she caught me she would have killed me."
03:22 "What? Anne!"
03:23 "Oh god, the way she looked at me!"
03:25 However, it's later revealed that both women writers were one and the same.
03:29 43-year-old Anne Mitchell is desperately trying to warn her 18-year-old self
03:34 not to marry the wrong man.
03:36 A man that will ruin her life.
03:38 "Oh David, you are my true love. I adored one. Make me happy.
03:42 Please make me happy."
03:44 "Oh, I will, I will."
03:45 Tragically, her words go unheard.
03:48 "Today may change tomorrow, but once today is gone,
03:51 tomorrow can only look back in sorrow that the warning was ignored."
03:54 Agnes Moorhead gives a tour-de-force performance in this 1961 episode of 'The Twilight Zone'
04:04 titled 'The Invaders'.
04:06 It's all about physical reactions and facial expressions
04:09 as the episode reaches its final climax and twist.
04:12 "Central control. Come in central control.
04:15 Do you read me? Gresham is dead."
04:18 Moorhead's character seems to be tormented by tiny yet resilient assailants,
04:23 and the episode makes it clear from the jump that we're dealing with extraterrestrials.
04:27 However, the true invaders are actually earthlings,
04:38 and the flying saucer shown near the episode's opening is revealed to be from the United States.
04:43 This subversion of expectation,
04:46 making Moorhead's character essentially a giant from outer space,
04:49 gets us every single time.
04:51 You just gotta love that double twist.
05:06 'Will the real Martian please stand up?' plays its creative hand
05:09 by seemingly commenting on the suspicion and paranoia
05:12 that was present during American McCarthyism.
05:14 However, it does this by asking a question.
05:21 Which one in this otherwise innocuous diner happens to be an alien?
05:25 Well, the twist is that there are two aliens.
05:28 "What difference does it make who was on the bus and who wasn't,
05:31 or whether there were six or seven or a hundred and twenty?
05:34 Is this a diner or Gestapo headquarters?"
05:36 One with three arms is revealed to be serving as a scout,
05:42 reporting back to Mars for an upcoming invasion of Earth.
05:45 However, the diner's cook is then revealed to be from Venus,
05:55 and he is quick to point out to the Martian that
05:57 "We folks on Venus had the same idea.
06:00 We got it several years ago."
06:01 Oh, and he reveals a very creepy third eye,
06:05 just to hammer that point home.
06:06 Number 15.
06:16 'There was time now, time enough at last.'
06:26 There are a number of quotes from 'The Twilight Zone'
06:28 that seem to be intrinsically linked with the show's cultural legacy.
06:31 Burgess Meredith's Henry Bemis utters one such quote
06:34 at the end of the 1959 episode, 'Time Enough at Last.'
06:38 The real creepiness behind Bemis' situation,
06:40 and Meredith's line delivery, is the pure despair in his voice.
06:44 "You, Mr. Bemis, do not function within the organization.
06:47 You are neither an efficient bank teller nor a proficient employee.
06:51 You, Mr. Bemis, are a reader.
06:56 A reader?"
06:57 Bemis was already pushed around by most of those in his life
07:00 prior to the nuclear weapon that annihilates the country.
07:03 An earlier scene also showcased the extent of Bemis' despair,
07:07 as he contemplated taking his own life.
07:10 So when Henry cries out, "There was time now,"
07:12 after breaking his glasses,
07:14 we truly feel every ounce of fight leaving his body.
07:18 And it's bone-shelling.
07:19 "That's not fair at all.
07:24 There was time now."
07:26 The closing twist to 1962's 'To Serve Man' may seem a little on the nose now,
07:39 but it's important to admire the context with which this line was written.
07:43 America in the early 1960s was eagerly anticipating interstellar travel.
07:48 The 1969 moon landing was still years away,
07:51 and there was a lot of uncertainty as to who or what lay out there among the stars.
07:56 "We come from a planet far beyond this galaxy.
07:58 A planet far more developed than Earth, but we come as friends."
08:03 As a result, various theories emerged about how aliens might contact us.
08:07 'To Serve Man' lets us have our proverbial cake and eat it too,
08:11 as it initially presents an alien race as humankind's saviors.
08:15 "To serve man?
08:16 I hope so.
08:18 I fervently hope so."
08:21 Yet when the alien's book 'To Serve Man' is translated,
08:24 their true intentions become disturbingly clear.
08:28 They are more focused on deciding who's for dinner.
08:31 "Don't get on that ship!
08:32 The rest of the book, 'To Serve Man', it's a cookbook!"
08:37 The normal faces are revealed.
08:44 Eye of the Beholder.
08:46 The Twilight Zone stood out not just for its great writing,
08:49 but also for the inventive special effects and remarkable makeup for its day.
08:53 "What's the matter with you all?"
08:54 While episodes such as 'The Masks' featured some eerie makeup for its cast,
09:02 perhaps none of them had the same shocking impact
09:05 as those used for 1960's 'Eye of the Beholder'.
09:09 "It's hopeless, isn't it, Doctor?
09:10 I'll never look in the book again."
09:12 "Well, that's hard to say."
09:15 It was this episode that traumatized an entire generation of children,
09:19 as it unveiled the normal faces of doctors who had attempted plastic surgery on a patient.
09:24 The reveal of beautiful Donna Douglas as the hideous Janet Tyler
09:36 makes sense when we see her surgeons.
09:43 Their porcine features and sloping brows still haunt our nightmares to this day.
09:48 There are a number of reasons why this episode of 'The Twilight Zone' feels so unsettling.
09:57 For starters, it was shot on video, which gave it an otherworldly quality.
10:01 Beyond this, however, the episode plays within a creative sandbox
10:09 similar to the 'Final Destination' franchise,
10:12 in that its lead has ill-fated premonitions.
10:14 "They aren't dreams. They happen."
10:17 "Yeah."
10:18 "Just like I say they happen."
10:19 "I know, kitten, I know."
10:21 Specifically, Liz Powell sees a very creepy nurse in a very creepy hospital
10:26 that says a very creepy thing.
10:28 And yes, it's in a very creepy way too,
10:31 as the line 'room for one more, honey' takes on a new meaning at the episode's climax.
10:36 "Room for one more, honey."
10:38 [Liz Powell screams]
10:40 It turns out Liz Powell's real danger lay not in a hospital morgue,
10:45 but on the doomed plane trip that was Flight 22.
10:48 What happens when the mirror looks back?
10:56 The episode 'Mirror Image' uses this idea to profoundly creepy effect,
11:00 as star Vera Miles begins to think her reflection is stalking her
11:04 and trying to take her place in the world.
11:07 'Mirror Image' achieves its creep factor slowly,
11:10 via the misplacement of Millicent Barnes' luggage
11:12 and disturbing shots of her reflection as she leaves a women's restroom.
11:16 It all comes to a head near the end, however,
11:19 when a fellow passenger at the bus stop where Millicent is waiting
11:22 sees his own reflection in the flesh and attempts to chase him down.
11:25 [Millicent Barnes screaming]
11:27 Number 10.
11:31 The Statue People - Elegy
11:33 Death is an eternal mystery.
11:35 And the notion of it is usually creepy enough for the average person.
11:39 Elegy takes this notion one step further,
11:42 using a sci-fi setting to set up a galactic graveyard full of stoic corpses,
11:46 frozen in what seems to be moments of eternal joy.
11:50 It seems comforting at first,
11:52 but the three astronauts who land in the cemetery are more confused than anything,
11:56 until they run into the cemetery caretaker, Jeremy Wickwire.
12:00 "To peace, my friends.
12:04 To everlasting, eternal peace."
12:06 The trio is tricked by Wickwire into drinking "eternifying fluid,"
12:11 after which all three astronauts join the planet's silent statues,
12:15 forever locked in this panorama of the deceased.
12:18 Number 9.
12:19 The Scenario - Midnight Sun
12:21 There's a palpable sense of panic and fear brought to the table by the midnight sun.
12:26 "I heard on the radio that they're only gonna turn the water on an hour a day from now on."
12:31 The last two neighbors in an apartment complex are brought together,
12:34 when the Earth detaches from its orbit and begins moving closer to the sun.
12:39 The episode remains in the apartment complex for its duration,
12:42 and there's a sense of horrible claustrophobia as the pair not only fends off their own fears of death,
12:47 but also the more immediate threat of looting and violence outside.
12:51 Combine this with a downbeat twist ending,
12:54 and you have a Twilight Zone episode that still instills fear remarkably well,
12:59 even decades later.
13:01 "I had such a terrible dream. It was so hard."
13:06 Number 8.
13:07 A Parent's Worst Nightmare - Little Girl Lost
13:10 Picture it.
13:11 You're a parent and you wake up in the middle of the night to screams from your frightened daughter.
13:16 "Mommy!"
13:16 "All right, sweetheart, I'm coming."
13:19 That situation alone is troubling enough,
13:21 but add to it the fact that the child in Little Girl Lost seems nowhere to be found,
13:26 and you have a parent's absolute worst nightmare.
13:29 Although this Twilight Zone episode does have a happy ending,
13:32 the early scenes featuring the disembodied pleas of a girl lost in a parallel dimension are beyond creepy.
13:38 "Chris, where is she?"
13:44 "I don't know."
13:45 And help start the episode off at maximum tension.
13:49 Number 7.
13:54 The Mannequins - The After Hours
13:56 If you suffer from pediaphobia, don't watch The After Hours alone.
14:01 Actually, you might not want to watch it at all,
14:03 as it just so happens to be one of the creepiest installments in the entire series run.
14:08 "You remember Marsha?"
14:10 "Climb off it. Come on, dear. Marsha."
14:12 Shots of emotionless mannequin heads and scary faceless voices punctuate the tale of a young
14:17 woman who forgets she's actually part of the decor at the department store where she's shopping.
14:22 In this episode's universe, mannequins are allowed one month out of the year to be human,
14:27 but for some reason, Anne Francis' character needs to be reminded.
14:31 By being frightened out of her wits, of course.
14:33 Number 6.
14:42 The Nightmares - Perchance to Dream
14:44 Was this an influence for A Nightmare on Elm Street?
14:47 Perhaps.
14:48 Perchance to Dream features Richard Conte as a sleepless man who's terrified that his
14:53 nightmares are out to get him.
14:55 Conte hasn't slept in days, because when he does, he's tormented by a creepy funhouse.
15:01 The nightmares also feature a seductive woman named Maya, and when he sees Maya's face in
15:11 the real world, he jumps out of his psychiatrist's window in sheer panic.
15:15 It's not until the end that we see he's actually never left the doctor's couch,
15:20 and died in his sleep.
15:22 Number 5.
15:28 The Ending - The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
15:31 The specter of McCarthyism looms large yet again in another episode of The Twilight Zone,
15:36 this time with The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.
15:40 Paranoia and finger-pointing eventually devolve into complete chaos, as relationships are smashed
15:46 within a local neighborhood, almost overnight.
15:48 In fact, it's the speed with which this violent escalation takes place that makes it so much
16:08 more interesting to watch.
16:09 The violent escalation takes place that ties into the episode's ending.
16:12 "It's Tommy! He's the one!"
16:14 "Oh, that's not true!"
16:16 In a shocking twist, it becomes clear that aliens had been manipulating the town's fear
16:22 and anger this whole time.
16:23 "Get away! Get away!"
16:25 "Stop it!"
16:27 Their sinister plan? To replicate this turmoil in one neighborhood after another,
16:36 all on their way to total world domination.
16:40 "They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves.
16:44 All we need do is sit back and watch."
16:48 Number 4.
16:49 Calls from Beyond the Grave - Night Call
16:52 Night Call follows a series of scary late-night phone calls to a wheelchair-bound woman named Elva.
16:58 A moaning voice on the line is disturbing enough, but when Elva learns that the calls
17:02 have been coming from the cemetery, there's no dialing back the creepiness.
17:06 [Elva's phone rings]
17:10 The mystery man does eventually stop calling, but the tragic twist is that the calls have
17:15 actually been coming from Elva's deceased fiancé, who died years ago from the same
17:20 car accident that put Elva in her chair.
17:22 "Brian, are you there? Brian? Brian, if you're there, speak to me."
17:28 Finally realizing this, Elva can only mourn her lost opportunity at speaking
17:33 with her beloved one last time, adding a tinge of sadness to the terror.
17:37 "You said leave you alone. I always do what you say."
17:46 Number 3.
17:47 Seeing the Gremlin - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
17:50 Sure, the Gremlin costume in this Twilight Zone episode may seem dated now,
17:54 but it absolutely terrified audiences when it first aired in 1963.
17:59 Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is successful because of its near-perfect pacing,
18:08 as it teases the Gremlin as a product of William Shatner's fractured mental state.
18:12 He sees it attempting to sabotage the plane, but no one believes him,
18:17 and the Gremlin's behavior on the wing is both humorous and disturbing.
18:20 "There's a man out there. Keep your voice down."
18:23 This episode received many accolades from fans, and it's easy to see why,
18:28 as Shatner's unhinged performance and the Gremlin's still-creepy design
18:32 make Nightmare at 20,000 Feet a timeless classic.
18:35 Number 2.
18:36 The Mysterious Figure - The Hitchhiker
18:39 The Hitchhiker is often cited as one of the series' classic episodes,
18:43 and with good reason. This one is an all-out creep fest.
18:47 "No matter how far I travel or how fast I go, he's ahead of me."
18:50 The dread is palpable, as the episode's protagonist becomes increasingly panicked
18:55 and paranoid about an old hitchhiker who appears all along her cross-country drive.
19:01 Inger Stevens is brilliant in the role of Nan, while the titular hitchhiker delivers the scares,
19:07 often appearing out of nowhere, jumping into frame with a sad, blank look on his face.
19:12 Things get sadder still when we realize that Nan has actually been dead all along.
19:18 "That's nothing the matter with my mother, what do you mean a nervous breakdown?"
19:21 "Well, it's all taken place since the death of her daughter."
19:24 It is suspenseful, disturbing stuff.
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19:44 Number 1.
19:47 "I'm Going To Kill You" - Taki Tina - Living Doll
19:50 The OG of deadly doll nightmare fuel,
19:54 Taki Tina was giving audiences the creeps way back in 1963.
19:58 Tina basically gives us the shivers from the first moment she appears,
20:07 first as a loving doll to young Christy, then as the bane of her stepfather's existence.
20:15 Tina taunts and threatens him incessantly with a malevolent deadpan delivery,
20:19 as he tries in vain to destroy the doll and get it out of the house.
20:24 Finally, he trips over the doll and falls down the stairs to his death,
20:28 where he's discovered by his wife.
20:31 Tina's final words?
20:43 What Twilight Zone moments get under your skin? Let us know in the comments.
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21:04 [Music]