Nothing stirs up a chill down your back quite like the cult classic TV show The Twilight Zone. When it wasn't trying to scare us to death it also raised a closer look at humanity and themes of society that we all deal with. There hasn't been a show since (or even it's own reboots) which has captured the true haunting nature of the original Rod Serling, monochromatic tv series.
One of the things the show does best though is simply scaring us silly. Time travel, ghost flights, and living mannequins are all on the menu today as we rank the 10 most spine-chilling episodes of The Twilight Zone...
A Hundred Yards Over The Rim
In the unforgiving time of wagon trains in the mid 19th century, Christian Horn and his family across the United States to find a place to settle. With a sick son in tow, they become desperate to find any source of civilization to help their child. In the usual way of The Twilight Zone however, nothing goes as planned. Transported ahead in time to the 1960's he is immediately in shock over trucks, power lines, and paved roads.
This episode focuses partly on the rest stop owners who find Christian and give him medicine and help from being in the desert for weeks. The real terror is when he realizes the date, and is sent into a frenzy after the reality of his situation comes to him. This is a must-watch for any fan of "fish out of water" stories and illustrates how terrifying that can be.
Eye Of The Beholder
If any episode of The Twilight Zone was ahead of its time, this one would be it. A scared and traumatized woman named Janet is undergoing a procedure to make her look more "normal" and avoid constant ridicule. We are led to believe this is due to some mutation or scar, and the doctors are simply trying to help her. This is far from the case as she's told if the procedure doesn't work she would be cast out of their society.
What makes this episode so truly grim is how close we could get to a scenario much like this one. Where a group of people decide what is acceptable beauty or not. This lends to the chilling reveal at the end, which we'll save for you to experience.
Time Enough At Last
Reading books for pleasure is a pastime that has seen a significant decrease in the last few decades and this exact activity is what Henry Bemis longs to do. Between work and home life he can never spare more than a minute to crack open the pages, this changes however when he sneaks down into the bank vault at his job to read.
After an extremely loud and jolting explosion he is surprised to emerge and find the world destroyed and all the time he could want to read the books that are left behind. However, reading is not so easy without your sight. With his glasses breaking, he is left near-blind in a pile of books he can never see again.
I Shot An Arrow Into The Air
Sometimes the scariest thing we can experience is a lack of understanding, this tale perfectly uses that fear to its advantage. A few brave astronauts crash land on what they assume is an asteroid far from where they intended. With limited supplies and water, the crew begins to question their situation and how (if at all) they will survive. This leads to each one of the men turning on each other, assuming they are out to sabotage the others.
The ending, however, is the very definition of a classic twist as the last man standing realizes they are not in fact on some distant rock, but still on Earth, just a few hundred miles from where they launched.
Nightmare At 20,000 Feet
Planes and paranoia are not fantastic bedfellows as illustrated by this terrifying story. Not only is this one of the most famous episodes of the show but it also features William Shatner as a man who believes the airplane he is on is being sabotaged by a creature. The slow burn is utilized perfectly here, as he slowly becomes harder to talk down and be rationalized with.
For anyone who has felt this feeling and even those who haven't this is a slow-burning yet successful telling of a descent into madness that ultimately leads to a grim conclusion.
The Shelter
After an apparent announcement of a nuclear attack on a small town, the residents all flee to find safety, except for one man on the block who built a bomb shelter. Things slowly go south however and panic begins to set in, causing the entire neighborhood to turn on the family in the shelter. This is yet another episode that perfectly sums up fears that all of us have had, especially in the years after the Second World War.
The final few minutes of this episode are eerie and make you question who your friends and neighbors really are.
Of Late, I Think Of Cliffordville
If changing the past for your own gain is a lesson we can learn from, then this cautionary tale of greed and hubris is one you can't miss. A man is taken back to his childhood home by the devil, so he can make his life even better with his current knowledge. He soon realizes that his mass fortunes were made on other people's ideas and work, and is forced to face the consequences of his actions back in the present. What is truly terrifying about this is how close we can all be to putting ourselves on a pedestal and forgetting sometimes even bad choices can have a positive outcome.
The After Hours
Simply trying to buy a gift for her mother, a woman is taken to a strange ninth floor in a bustling department store by an all too helpful elevator operator. She finds it empty save for one clerk who has exactly what she needs, a golden thimble. Soon she realizes that the people helping her are the very same mannequins in the storefront below.
The idea of living window dummies has been used a lot in horror and sci-fi but this episode turns it on its head in a wild twist you won't see coming a mile away, making this a creepy and satisfying watch.
The Hitch-Hiker
Road trips are usually fun affairs that always have a few hiccups unless there's a strange man following you asking for ride. Nan who is traveling to California for vacation gets into a minor accident that is a nuisance but she shakes off easily. That is until she begins to see a hitch-hiker every hundred miles or so, he's always there no matter how far she drives.
Eventually realizing she can't escape him she calls home, only to find out that she may not even have walked away from the accident at all. Paranoia is at the forefront here and the late Inger Stevens plays this role perfectly.
Deaths-Head Revisited
Nothing quite says "spine-chilling" like a former Nazi revisiting the camp at which he used to torture innocent lives. He is eventually halted in his stroll when he's put on trial by the very people he killed. This one may be a hard watch for many but its impact is clearly there and remains a haunting look at a dark part of history. The former Captain may have gotten more than he bargained for however when he's sentenced to be driven mad for the rest of his life. No explanation is needed in this case as to why this is at the top of our list.