Creepiest anthology TV series episodes?

Cafe Society
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50s and 60s, as well as 70s or 80s TV, was known for its anthology series, that often relied on morals (some complex, others not so much) and unexpected/twist endings. Shows like “The Twilight Zone”, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “Amazing Stories”, “Tales from the Crypt”, “Tales from the Darkside”, etc. Most of those TV shows were of horror/thriller genre, with heavy topping of fantasy and science-fiction. Some of their episodes were truly disturbing and memorable, and are often talked about to this day. What episodes of the anthology series would you say were the creepiest?

At first, I only planned to focus on the episodes from one of those anthology series, but then I decided to broaden the scope. Here are my picks, let me know do you agree, and what are your suggestions. I will try to avoid spoilers, but there will be some.

Spoiler alert

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” from “The Twilight Zone”-Pretty intense and intriguing, with a very creative and unexpected, as well as disturbing and thought-provoking resolution. I think the ending would have worked just as well with foreign agents or terrorists, rather than aliens, trying to turn people against each other and causing havoc.

“Howling Man” from “The Twilight Zone”-a bit predictable, but still quite scary and intense, with an effective ending and a good moral. Special effects were quite good for the time too.

“I Am the Night-Color Me Black”, also from “The Twilight Zone”-the idea itself (thick darkness descending over the town during the daytime for no apparent reason) is sinister and intriguing enough on its own, and the build-up is done really well too. You keep expecting Jagger to be saved, and for the darkness to clear out by the end. Jagger getting executed and the darkness spreading throughout the world (over other places of hate) was a grim but powerful way to end it. The closing monologue is also brilliant.

I still wonder what that darkness was, exactly? (I know it is a metaphor, I’m talking about an in-universe explanation.) Was it God sending his message to the world? Or all that “evil energy” built up over the years (from all the hate) taking up tangible form? Or just some metaphysical “glitch in the Matrix”, sensical yet inexplicable? And how will the whole thing turn out? Will the humanity finally see the error of their ways, leading to the world changing for the better, or is that darkness a sign of the upcoming Apocalypse? Or will it simply clear on its own after a few days, with everything returning to normal (like in “The Happening”-which would have worked better as an episode of such anthology series than the whole movie)? Who knows…

“Time Out” from “Twilight Zone: The Movie”-This is from the anthology horror movie rather than “The Twilight Zone” the series, but I still thought I’d mention it. Just the thought of suddenly finding yourself in the Nazi Germany, being in a bar one moment and then in Third Reich the next, is terrifying. And it only gets worse from there. Knowing that the actor playing the protagonist, Vic Morrow, died in a helicopter accident on set (together with two child actors) only makes it more unsettling. The ending really got to me. Even though the main character was a racist, I really don’t think he deserved what happened to him. There were some rumors that the ending was supposed to be different, but they had to drop the original idea because of Vic Morrow’s death. However, the director has since denied that theory, claiming that the segment was always supposed to end that way, though some scenes featuring child actors who died in the accident were cut in post-production.

“Incident in a Small Jail” from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”-Simple yet terrifying premise, fast-paced and both exciting and creepy, with a chilling conclusion. Still, I think that the second twist at the end wasn’t necessary. In my opinion, it would have been “better” had the episode ended with Leon being dragged away from the cell by a lynch mob while he fruitlessly screams for help. That would have been an even more disturbing way to end the episode, since it would mean that both the bad guy got away and an innocent man got killed. The way it actually ended, only one of those things played out.

“The Creeper” from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”-excellent build-up and atmosphere, though the ending (while still disturbing) is a bit predictable. Creepy janitor is a nice touch.

“The Ikon of Elijah” from “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”-Just thinking about spending the rest of your life in that tiny, dark room, with no space but that small confinement and no mental stimulation other than four stone walls (and the ikon), gives me the chills. Even though the protagonist is a bad person. What an awful fate.

It is not like he has any chance of escaping either, since he definitely doesn’t have an access to anything that could be used to pick a lock or dig a tunnel, and the monks will probably never even enter that room after locking him in there, they will probably just slip him food and oil for the lamp through the small tray in the door, for the rest of his life. Yikes.

“Abra Cadaver” from “Tales from the Crypt”-this one is full of terrifying moments and gruesome imagery, but the ending is seriously fucked up, especially with the victim’s blood-curdling screams at the end.

Your thoughts and picks?

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I always thought “The Zanti Misfits” from The Outer Limits was very creepy.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4k3m07

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There are many great “Twilight Zone” episodes, but for creepy, I thought Serling’s next series, “Night Gallery”, was much better.

Some of the episodes that I recall:
“The Doll” (makes Chucky look like a Barbie doll :wink:
“Cool Air” from the HP Lovecraft story
“The Caterpillar”

Even the pilot “The Cemetery” was really scary

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“Where the Woodbine Twineth” from the Alfred Hitchcock hourly series. Most of the Hitchcock programs didn’t involve something supernatural, usually a story with a plot twist. “Woodbine” was one of the rare exceptions. Without giving away much, in case anyone wants to see it, it’s about a little girl and her doll.

And no anthology series involving a doll ever turns out well!

Side note:

Back in the early days of IMDB, there was a forum called “I Need To Know,” in which you could post your fragments of half-remembered movies and television programs, and the experts would try to identify them. This was one of the most requested programs that people could remember having seen, but couldn’t recall the title.

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Creepiest?

That one with the ear wig. “It laid eggs!” Don’t even remember which show it was, and I’m still creeped out.

The Man From The South, by Roald Dahl, in almost any filmed version, is up there.

Maybe not as creepy, but chilling - the Alfred Hitchcock episode “Dip in the Pool”. Just now found that it, too, was written by Roahd Dahl. I’m not surprised!

I’ll disagree about “Time Out”. I hated that segment in the Movie. it didn’t seem like TZ Justice. It was too much. Whatever Vic Morrow’s character did (and I seem to remember he was just a garden variety bigot, not a mass murderer) the punishment he got from the omnipotent TZ was just over the top.

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I vaguely recall at TV show that had that as the ending, was that night gallery episode the caterpiller as mentioned by cormac262? Looking online the plots seem to match.

In the 80s there was a remake of ‘alfred hitchcock presents’, the episode ‘final escape’ has a very creepy ending.

Also the tales from the crypt episode television terror was the closest to actual horror for that anthology show.

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Yes, that one always stuck with me.

ETA Ninja’ed by Wesley, I think

We’re using a spoiler alert? Much of this stuff is 30 years old or more.

Although it wasn’t from TV, there was a film (Tales from the Crypt, 1972) that had one particularly good segment.

Less recognized among the offerings of that time, I used to watch Darren McGavin in “The Night Stalker.” The one where he’s trying to pour salt into the zombie’s mouth and it wakes up… There was such a great dynamic with boss Tony (Simon Oakland) always busting his chops etc. Loved Darren McGavin as the bumbling, weaselly every man.

A lot of the Twilight Zone episodes seemed aimed at morals. Like the one where Peter Falk plays a Castro-like dictator who succumbs to paranoia. Or the one where the guy hits and runs from an accident, killing a boy but letting his rival take the fall. But then his car (conscience) acts up. The radio comes on in the middle of the night with a broadcast about the accident and he can’t shut it up. The car leaves him no peace. It ends up (driverlessly) following him down the street till he gets in and it takes him to the police station.

And there were some full of irony, where Burgess Meredith suddenly has all the time he wants to read his books but breaks his glasses. Jack Klugman beats Jonathan Winters at pool to become the best of all time…but wait, now he has to defend his title indefinitely, so that backfired.

I remember looking forward to “Tales from the Darkside” episodes but scrolling back through them, I only remember a few episodes.

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I’ll second that.* It’s a Good Life *has to be the creepiest Twilight Zone episode.

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Night Gallery! And with the wrong title, no wonder I could never find it. And with Laurence Harvey!

Another one, though this was a made for TV movie anthology, was the one with Karen Black and the Zuni fetish doll.

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Alfred Hitchcock - An Unlocked Window. Nurses in a large house during a storm with a serial killer on the loose.

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Anthology series like what you describe were a staple of old time radio before they were on TV. Plenty of lists of creepiest or scariest radio episodes can be found online (e.g. here, here, here).

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I remember an episode of Night Gallery which featured a story called “Sins of the Father” which starred Richard Thomas and Geraldine Page. I happened to watch it on TV when I was about 7 years old and it scared the living hell out of me. I might have to watch it again just to see if it still holds up for me. I looked up some other people’s remembrances of that episode and it seems like a standout to them as well.

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Twilight Zone…‘Night Call’ … (I admit right up front I was traumatized as a child by disturbing telephone calls)…an old lady gets strange nighttime telephone calls. I won’t spoil it. But I watched this episode alone some years ago on a hot summer afternoon and was so creeped out I had to get in my car and go hang out in the park till the family came home.

Second: Also TZ - Ingrid Bergman driving, alone, and coming across a man who was following her. Every rest stop. Seeing him hitchhiking alongside the road. And finally he was in the back seat of her car. Not total surprising who he turned out to be, but chilling!

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The Twilight Zone with Agnes Moorehead an the tiny ‘aliens’ is another great one. Twilight Zones are all over the place in terms of quality but sometimes the acting and directing take an otherwise basic plot and make something more out of it.

ETA: The episode is The Invaders.

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I think you mean the lovely Inger Stevens on the second one.

I’ll have to check out the other one. According to wikipedia it’s based on a story by Richard Matheson. In case the name doesn’t mean anything, snipping from wikipedia, he wrote:

I Am Legend
16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and “Steel”,
1971 short story “Duel” as a screenplay directed by Steven Spielberg
Seven of his novels and short stories have been adapted as motion pictures: The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man),
Hell House (filmed as The Legend of Hell House),
What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time),
A Stir of Echoes,
Button, Button (filmed as The Box).
Cold Sweat was based on his novel Riding the Nightmare,
Les seins de glace (“Icy Breasts”) was based on his novel Someone is Bleeding.

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Just Asking Questions @6: I’m with you on “Man From the South,” which was one of Ronald Dahl’s little morbid masterpieces.

The best adaptation is the 1950s AH starring Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen, and THAT will get you on your way to victory in many “Six Degrees of Separation” jousts. But there’s a lot to be said for the 1980s version starring John Huston, simply because Huston is so damned good in EVERYTHING. Also, the girl upgrades from the 1950s dowdy dress to a push-up, fishnetted showgirl outfit, and Neile Adams is upgraded to Melanie Griffith.

From looking up those things I see there are several other tv versions. I’ll be checking those out later.

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Speaking of Roald Dahl, have “William and Mary” or “Royal Jelly” ever been filmed? Those are two of the creepiest short stories I’ve read.

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The Zuni fetish doll story was also from a Richard Matheson short story “Prey”, very good.

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Penguin Modern Classics has put out a trade paperback edition of The Best of Richard Matheson.. Highly recommended.