THE FILM & WATER PODCAST
Episode 32: TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE
Host Rob Kelly welcomes back longtime Nuclear Sub DEREK WILLIAM CRABBE (FANHOLES PODCAST) to discuss the 1983 sci-fi/horror anthology TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE!
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I’ve never seen this movie, but I remember hearing that after the disaster during filming, Steven Spielberg actively tried to get John Landis banned from directing anything in Hollywood. I have no idea if that’s true or not, but I think it’s notable that after Landis’ Home Run Derby of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London, and Trading Places, once you get to Twilight Zone on his imdb page the list becomes a whole lot of music videos, documentaries, shorts, and TV episodes for the next five years (with the notable exceptions of Three Amigos and Coming to America), and then movies nobody cares about for the rest of the list. Maybe Landis didn’t go to jail for the deaths on the set of Twilight Zone, but it forever knocked him out of the realm of greatest directors.
Yeah his career never really recovered, although I don’t know whether that’s because of the infamy or his was just one of those careers that flames out. When he came back and did BLUES BROTHERS 2000, it was a disaster, so maybe like a lot of directors his “time” was over.
It’s been years since I’ve seen this, and I think part of it was because, as Derek put it, I learned “how the sausage was made”. I seem to recall SOMETHING about the controversy surrounding the flick, from Entertainment Tonight or one of those shows. That always seemed to be on in the evenings in my house as a kid. I didn’t realize how grisly it was until my adult years. That has put this film in a kind of taboo place in my mind. For some reason, I’ve never really transferred that over to other Landis projects, but maybe I should. I’m kind of like you Rob. I avoid Mel Gibson films now, but it’s somewhat hypocritical of me to NOT do the same to Landis. I have the same problem with Jeffery Jones being in many of my favorite films.
Having not seen the movie in decades, and having watched quite a bit of classic Twilight Zone episodes over the years, I have to say the endings of these vignettes are a bit more hopeful than many of the originals. Again, Derek pointed out there was no hope for Bill Mumy’s victims in the original version of that story, and the bitter old man was left lonely and with no nope in the original “Kick The Can”. This is definitely Spielberg in his smaltzy-mode here.
Shatner’s character is taken off as a mad man, but Serling tells us he WILL be vindicated when the damage to the plane is noted during the following investigation. So I guess his ending is better than an ominous ambulance ride with Demon Akroyd!
As for the Morrow segment, the way it ends in the actual film sounds more like many of the downer Twilight Zone episodes, but obviously they did cut that short. I’m not overly familiar with the Dean Stockwell episode it’s based on. Off to Netflix!
Great episode, and I hope you and Derek do cover Tales from the Darkside, although I’ve never seen that one. The opening to the TV show used to scare the beejeezus out of me! Don’t forget all of those great Amicus horror anthology films, like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror, based on the EC Comics. I watched Amicus’ Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors and Asylum on Amazon Prime this weekend!
Chris
“Demon Akroyd” sounds like it could have been a meme if the 80’s had been full of social media.
Ooh I’d love to cover the Tales from the Crypt movie, great suggestion E2C!
I am currently teaching an undergrad course on “Television as Popular Culture” at BGSU and I always include a session on Serling & the Twilight Zone. Whenever my classes watch “Time Enough at Last” there is always an audible gasp when Burgess Meredith drops and breaks his glasses. It still packs a wallop!
I’m not done listening to this episode yet so I don’t know if you touch on episodes from the TV series not featured in the film. I’d urge everyone to see the 1959 episode “Walking Distance” with future Oscar-winner Gig Young. I think it’s as powerful as anything ever seen on TV.
I won’t post the youtube link here but there is some footage from the tragic accident from the movie set online.
FYI: Dana Gould’s most recent podcast has a section devoted to Serling.
I was in high school when the accident happened and I remember it and the surrounding (involuntary) manslaughter trial well. Landis never seemed to take responsibility, as the person in charge of the set, for the events. That lowers him in my eyes. However, I can watch his films as I don’t necessarily see it as willful, as much as sad. With Mel Gibson, I can watch older stuff; but, hadn’t really been attracted to much that he had done in the last couple of decades; so, the rants and the behavior seemed to by symptomatic of what I perceived as his decline. There are some things I just can’t watch anymore. I can’t see Bill Cosby without thinking of the things he has admitted to, let alone the multiple accusations. I used to be a fan of pro rwestling; but, cannot watch a Chris Benoit match, knowing that he killed his family and then himself. I can’t see Owen Hart without thinking about him plummeting from the ceiling of Kemper Arena, especially knowing that the whole point of the stunt was not to lower him spectacularly from the ceiling; but, to parody a similar entrance by WCW wrestler Sting and have Hart make the entrance, then trip and fall after he unhooked himself, in the ring. He was killed in a stunt that was supposed to produce a pratfall, that he could have performed by just jumping over the top rope, as he often entered the ring.
Actually, the Owen Hart accident parallels the Twilight Zone case. In both cases, there was gross negligence that endangered a trusting performer, leading to their grisly death. Investigations, lawsuits and settlements followed,; and, the show went on (the movie was released and the wrestling PPV continued, after Hart had crashed to the ring). Both cases deprived children of their parents, though TZ deprived parents of their children, as well.
I’ve only seen the movie once, on tv. The tragedy made me not want to see it when it was released, not to mention I was cold to the idea of someone else doing Twilight Zone. I saw it on cable, in college and just thought it was “okay,” overall. You guys covered the best portions and I agree that Joe Dante had the best handle on the style of the original.
Twilight Zone was a series I didn’t get to see until my adult years, thanks to cable. It was not rerun in syndication packages where I lived, growing up in the 70s. It was always this legend I read and heard about and was amazing to watch, when I finally had access. The level of writing and acting that it showcase has never been reproduced in televison, to the same degree.
Regarding the gremlin on the plane:
I’m sure most everybody who listens is familiar with this, but since you brought up the mischievous gremlins from Looney Tunes, I figured I’d add this bit, too. I had always read stories of WW2 pilots blaming faulty planes and problems they would have while flying on gremlins getting into the works. This spiraled into tales about how when flying through thick cloud banks and fog gremlins would actually get onto a plane’s wing and begin tearing things apart. Always just kind of assumed this was an inspiration for the story, but I could be completely wrong.
Well, pilots would jokingly refer to gremlins, as a metaphor for mechanical failures and the like. Warner took that idea and came up with the Bugs Bunny cartoon. It kind of spiraled from there. I seem to recall reading that Warner had planned another Gremlin-based cartoon; but, ended up cancelling it.
I’ll comment as best I can from my phone so please excuse any typos. I saw this in the theater when I was a kid probably 5 or 6 times. I loved it as a kid. But I remember always thinking something was missing from the first installment. I always thought “Is that it?”. Being prob 10 when this came out I had no idea about the accident. It just seemed incomplete. I was such a fan of the movie I bought the awful soundtrack for the song playing on the jukebox ” Nights Are Forever”. I also loved Kick The Can & I knew Scatman from The Shining. Now how I was familiar with that movie I don’t know but I must’ve snuck up late one night and watched it on HBO or something. As a kid I found it fun and not the least bit boring. For It’s A Wonderful Life I always wondered why they didn’t use real cartoon characters. Years later I read they wanted to use Looney Toons but couldn’t get the rights. I believe Willoughby is also mentioned in this. The last segment? What can I say, it’s awesome and when I think of this I always think of NO SMOKING! As spelled out by the little girl. So much so that to this day when I see someone smoking in a nonsmoking area this line pops in my head. I bought it on DVD about 5 years ago at Best Buy but haven’t watched it yet. Will try to pull it out this weekend but I still have vent watched a single episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th that I bought the week it was released several years ago either.
Here’s a request: would love to hear your comments on Killer Klowns From Outerspace. Another one I bought on DVD but haven’t watched either since I first saw it back in 1988 or so.
Keep it up!!
Power Pal Mike B.!
I used to watch the show when I was a kid, but never the film. And because it anthologized adaptations of stories I’d already seen, I wasn’t drawn to it. You sell the Lithgow sequence rather well, so maybe some time.
Are you going to force Derek to review Cat’s Eye? Or VHS? Maybe just skip to Trick or Treat?
HOW LONG WILL HORROR ANTHOLOGY HELL LAST????
I’m waiting for Comedy Anthology Hell. Start with History of the World Part 1, move on to Amazon Woman on the Moon, and end with Kentucky Fried Movie.
AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON!! I love that movie!
Me, too, Rob. I haven’t seen it in many many years though.