Twilight Zone: The Movie

Summary

Note: This review is solely of the film itself which I viewed digitally. The Blu-ray has gone out of print and sadly I do not own it. If I purchase it in the future, I will update this review with technical specs.

“Do you want to see something really scary?”

In 1982, Steven Spielberg helped to assemble a dream team of directors to film updated versions of some of the great episodes of The Twilight Zone for a theatrical release. The idea itself was sound. The directors chosen are as strong a list as any could be compiled: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, and Joe Dante. Each one of the directors is incredibly competent on their own and have contributed some of my favorite films of all time. Two of the screenplays for segments were written by the master writer Richard Matheson. He wrote some of the best episodes for the series itself and is well known for penning the novella I Am Legend which was adapted into well known films twice (I Am Legend, The Omega Man.) Unfortunately, Twilight Zone: The Movie is not the cohesive masterwork that one would hope. 

The introductory sequence, directed by John Landis, stars Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd. They play companions on a road trip whose tape deck goes out while in a remote area at night. Things get strange as they try to frighten each other.

The first sequence, directed by John Landis, is loosely based on “Deaths-Head Revisited” and “A Quality of Mercy.” Vic Morrow stars as Bill Connor, a hateful man who is passed over for a promotion. The promotion goes to a Jewish man Bill works with. When Bill joins his friends at a bar, he makes a scene with his racist rhetoric. Bill is asked to leave. When he steps out of the bar, Bill finds himself in a place where he experiences all of the prejudice that he has been projecting on others.

The second sequence, directed by Steven Spielberg, is an adaptation of the episode “Kick the Can.” At Sunnyvale Retirement Home for the elderly, the denizens of the home find themselves given a chance to play a game of kick the can that causes a magical effect. Scatman Crothers stars as the whimsical impetus of change in their lives.

The third sequence, directed by Joe Dante, is an adaptation of “It’s a Good Life.” When Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan) accidentally bumps her car into the bicycle of Anthony, she offers to drive him home to his family. Upon her arrival, the family (Kevin McCarthy and others) ask her to join them for dinner. Cartoons are playing throughout the entire house. She soon realizes that there are very strange things happening at the house, and that the boy who brought her there may be the reason why.

The fourth sequence, directed by George Miller, is an adaptation of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” A nervous and analytical statistician (John Lithgow) boards a flight. As the flight experiences a severe thunderstorm in the clouds, the man becomes hysterical when he believes he sees something on the wing attempting to crash the plane.

Twilight Zone: The Movie is a noble attempt, but it is one of the most uneven anthology films from the Eighties. The film itself had the specter of a horrible helicopter accident that may have doomed the project from the start. In a terrible turn of events, actor Vic Morrow and two children perished in the accident. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to push forward after the death of one of the principal actors in the film. The good news is that the third and fourth segment of the film are fantastic and largely redeem the film. The bad news is that the first and second segment don’t quite work.

The first segment by Landis never could have worked as an opener to an anthology film. It could have worked as a standalone episode of a show, but it is just way too dreary to open the film. Out of all of the amazing Twilight Zone stories, I have no idea why this was the chosen direction for a narrative. Also – if you have children that you don’t want to learn every racist term, avoid this segment completely. I love John Landis as a director, and I hate that after all his hard work and the tragedy the resulting segment is still not great. 

I try my best to not rag on films too hard, mainly choosing to accentuate the positive, because I know how hard it is to create something special, but the second segment by Spielberg is actually way worse than the first segment. This is one of the few times that I can recall Spielberg delivering something unwatchable. I love Spielberg, but trust me – this segment should be skipped entirely. 

If you skip to the latter half of the film, you will see what this film could have been. The Joe Dante directed segment is so much fun. Utilizing character actors like Kevin McCarthy and William Schalle, this segment is great. Kathleen Quinlan and Jeremy Licht are both perfect in their roles. It’s weird and likely to scare children and a lot of fun the way that a great Twilight Zone episode should feel. It would be the best segment in the film, but the final segment by George Miller is even better. “Terror at 20,000 Feet” is one of the best remembered episodes from The Twilight Zone, but it is delivered so perfectly that it breathes new life into it. John Lithgow is such a great actor and he steals the entire movie.

My recommendation on this film would be that it is worth a rental, but the latter two segments are the two that really work.

Overall – 3/5

Twilight Zone:The Movie is really uneven, but the segments by George Miller and Joe Dante are both fantastic. I grew up watching the series as a child, and I am sad to report that this film does not quite hit the nail on the head. This is one of the few times where Spielberg’s aim was way off, and Landis’s film was ruined by both tragedy and an overly grim script. Fans of Joe Dante and George Miller will still want to watch the latter half of the film which really delivers and shows exactly how great this anthology could have been.