DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Twilight Zone: The Movie

By Jeff Swindoll Oct 20, 2007, 11:55 GMT

Picture a director that brings the classic television show to the silver screen, but his trip into the Twilight Zone nearly scuttled his career as tragedy struck on the set. A gaggle of talented directors lend their talent to each segment.

“Do you want to see something really scary?”

Twilight Zone the movie is a film that goes down in infamy but not for anything that was seen on the screen. It nearly destroyed John Landis’ directorial career and certainly put it into a coma for a time. During the filming of his segment of the film, a helicopter stunt went wrong and star Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed. The film remakes some of the classic Twilight Zone episodes, but Landis’ contribution is original to the film (albeit inspired by the show). The prologue and first segment are directed by Landis, the second segment directed by Steven Spielberg, the third segment by Joe Dante, and the final segment directed by George Martin. The prologue finds two travelers (Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd) finding something really scary. The first segment finds a racist man (Vic Morrow) transported back in time and mistaken for the races that he is bigoted against. The second segment is a remake of the “Kick the Can” episode where a magical old man (Scatman Crothers) helps some nursing home residents remember their youth. The third segment is a remake of “It’s a Good Life” and finds a woman (Kathleen Quinlan) give a ride home to a young boy (Jeremy Licht) and find that the residents of his house (William Schallert, Kevin McCarthy, Patricia Berry, and Nancy Cartwright) have reason to be afraid. The final segment is a remake of the classic “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and finds a man (John Lithgow) seeing a gremlin on the plane’s wing and playing havoc with the engine. All of these feature narration by frequent Twilight Zone contributor Burgess Meredith. Landis’ segment is the one that seems the least effective. It’s okay, but from what I’ve read a more redeeming ending for Morrow’s character was in store, but his accidental death caused them to edit it as seen as those scenes had not yet been shot before he was killed on set. This seems to cast a pall over the episode. Spielberg’s contribution plays like an episode of Amazing Stories and some say that his inspiration for that series, which aired two years after the movie, came from working on this film. Dante’s segment features some Looney Tunes inspired cartoon violence and that picture of McCarthy holding a hat with a demonic rabbit popping out of it was featured in many magazines of the time (or so I recall). Miller’s segment is perhaps the best and improves upon the classic with some much better makeup effects (the original gremlin looked like a guy with a mushed face in a furry suit, if I recall correctly). The film does have some good segments, but those are the ones that were classic to begin with. The Twilight Zone is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special feature is the film’s 90-second theatrical trailer. It’s too bad none of the other directors didn’t sit down for an interview, but you can guess that Landis probably didn’t want to talk about it since it has many bad memories.

The Twilight Zone movie has its moments, but it pales in comparison with the classic series. The tragic events on set probably didn’t help matters either. It’s good to finally have it in widescreen and on DVD though. Twilight Zone - The Movie is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.