Twilight Zone: The Movie

Summary

“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 directors chosen are as strong a list as any could have compiled: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, and Joe Dante. Each one of the directors is incredibly competent on their own and have crafted some of my favorite films of all time. Two of the screenplays for segments in the film were written by masterful 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 popular films twice (I Am Legend, The Omega Man.) Unfortunately, Twilight Zone: The Movie is not a cohesive masterwork like one would hope. I reviewed the picture digitally while celebrating the work of Joe Dante a few years ago, but Warner has recently re-released their long out-of-print Blu-ray that originally came out in 2007. Given that this is the exact same release from the early years of Blu-ray discs, expectations should be somewhat tempered for those who want to add the film to their collection.

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 more 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 when a helicopter stunt went horribly wrong. 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 that occurred, the resulting segment was still pretty weak. 

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 much 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 great. Utilizing character actors like Kevin McCarthy and William Schalle, this segment is very well crafted. It’s weird and likely to scare children and still a lot of fun in 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 reworked so perfectly that it breathes new life into it. John Lithgow is a great actor and he steals the entire movie in his moments onscreen with a very loud and neurotic performance. 

My recommendation on this film would be that it is worth a rental, but I am not convinced that the picture works as a whole. For completists of the series, or of the directors involved, the latter two segments are the two that really work.

Video

Presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio in 1080p with a VC-1 encode, Twilight Zone: The Movie definitely shows its age given that this disc is a reprint of the disc from 2007. Fans of the film who missed out on that OOP disc will be happy to have the film in their collections, but they need to temper their expectations. The picture could be much more vibrant if given a new transfer, and the encode is only serviceable. 

Audio

This LPCM MA 5.1 track is similar to the video transfer. It is serviceable and at times pretty darn effective, but one can’t help but think about how much better it could sound now. 

Supplements:

Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.25/5

Audio – 3.5/5

Supplements – .5/5

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 made something that I dislike with a passion, 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 on the promise of how great this anthology could have been. Warner’s newly reprinted Blu-ray is the same VC-1 encoded release from 2007 that has been out of print for a while. I am happy that they have given the film a re-release for those who missed the disc, but expectations should be tempered.