These 10 Twilight Zone Episodes Still Scare Me

When it comes to classic television, there are a few shows that manage to maintain relevance in modern times despite being well above retirement age. The Twilight Zone has maintained that position for itself across time due to its anthology format, memorable plot lines, and some pure fear. Across five seasons and 156 episodes, including an entire season expanded to one-hour episodes, Rod Serling’s sci-fi/horror masterpiece entertained audiences. Even today, the series manages to captivate with its annual New Year’s marathon and has spawned its own dedicated streaming channel on platforms like Pluto TV.

All said, another reason for this longevity is the terror the show manages to conjure despite its age and the limitations of the period. While the cultural impact is undeniable, audiences today might be wary of labeling it “horror” in light of modern sensibilities. Serling and the team managed, however, leaving us with several episodes that can still leave a chill in your bones. Scroll down to read our 10 scariest Twilight Zone episodes to compare your notes and possibly even change your mind on what makes them terrifying.

“Time Enough at Last”

One of the bona fide classic Twilight Zone episodes sees Burgess Meredith of Batman and Rocky fame just trying to get a little reading in between his hours working at the local bank and dealing with his disappointed wife. That is until nuclear annihilation comes knocking and clears his slate.

Why the terror of a nuclear holocaust is bad enough for most, that’s not the source of the fright in this episode. It’s not even the final twist, where things seem perfect for Henry Bemis (Meredith) amongst his books. Instead, it really sticks with you due to its insistence that sometimes things can be lost and never replaced, even in your perfect reality. It also demonstrates the cruel fragility of “normal life,” as something as trivial as broken glasses can be just as devastating as the bombs that fell.

“The Hitch-Hiker”

The inevitability of death drives this episode following Nan Adams, played by Inger Stevens, and her torment at the hands of a hitchhiker played by Leonard Strong. It presents the simplest of stories, where the hitcher haunts a woman on a cross-country drive at every turn until it is finally revealed she has died and the hitcher is the personification of the Grim Reaper.

Death is frightening enough and something we will all face one day, but it is hard to deny this story is more horrifying for capturing the unknown of travel. If getting there is part of the journey, the oddities and stresses you see on the road provide the color. Everybody travels, but you have also never been more lonely than you are driving your car. And that loneliness makes the mind wander, sometimes to dark places.

The episode also hits on the inevitability of death. The road goes on forever, it never seems to stop. But death is always there, waiting for its moment, never stopping itself. When you’re facing the dark roads and late nights, these are the thoughts that creep in to keep you awake.

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”

A classic episode that manages to be relevant today despite its age and a change in global politics. “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” follows the neighbors of the titular street slowly descending into paranoia after a passing object they think is a meteor knocks out their power and creates talk of an alien invasion. From there, the street descends into pure chaos and neighbors accuse neighbors of being “invaders.”

Why this still manages to frighten isn’t due to the aliens invading or whatever nefarious plot they have in waiting after turning people against one another. Instead, it is frightening due to the brutal reality reflected by society today. The speed at which the neighbors descend into paranoia and fear might actually be slower than it would be in daily life.

When the next major disaster hits an area, look at how people react. The rush to label people looters, steal to meet their needs, and place blame hasn’t slowed down. If a Maple Street situation were to happen for real, it’s possible everything could burn before a week is out. It took less than a week for people to try robbing families after a major storm knocked out power in West Virginia only a few years ago. Think about that.

“The Howling Man”

This one still sends a chill down my spine for a simple reason: the howling. While everybody in this tale looks out of place, even for post-World War I Europe, the atmosphere is haunting. A dizzying storm plasters the countryside while an ancient castle pulls a traveler in for shelter. Within it is an imprisoned man who the monks claim to be the Devil, who howls and urges the traveler to free him.

The notion that the Devil is a man to be imprisoned has long been a feature in stories related to evil for quite a while, with the unsuspecting unleashing it onto the world. It also hints at the path to Hell being paved with good intentions.

But in the end, it is the atmosphere that transmits terror to the viewer. The never-ending howling and the sound of fury from the storm outside provide all of the chills the episode needs. It is really important once the Devil is freed and his true form is revealed because without it, things could be taken as silly. But with it, you can grasp that while the visual is silly, the heart of the issue is more ominous.

“It’s a Good Life”

When the monster central to your story is revealed to be a child, you’re disarmed by this Twilight Zone episode. But then you see how the world around him reacts, and you’re soon knee-deep in some sick nightmare concocted in the mind of a young boy. Anthony Fremon, played by Lost in Space star Bill Mumy, is no different than any spoiled kid you’ve met in your life on the surface. But below that, he has “godlike” powers and fuels them with his childlike desires.

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Dealing with a living god that can barely be reasoned with is a terrifying prospect alone. Make him a child and take away any hope of control, and you have a nightmare. The fear of being a new parent or being a bad parent is already strong for many, pushing the tension higher by adding the powers to the mix. You don’t even need that to be scared to death of a kid, so the frights are well intact. Not even tablet time can save you.

“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

Flying is terrible, especially with our modern hustle and bustle and safety concerns. During the time when “Nightmare” first premiered for The Twilight Zone, it was almost night and day compared to modern air travel. William Shatner was already scared for his life before he even looked out of the airplane window, imagine where he’d be after rushing through security, getting to his gate, and then remembering he was on Spirit Airlines. Just bone-chilling stuff.

But this episode remains a constant fear because it is completely out of the control of our main character. Life is out of his control and his attempts to take some control are catastrophic at all turns. The plane doesn’t have to crash because the fear inside has already crafted disaster in his mind. Fear makes people do irrational things, like attempt to open the emergency exit mid-flight or something more nefarious. Seeing your doom, whether real or imaginary, and being unable to stop it, will always be frightening.

“Night Call”

This is a simple ghost story that manages to make two aspects of normal life far more scary than you’d assume them to be. A lot of this needs to be credited to Richard Matheson, the mind behind so many classic Twilight Zone tales and a horror fixture for decades.

While getting a call from beyond the grave is a frightening thought, that’s not while this remains a bone-tingler for modern audiences. The atmosphere of the calls and the innocence of the old woman, Elva Keene, revealing her tragic past that left her paraplegic and killed her fiancé. But the real terror is in the ending, that realization that you’ve turned your back on your love and “killed” it a second time by sending it away again. Twice the loss, twice the pain, all sparking a very real fear we all face.

“And When the Sky Was Opened”

The panicked end for Rod Taylor’s former astronaut really highlights the powerless fear that permeates through this classic episode. The confusion as each man realizes his fate and is wiped from existence hits home, as does the nature of seeing the world you knew start to break down around you without hesitation.

We are small players in a universe where we contend to be the main characters, something that can be distorted once people are erased from society. In the episode, it is some outside force that is erasing an “aberration” from time after a space flight. In reality, it is fate and the wheel that doesn’t stop spinning despite the end of your life. We all feel what Taylor feels at the end of the episode, but we also have a lifetime to come to grips with it. Removing that is terrifying.

“The Midnight Sun”

This is an episode where the main crux comes off as unrealistic. Earth being knocked from its axis and sent hurtling into the Sun is a scary prospect that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. It also assumes we’d even be able to maintain normal lives on a planet that can’t abide by its normal state while drifting toward the Sun. Heat death might be a blessing for those left after the world takes a sudden shift in direction.

But much like many of the other episodes, “The Midnight Sun” is a chiller due to the helplessness we all feel in the face of calamity. Where the people in this story are trying to live on despite overwhelming heat and assured destruction, many in our current world are facing a similar problem without even realizing it. And it only enhances the fears we already have, including fear of the other and fear of the unknown.

“The Old Man in the Cave”

A classic of the post-apocalypse genre, this Twilight Zone deals with a small town trying to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear war. They are pushed by the leadership of Mr. Goldsmith, played by John Anderson, and his wisdom handed down by the “old man” who lives in a cave and has the knowledge to survive the ruined world.

It seems to be working until a trio of soldiers come into town and the real fear sprouts. These are people who have witnessed hell and destruction. They have seen the worst. But their undoing in the end didn’t happen because of this, it happened because humans are our own worst enemy. They blew up the world and in the aftermath, they blew up this town, too. And they do it with the scariest motivation possible: greed. Even in an atomic hellscape, the final nail in the coffin is greed and the need to get ahead at all costs. The soldiers who arrive in the town want control and they get it, using people’s own concerns to win them over. It happens every day in the present reality, so why would it end after we’ve faced the collapse of civilization? It’s baked into our humanity at this point.

What do you think are the scariest episodes of The Twilight Zone? Let us know in the comments below!