Ten Films To Celebrate National Twilight Zone Day
You’re experiencing a dimension of sight and sound
A series of shadows and lights, or digital illusions
You’re now entering
The Cinema Zone
May 11th is National Twilight Zone Day, which celebrates the critically acclaimed and beloved television series of the same name. Shortly after the television set became a household necessity, The Twilight Zone removed the comfort of the homes of millions for half an hour every week. It made families question their own realities time and time again. It’s blatant that the series has influenced television and cinema ever since: Black Mirror owes a great debt to the series, and many filmmakers have brought up the show in hindsight. Today, I’m going to bring up only nine of the countless examples (one film came before The Twilight Zone but applies here). These films are in no particular order.
Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock had his own perplexing series on at the time (Alfred Hitchcock Presents), which in itself likely influenced The Twilight Zone. The closest Hitchcock ever came to the other side — still before The Twilight Zone existed by one year — was Vertigo. A detective’s crippling fear consumes much of the film, until his case becomes his new obsession. By the grand finale, fate was played around with just one too many times. Vertigo is dreamy and removed enough to feel like it comes from another dimension, so the last scene is familiar yet phantasmal.
Get Out
Jordan Peele hosted the latest wave of The Twilight Zone, practically because he seemed like the best candidate after his breakout success with Get Out. What starts out like a dodgy meeting of a loved one’s parents takes a steep turn down abnormal lane. A blistering look at racial politics within a web of storytelling threads, Get Out’s trip into a disturbing parallel universe guarantees its placement on a list of this sort.
Dead Ringers
Two identical twin gynaecologists begin to fill in the voids of each other’s lives in this absurd David Cronenberg body horror. The premise alone is already bonkers, but the dark turns Dead Ringers take solidify this strange film as a classic ‘80s fear fest. Some Twilight Zone episodes ease into their revelations of the abnormal, whereas others jump straight into a crazy premise. Dead Ringers is like the latter, and it refuses to back away from disturbing unknown territories even in its final minutes.
The Planet of the Apes
The first film in this series may be spoiled by now (I guarantee that even people who haven’t seen the film know the twist ending), but it definitely belongs on this list. The commentary within this science fiction staple is already stimulating, with the titular apes being the focal point of the film (showcasing the evil deeds of humanity). Once that final image gets burned into your head, it’s like any great Twilight Zone conclusion that pulls the rug from under you and changes the entire purpose of this journey.
Woman in the Dunes
Some Twilight Zone episodes boast a unique, non-relatable setting. A scientist gets trapped in a small town engulfed by sand in this Japanese New Wave opus. As he begins to go delirious, his nightmare turns into a dreamworld, which churns into a big philosophical question at the end of the film: does he abandon what he now knows in search of what he once was familiar with? Woman in the Dunes is just strange enough to feel of another universe, yet its profound conversation renders it a fable, much like many episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley’s satire would already make it onto this list just by its basic premise alone: a telemarketer learning to get by with his awful job by code switching. However, it’s that completely unpredictable twist that sends Sorry to Bother You into a whole different league of absurdity. Unafraid to turn into a completely different film in its final act, Sorry to Bother You is an exercise of meshing the familiar with the alien.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Either version will do. Technically the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers came out years before The Twilight Zone did, but still feels worthy of a spot on this list, especially with the possession of people that render them into living mannequins. Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake takes this premise to a whole different level, by including even stranger elements (lest we forget the dog sequence). It’ll be interesting to see the same story told pre and post The Twilight Zone, as well as during and after the abolishment of the Hollywood Code.
Lost Highway
Picking one David Lynch film for a Twilight Zone list is difficult, but for me Lost Highway takes the cake. It’s a mysterious dimension that operates very differently than the world that we know, especially with the ability to leap through time and physical configurations. A majority of Lost Highway involves these supernatural elements coexisting with the world that we know, so even the relatively “normal” parts feel like transmissions being sent to us.
Eyes Without a Face
Released just after the debut of The Twilight Zone, this French arthouse horror feels applicable to this list because of how insanely comfortable the film feels with its insane premise (a doctor who kidnaps patients to remove their faces to gift his daughter with a new face). Far gorier and twisted than even The Twilight Zone may be willing to go, Eyes Without a Face still checks off the box of twisted stories that feel like they’re real enough to exist in some iteration of our world (frightfully).
Ex Machina
What sells this film for me (to appear on this list) is the ending: the ultimate, unsolved Turing test. What if this did happen, and no one noticed? The rest of the film is still Twilight Zone worthy, with a gifted programmer driven to the point of love and insanity, being cooped up in a limited space and challenged by an egotistical mastermind and his hyperreal android. Ex Machina works with little to warp your mind, and sometimes that’s the exact same formula The Twilight Zone used to succeed.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.