![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/jo_tz.jpg\" "\\"jo_tz\\"")
<\/a>\nOkay, let’s get into it. Here are my top ten (links are to Wikipedia pages, which have spoilers):<\/p>\n
“The Four of Us Are Dying<\/a><\/b>” Not especially scary (as the Zone<\/i> goes) but this one has incredible mood and atmosphere (in a heavily abstracted film noir<\/i> kind of style) and, like all first season episodes, has the plangent Bernard Herriman score rather than the better-known four-note-motif that came later. (You all know composer Bernard Herriman: his first movie score was Citizen Kane<\/i> and his last movie score was Taxi Driver.<\/i> Beat that!)<\/p>\n “The Hitch-Hiker<\/a><\/b>” Totally terrifying. Reminiscent of the opening half-hour of Psycho<\/i> (in more ways than one). Unusual in that the protagonist narrates. “Going my way?”<\/p>\n “Mirror Image<\/a><\/b>” This one is my favorite example of a phenomenon that makes the Zone<\/i> immune to modern updates (in my opinion): With the black-and-white photography, the cheap sets, and the “slice-of-life” depiction of early ‘Sixties life, Zone<\/i> episodes are weird and creepy before anything happens<\/i>\u2014just the act of setting the scene (and creating what contemporary viewers experience as humdrum normalcy) can fill us modern viewers with dread. Here, it’s a lonely upstate New York bus station in the small hours of the night.<\/p>\n “The After Hours<\/a><\/b>” See above remarks viz.<\/i> 1960s normalcy. This time it’s a department store after closing time, and an elevator that goes to a floor that isn’t there…<\/p>\n “The Howling Man<\/a><\/b>” Fucking terrifying, and possibly my favorite. Executed in a shamelessly baroque, Gothic style with frequent drunken tilted-camera angles and a protagonist\/narrator who’s totally insane (or is he?)<\/p>\n “Twenty-Two<\/a><\/b>” This one’s marred by its use of videotape (rather than film) which was a cost-cutting measure that crippled some Zone<\/i> episodes, giving them an unfortunate “soap opera” vibe (which doesn’t do much to blunt the power of the idea).<\/p>\n “The Grave<\/a><\/b>” This one’s got a wonderfully evocative “Ambrose Bierce” tonality that I totally dig. It’s that dusty, windy, moonlit Old West that only exists on film, shot on indoor sets. Lee Marvin has to prove his courage, and probably wishes he didn’t.<\/p>\n “The Midnight Sun<\/a><\/b>” An unusually well-crafted episode, despite its limited scenario. I love this one because its closing moments (and Serling’s narration) highlight the conceptual brilliance of the series itself.<\/p>\n “The Dummy<\/a><\/b>” A truly terrifying shocker, which stars Cliff Robertson (and is one of two Zones<\/i> featuring the same spectacularly creepy “ventriloquist’s dummy” prop).<\/p>\n “Stopover in a Quiet Town<\/a><\/b>” A little bit more whimsical, but, again, the closing twist and ending narration bring it home like nobody’s business.<\/p>\n Honorable Mention:<\/i> “Printer’s Devil<\/a><\/b>” One of the few Season 4, hour-long episodes that works (the show was unable to function properly in this longer format, in my opinion). Burgess Meredith makes my favorite of his many appearances.<\/p>\n I tried to focus on episodes I had a particular fondness for (or terror of). Of course I also love the following “gold standard” classics:<\/p>\n “Third from the Sun<\/a><\/b>“ Okay, let’s get into it. Here are my top ten (links are to Wikipedia pages, which have spoilers): “The Four of Us Are Dying” Not especially scary (as the Zone goes) but this one has incredible mood and atmosphere (in a heavily abstracted film noir kind of style) and, like all first season episodes, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horrorthon_posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41550"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41563,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550\/revisions\/41563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
“The Eye of the Beholder<\/a><\/b>“
“The Invaders<\/a><\/b>“
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?<\/a><\/b>“
“It’s a Good Life<\/a><\/b>“
“To Serve Man<\/a><\/b>“
“Living Doll<\/a><\/b>” (which is how we got here in the first place)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"