The Twilight Zone-10 Scariest Episodes
By Ashish Thomas
The Twilight Zone is classic Science Fiction at its best the Rod Sterling led series was influential on several future series The Simpsons, Fringe, Black Mirror, and other series have paid homage to the influence of the Twilight Zone. Twilight Zones use of tension and twists provided more terror and scarier than any gore, jumpscares, and blood. It’s been said that the Black Mirror is a modern take on the Twilight Zone. The Series lasted five seasons 156 Episodes and still revered as classic Science Fiction Television…..
Now there are a lot of episodes many classics after debate here are the 10 Scariest Twilight Zone Episodes…..
We are about to enter…. The Twilight Zone
Nightmare At 2000 Feet-Season 5 Episode 3
Nightmare at 20,000 feet is a sci-fi classic episode a man with mental issues(William Shatner) flying on a first time after spending time in a mental institution. While on the flight the man sees a monster, a gremlin trying to destroy the plane. He tries to alert his wife, the stewardess and the captain but no one can see the beast but him. The Man gets increasingly agitated eventually he gets a gun shoots out the window and kills the monster. When they land the man is fitted with a straight jacket, but the people find that there has been damage to the plane.
This is a famous episode featuring William Shatner before he slept with green aliens and boldly went into space. This episode was also the basis for the Tree House of Horror IV segment Terror at 51/2 Feet where Bart sees a Gremlin damaging the bus, but no one believes him…
One of the most referenced Twilight Zone episodes and still holds up today.
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street-Season 1 Episode 22
Hysteria is a scary principle in today’s political climate the events of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street could happen. It feels like we are living this episode right now.
Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street…This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment – before the monsters came. Anything that needs power or electricity to work is not working. A local boy name Tommy tells of aliens coming using this technique to divide and take over the town to conquer the world.
The town panics when after everything electrical doesn’t work the man’s car starts. The town peoples grow hysterical after his car starts the town thinks the man is an alien. They start talking about the man’s odd behavior, and the town gets more agitated freaking out. Some townsfolk start defending him, and that brings new accusations.
A shadowy figure approaches in the panic a townsperson grabs a shotgun and shoots killing a neighbor. The neighbors turn on the shooter thinking he’s an alien. Just then Lights and electricity randomly turn on at various houses. The neighborhood turns on each other as it becomes neighbor vs. neighbor. What the episodes reveal is that Aliens are in control monitoring the situation to conquer us eventually.
Masks-Season 5 Episode 25
Mask’s Premise what would you do to ensure that you get your inheritance, what do our faces/masks hide.
Synopsis from IMDB:
Wealthy Jason Foster is dying, and he invites his greedy heirs to a Mardi Gras party where they must wear the masks he especially had made for them or else be cut off from their inheritance.
One of the Scariest Episodes the end reveals that the Masks have forever altered the heir’s faces. The Heirs were bothered by staying with the wealthy relative at the end the family gets what they deserve with the man’s face unaltered. The Episode is scary as you have no idea the faces have been altered until the end of the episode.
Eye of the Beholder-Season 2 Episode 6
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder, in this episode a woman undergoes plastic surgery to make herself more beautiful and normal. She believes her face is abnormal. After the bandages are removed the woman is gorgeous, but the doctor tells her that the surgery didn’t work. Then the reveal the pig people. She thinks she is hideous but only because she isn’t like everyone else.
Here is the IMBD Summary
A young woman lying in a hospital bed, her head wrapped in bandages, awaits the outcome of a surgical procedure performed by the State in a last-ditch attempt to make her look “normal.”
In the end, she has to live with the way she looks; the surgeries couldn’t help her.
One of the most revered episodes that twist makes it one of the best Twilight Zone Episodes a classic. Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.
Little Girl Lost Season 3 Episode 26
What would you do if your daughter were calling for you crying, well as a parent you would check on her. What would you do if you got to her room and she was gone? No Daughter but you could still hear her calling. Little Girl Lost asks precisely that; it seems the little girl is in a parallel universe.
The parents “scientist” neighbor and friend figures out that the little girl left our world and entered the fourth dimension. The father enters the dimension and retrieves the little Girl and her dog before the universe collapses.
The Simpsons paid homage to this episode in Homer³ during the Treehouse of Horror VI. In the segment, Homer hides from another of Patti and Selma’s vacation videos ends up in a portal in another dimension.
Homer is stuck in the dimension and now in 3d and the universe collapses. Bart goes to save Homer but is pulled back into the Simpsons Universe.
Homer ends up in the real world hilariously near the Erotic Cake bakery.
Perchance to Dream-Season 1 Episode 9
A man goes to a psychiatrists office telling him that if he goes to sleep, he will die. The Man states he hasn’t slept has a weak hard, and when he dreams, he enters a nightmare world where a woman named Maya is trying to kill him. The man before going to the psychiatrist has been up for 80 hours by using drugs. The man sees the psychiatrist’s receptionist thinks its Maya jumps out the window. He lets out a terrible scream it turns out that the Man died minutes after going to the psychiatrist’s office.
IMDB Synopsis
A fatigued man fights to stay awake as he explains to a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep, it will trigger a nightmare, which will cause his heart to fail.
Famous Homages: Batman the Animated Series Perchance to Dream
As per Wikipedia
“Bruce Wayne awakes in a seemingly idyllic dream world in which his parents are still alive, and he never became Batman.”
The Hitchhiker-Season 1 Episode 16
In the Episode, a woman named Nan is driving trying to reach her destination where she see’s a hitchhiker asking for a ride. She is driving from Manhattan cross-country to California. She had a minor incident where her car lost a tire. No matter what she does she sees the hitch-hiker and her life is a loop. The end is a great twist she calls home and is told that she was dead…. Nan has been dead since the minor incident, Nan’s car turned over, and she died after she finds out she is dead after finding out about her death she is at peace and goes into the afterlife.
IMBD Synopsis
A young woman driving cross country becomes frantic when she keeps passing the same man on the side of the road. No matter how fast she drives, the man is always up ahead, hitching her for a ride.
My feeling the whole episode cross-country trip is taking place in purgatory classic twilight zone twist in an episode filled with tension. The Musical score of this episode aides the tension build up. This story may have started the car journey trope where the person’s trying to get home has been dead the whole time.
Growing pains paid homage to this episode in a Halloween special.
Nothing in the Dark-Season 3 Episode 16
A woman has been fighting death for a long time is afraid that Death is at her door in the form of an injured policeman (Robert Redford). She will not let him in just in case he is death as she is afraid to die. However, seeing the injured man she lefts him in eventually discovering that he is death. She dies peacefully with Death taking her away. The Episodes end is sweet but the terror the women felt made it tension-filled and scary.
IMDB Synopsis
An old woman has fought with death a thousand times and has always won. But now she finds herself afraid to let a wounded policeman in her door for fear he is Mr. Death. Is he?
This is the happiest scary episode of the Twilight Zone, notable features Robert Redford as the police officer/death. Even though it’s a happy ending, it still scared me as a child as death could be anyone.
Mirror Image-Season 1 Episode 21
“Whats on the other side of the Mirror.”
From IMDB
While waiting in a bus station, Millicent Barnes has a strange feeling that her doppelganger is trying to take over her life.
This episode brings doppelgangers to life as well as mirror dimensions, Millicent isn’t crazy, but the people around her don’t believe her and have her committed. In the end, there is a man trying to help her; the man thinks she’s crazy however at the end the man meets his doppelganger and the story starts again.
Night Call-Season 5 Episode 19
A Women keeps getting calls in the middle of the night not knowing who is calling her. The person on the phone doesn’t leave a message. The telephone company finds that the phone the woman is getting calls on isn’t plugged in. It turns out the calls are coming from a dead fiance who died in a terrible accident. She did not treat her fiance well but looks forward to the calls.
The Call is coming from the house trope
IMDB Synopsis
Telephone calls begin to haunt a disabled elderly woman.
This is the third episode to feature Gladys Cooper. Another great fan favorite episode.
There is nothing like the Twilight Zone who knew Tension, Music, and twists could scare the bejesus out of all of us. The Twilight Zone is classic scary sci-fi television at its best.
Those are our 10 Scariest Twilight Zone Episode whats your favorite scary Twilight Zone Episodes let us know in the comments below.
