Roots of Horror: You're Entering A Different Dimension

Greetings, all! And welcome to the second installation to my series, Roots of Horror, which explores the inspiration behind our favorite spooky stories and the fantastic phenomena of the spectral world.

Today we travel to a different dimension… a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. Journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination—that’s the signpost up ahead, your next stop, The Twilight Zone. A most beloved series created by Rod Serling, I’m sure all of you are as great of fans as I. Let us inspect a few episodes and the fascinating supernaturality that is rooted in them. (WARNING: Mild spoilers are issued below for those who are not familiar with these episodes)

PHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD

Two episodes concern the same phenomena that is called simply and aptly, “phone calls from the dead”. Those two are “Long Distance Call” and “Night Call”.

Admittedly, the idea and very name of this particular supernatural occurrence may seem pretty silly to skeptics, but is very highly reported; so common that we see it twice in the original Twilight Zone series.

The first episode to deal with it is “Long Distance Call”, which appears in season two. The story is of a young boy and who is gifted a toy telephone through which he may contact his deceased grandmother. “Night Call” tells of an elderly woman who is plagued by mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night. The line is traced to a local cemetery, and eventually, to the grave of her late husband.

Although the name seems to say it all, there are a few consistent factors that are present in stories and reports of phone calls from the dead. The calls are almost always made by a lost relative or someone who very close to the recipient in life. In some cases the caller is thought to be conveying a message, but often the dead are simply believed to want to make contact, as seems the situation in these two episodes. However, there are a few differences between the episodes, and interesting enough, they both coincide with actual reports of phone calls from the dead!

Most often it seems that the phone calls occur within twenty-four hours of the person’s death, such is the case in “Long Distance Call”, when the little boy starts talking to his grandmother through his toy telephone within a day of her death. Another element that is highly reported is that the phone connection is usually very bad, as it is in “Night Call”. The old woman picks up the phone to hear mostly static on the line, with faint moaning speech breaking through every now and then. Indeed, she cannot even make out the words!

Another thing that is strange, but does not occur in either episodes, is that researchers on the subject have gathered that sometimes the deceased person making the call tell of someone allowing them to do so—a “they”. Any happening of this phenomena is quite mysterious, and it leads one to ponder just how the
 deceased are able to make this particular type of contact, and how difficult or unfavorable it might be.

These days parapsychologists don’t take the idea of phone calls from the dead very seriously, but in the mid-twentieth century reports could be found in newspapers, and two parapsychologists, D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless, were so interested that they published a book in 1979. Simply titled Phone Calls From the Dead, the book became and remains the leading source on the subject.

By the way, anyone remember the movie One Missed Call? That movie was terrible…

PHANTOM HITCHHIKERS

My all-time FAVORITE Twilight Zone episode is from the very first season, and it is called “The Hitch-Hiker”. It follows a young woman, traveling cross-country on her own, who is stalked by the same mysterious hitchhiker the entire journey.

This story plays on the very common urban legend of “phantom hitch-hikers”. Tales of this like have been told all over the world, but most commonly in the United States. There are many variations, but the story usually goes that a person driving on some lonely road stops for a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is quiet, not saying much, and is dropped off at a residence. Before the driver pulls away, they notice that their passenger has left something behind—a scarf, coat, hairpin, etc. They run quickly up to the house and knock on the door, which is answered by a stranger. The driver explains the situation, but the stranger sadly tells them that the person they are speaking of has died several years ago. The hitchhiker in the stories is usually thumbing up at the spot where they were killed, and often appear there on the anniversary of their death.

The Twilight Zone episode does not take on this structure, but a unique one applying the basic elements of the phantom hitchhiker legend and the result is an extremely unsettling and satisfying story.

Perhaps the most famous “real-life” phantom hitchhiker is that of Resurrection Mary from Chicago, Illinois. In life, she was a young girl in a dress and dancing shoes walking home from the dancing hall one night when she was struck by a car and killed. The driver fled, never to be identified. Now she stalks the road where she was killed, hitching rides and sitting quietly in the car until it passes Resurrection Cemetery, where she either vanishes or is dropped off, only to disappear through the iron gates…

If you have any experiences similar to these phenomena, please feel free to share! Also if you know of any legends, books, or movies that are relevant, let me know!

~MR

Halloween Festival of Lists: October 30: THIRTY Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes

Long have I loved The Twilight Zone. There really hasn't been anything comparable on television since.  The brilliant writing, top-notch acting, and anticipated shocks and twists at episode end put the show in the upper echelon of TV history.  It is certainly a mark of quality when a show that completed its first run back in the late 50's and early 60's can still be found on television to this day at any given moment. 

The original incarnation of the show ran for five seasons and gave us some of the most iconic stories of our time.  It was actually hard to pick just thirty episodes, but I did my best. 

Please note that spoilers ensue. 

TIME ENOUGH AT LAST
Probably one of the most terrifying episodes for a bibliomaniac such as myself. 
A man who is constantly struggling to find time to read finds himself with all the time in the world after a nuclear explosion renders him alone with stacks of tomes.  His glee is short lived when he breaks his glasses.

YOU DRIVE
A nervous man experiences strange happenings after he hits and kills a young boy and flees the scene.  His car, apparently taking on a life of its own, honks its horn, flashes its lights, and continues to drive to the scene of the crime, holding the man accountable and doesn't relent until he gives himself up.

WALKING DISTANCE
A bittersweet episode about a man who ends up in the town he grew up in and discovers it to be exactly the same as when he grew up.  A tale that reminds us to make the most of the life we have.

DEATH SHIP
One of the many episodes penned by the prolific Richard Matheson, it is the story of men who, upon investigating an uninhabited world,  discover a space craft that to their surprise, has what looks like their own corpses inside.  Seems like the modern film "Moon" has a bit in common here.

BACK THERE
A man time travels back to 1865 to attempt to stop the assassination of President Lincoln. 
Obviously, he doesn't succeed.  Which is amazing since he is The Professor (Gilligan's Island)!

NOTHING IN THE DARK
A woman is paranoid that death is coming to get her.  Turns out, he is - and he looks like Robert Redford!

KICK THE CAN
A game of kick the can turns a group of elderly nursing home patients back into children for a time.
One man can't grasp the miracle, and is left behind.

THE INVADERS
A lonely old woman battles tiny interlopers from a tiny spaceship that lands on her roof.
Notable for the fact that there is almost no dialogue whatsoever until the very end.

THE DUMMY
In one of the most unnerving episodes, a man determines that his ventriloquist dummy has come to life.
I hate dummies. Period.

MIRROR IMAGE
The excellent Vera Miles is showcased in an episode about a woman who may or may not be losing her mind. In all actuality, she has a malicious doppelganger.  Nice.

LONG DISTANCE CALL
Billy Mumy (Danger Will Robinson!) is a boy who can communicate with his dead grandmother through a toy phone.  Yikes.

THE MASKS
A fantastic episode about an old man who makes his unappreciative and greedy family wear hideous masks in order to claim their part of his fortune after he passes away.  What they don't realize is that their faces are going to stay that way after they remove the masks.

THE AFTER HOURS
A woman becomes confused in a department store after she makes a purchase on a non-existent 9th floor. 
The big twist?  She's a mannequin who has been "out in the real world" for a month, but is late to return to her podium.

STOPOVER IN A QUIET TOWN
A married couple wake up in a strange house after a drinking binge.  When they try to leave they find an entire town with no life whatsoever.  And all they can hear is a child's laughter.  The big revelation is that the couple was abducted by aliens for the enjoyment of their young daughter!  Love it.

THE MIDNIGHT SUN
A young artist and her landlady attempt to stay alive in their apartment building even though they realize the sun is getting closer and closer to earth.   At the end we realize the exact opposite is happening and she was only dreaming about the heat.  In actuality, everyone is freezing to death.

LIVING DOLL
A disinterested step-father is pissed at his wife's purchase for their daughter.  The Talky Tina doll senses this hate, and flat-out tells him so.  "My name is Talky Tina, and I don't think I like you." And so it begins.
And you thought Chucky was bad.

THE LAST NIGHT OF A JOCKEY
Banned from horse racing for fixing races, a jockey sits in despair in his apartment, wishing to be a "big" man. When his wish is granted by his alter-ego, it backfires when the racing commission reinstates him and he is unable to ride a horse because he's too damn big.  The definition of irony.

LITTLE GIRL LOST
A little girl disappears under the bed into another dimension. 
So that's supposed to be a bad thing?

THE SHELTER
A group of friends turn on each other when faced with their own mortality, stuck inside a bomb shelter during a nuclear attack.  Could this be where George Romero got the idea for some of Night of the Living Dead?

NIGHT CALL
In one of my favorite and definitely one of the creepiest episodes,  an elderly woman is terrorized by a series of unnerving phone calls in the middle of the night.  The phone company traces the call to the local cemetery.  Whoa.

NUMBER 12 LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU
Some time in the future, young adults are supposed to go through The Transformation, in which they are operated on and made to look like an attractive model, so that no one ever gets "unattractive".  Sounds about right for today's society.

NICK OF TIME
Captain Kirk and his wife stop at a roadside diner that has a tabletop "mystic seer", a type of fortune teller machine.  When it gets several things right, the Captain begins to fear his every move, and feels a need to consult the seer for everything.  Actually I think all diners should have these contraptions. Just for shits & giggles.

THE HITCH-HIKER
A young woman on a cross-country journey is plagued by a relentless hitch hiker. When she picks up a soldier that cannot see the hitch hiker, she realizes perhaps she's not actually here with us.

TWENTY TWO
A woman has a recurring nightmare about being in a hospital where she keeps ending up in the basement at the morgue.
But is it a dream?  Or maybe a premonition? Or simply destiny?

IT'S A GOOD LIFE
Young Anthony is not your normal little boy.  He's a monster in disguise, with complete and utter control over a small town, even controlling the weather and the power sources.  Anything and everything he wants, he gets.  And that is the scariest thing of all.

DEATH'S-HEAD REVISITED
A sadistic former Nazi officer is forced to relive the atrocities of a concentration camp, but not physically.  He experiences all these horrors in his mind.  Which to me is not enough retribution for anyone associated with that tragedy.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
In one of the best episodes and one of the most famous, a woman goes through surgery after surgery to look like everybody else.  In the beginning of the episode, her face is completely bandaged.  When her bandages are finally removed, it is revealed that she is actually beautiful and the doctors and nurses (and apparently everybody else) are deformed and hideous.  Another good-looking surgery failure comes in to take her away...to live with the rest of the rejects.

DEAD MAN'S SHOES
A vagrant steals a pair of shoes from a mob hit and ends up wearing the dead man's life as well.

NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET
A traveling salesman on a plane thinks he sees something outside, on the wing of the plane. 
This is an incredibly awesome and wildly famous episode which most people have seen. 
The palpable fear of Shatner is impressive, but for more bang for the buck, you need to check out the movie version.

NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET
Much as I love Shatner, this performance by John Lithgow is freaking legendary. 
He is genuinely TERRIFIED, and it comes across in the film in spades.  One of my favorite roles in horror.

"WANNA SEE SOMETHING REALLY SCARY??"

Zoning Out: The Hitch-Hiker

Remember: Spoilers ahead!!

~ The Hitch-Hiker ~

Season 1, Episode 16
Original air date: 1/22/60

Poor Nan Adams (Inger Stevens).
Driving cross country from New York to California, she no doubt thought that the flat tire she got was going to be the most trouble she had. After stopping at a garage to have it fixed, she notices a man hitch-hiking.
Ignoring him, she drives off - only to find that everywhere she goes, the hitch-hiker (Leonard Strong) appears. Miles and miles of landscape pass her by, and still the hitch-hiker plagues her - standing at the side of the road.

At a railroad track, the man seemingly coaxes her across the tracks, only to have the car stall with a train barreling towards her. Naturally, the hitch-hiker is there, staring at her. In the nick of time, the car starts and she is able to back off the track.

After witnessing the hitch-hiker's sly grin, she realizes he wanted her to get stuck on the track - and that he was trying to lure her to her death.

She continues on, state after state, driving into oblivion. The man is at her every stop, watching her, gesturing for a ride. In New Mexico she tries to lose the man by getting off the main highway. She finds a gas station that is already closed for the night and wakes up the owner, trying to get him to see her plight. Unamused, the man sends her away till morning.

She then runs into a serviceman (Adam Williams) out on leave hitching his way back to his base, so she hurriedly convinces him to ride with her the rest of the way to San Diego. It's obvious that she's scared to death to be alone, and feels more secure having a passenger.

But when her guest and her begin chatting about the possibility of a man (the hitch-hiker) being able to get from town to town before her, the hitch-hiker suddenly appears and she swerves the car to attempt to hit him - twice. Freaked out, the serviceman rights the car before she hits a tree and pretty much decides she's flipped her lid. Having not seen the hitch-hiker himself, he decides to get out of the car, but she pleads with him to the point of suggesting they get busy but he's just not buying what she's selling. Realizing she's on a one-way ride to the funny farm, he bolts and warns her to get some sleep.

Completely distraught, Nan stops at a diner to use a pay phone to call her mother, thinking speaking to someone familiar will stop all the madness she is experiencing. But instead of talking to her mother, she gets an unexpected voice on the other line. A woman she doesn't know explains that Nan's mother is still in the hospital recovering from a nervous breakdown that she had after learning of her daughter's death. Apparently she'd been driving cross-country when she blew out a tire and the car overturned, killing her.

It is only then that Nan realizes that the man - the hitch-hiker - was there all along to help her understand that she is dead and to "ferry" her to the other side. Returning to the car, she sees the hitch-hiker in the back seat of the car, who tells her "I believe you're going...my way."

This episode was originally a radio play, written by Lucille Fletcher and adapted by Rod Serling.
The music is composed by Bernard Herrmann of 'Psycho' fame, and is the same that was used in the play.

Zoning out: "The Masks"

More wholesome, macabre goodness from the vaults of the Twilight Zone....
And, as always, these moments of monochrome memories will be spoiler-ridden.

~The Masks~

Season 5, Episode 145
Original air date: 3/20/64

Jason Foster (Robert Keith) is waiting to die.
However, he has some things to resolve with his family before he does so.

When this episode starts, the mega-rich, dying old man is discussing his mortality time-line with his long-time family physician, who tells him it could quite literally be "any time now".

Jason, in turn, invites his egocentric, greedy family to his New Orleans estate on Mardi Gras eve to bid him a perfunctory fond farewell.
But he's not naive enough to think his family is feeling the pain of his imminent demise. Quite the contrary. Jason knows damn well they are only there to claim their part of an inheritance.

When the foursome arrives, he addresses each individually according to their ghastly and appalling attributes. His daughter Emily is a ridiculous hypochondriac, whining about her own (non-existent) ailments when she should be considering the fact that her father is dying. Emily's husband Wilfred is obsessed with money. Wilfred Jr. (who coincidentally looks only slightly younger than the actor playing his father!) is a lazy yet brutish asshole. And Emily & Wilfred's daughter Paula is utterly obsessed with her appearance, constantly looking at her reflection in the mirror and complaining about her boredom.
Even though Jason basically insults each of them, they are all too stupid to realize it.

Jason then tells them he has arranged a special Mardi Gras party for them, right there at the house. He treats them to a fabulous dinner and then gathers them together for the main event. Before he joins them, his butler is wheeling him into the parlor and Jason overhears the family discussing how they can't wait for him to just die so they can get their money.

It is then that Jason reveals a box of masks made by an "old Cajun" which he wants the family to wear until midnight. When the group initially balks at the mere suggestion, he pretty much lays it on the line by demanding that they wear them or they won't get one cent.
Naturally they change their minds, eagerly donning the grotesque masks one by one.
The final mask is for Jason himself, and is a skull - a creepy reminder that soon enough, he will no longer draw breath.

The few hours until midnight go by and though the complaints are never ending, the clock strikes twelve and almost on cue, Jason gives his final words to his family, telling them what greedy, horrible people they actually are, and that even without the masks, they are caricatures of themselves. He then does the dramatic head nod and dies. The family is overjoyed at their incredible fortune and luck... until they begin to take the masks off...

Each mask has changed the wearer's face into near-exact copies of the macabre masks.
When Jason's mask is removed however, his face remains completely normal...

The morality play is complete, and this remains one of the finest Twilight Zone stories by far.

This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Ida Lupino, who carries the distinction of being the only woman to ever direct a Twilight Zone episode.

Zoning Out...

So now you know. I'm a Twilight Zone addict.
Okay, maybe not an addict. I don't own it on DVD or anything, simply because the series is constantly played on television in syndication and at any random time you can find it on, quite often late at night, appropriately enough.
The SyFy channel in particular shows a few episodes nearly every Friday and Saturday night. So even if you're not home or don't stay up that late - set your DVR or Tivo or what have you to check out some of these gems. With over 155 episodes, you're bound to find one that strikes your fancy. Or if you have an extra couple hundred bucks, just buy the whole damn series. Whatever.

But to me, shows such as this one, along with oldies Night Gallery, Tales from the Darkside, and The Outer Limits are seemingly impossible to replicate. Oh, it's been attempted - inadequately at best. Some may say anthology shows such as the Friday the 13th series, Tales from the Crypt, and even the more recent Masters of Horror are just as exceptional - and those people would be wrong. While worthy additions to the television horror genre, they will never be able to duplicate the sense of uneasy fascination that shows like The Twilight Zone were able to give its viewers. In particular the black and white Zones - while somewhat dated at this point (some 50 years later!) - they still pack a punch in the chills department.
Running from 1959-1964, Rod Serling's creation, along with his own ominous voice overs that start each episode, has been unnerving and spooking people ever since.

So with this passionate endorsement, I give you the first in a random series of posts highlighting some of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes. Not a concise list or a countdown, mind you...just a meandering assortment, really.

And make no mistake - these posts will have spoilers. But hey, some the shows are over fifty years old, so sue me.


~Night Call~

Season 5, Episode 139
Original air date: 2/7/64



Elva Keene is a disabled elderly woman (Gladys Cooper) begins receiving disturbing phone calls late at night. A disembodied male voice keeps telling her he wants to talk to her.
When the frightening calls cease to stop, she contacts the phone company to complain. In the interim the calls continue until Elva screams into the phone to leave her alone (sounds like this is where the idea for When A Stranger Calls came from).

Soon they call her back to let her know she couldn't possibly be getting calls, because the calls are coming from a downed power line. The woman, terribly upset, argues with the operator until she finally tells the old woman the power line is in a cemetery.

The old woman pleads with her caretaker to give her a ride to the cemetery, where she indeed does see a broken telephone wire draped over the grave and going directly into the tombstone.



It is only then she explains that the grave is that of her fiancé, who had died in the same car accident she was crippled in. It was the week before their wedding, and she had been driving the car - because she demanded to and always got her way. She hit a tree and he was killed instantly.

Getting some comfort from hearing his voice again, and realizes he was only trying to get in touch with her, she is elated. She excitedly waits in her bed for him to call again, imploring him to do so. Finally the phone rings. Elva answers it but no one says anything. She begs him to speak, but when he does he tells her he won't bother her again, because she told him to leave her alone. And he always does what she tells him to. After all, she always gets her way...

*This episode was adapted by Richard Matheson's from his own short story, Long Distance Call (a.k.a. Sorry Right Number). It was scheduled to air on November 22, 1963 but was preempted by a major event in American history. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
It finally aired in February 1964.

*Buy it here.