Anthology films are rare these days, and they were never particularly popular in Hollywood. In early 1980s it took two major film makers at the apparent peak of their respective careers – John Landis and Steven Spielberg - to launch anthology film with blockbuster ambitions. The choice for inspiration was The Twilight Zone, early 1960s anthology television series created by Rod Serling which had became one of the classics of science fiction, fantasy and horror genre, with a title that entered many vocabularies. 1983 film Twilight Zone: The Movie, however, ended like a minor disappointment and is nowadays better known for the tragic accident on the set that claimed the life of one of its stars.
The film begins with the Prologue, directed by John Landis, in which two passengers in the car (Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd) travel and discuss their favourite The Twilight Zone episodes. The first segment, unofficially titled “Time’s Up”, is also directed by Landis, who also wrote the script; main character, played by Vic Morrow, is Bill Connor, embittered anti-semitic and racist White American who gets transported in time in Nazi-occupied France, 1950s Deep South and Vietnam during the war where he suffers oppression and violence after being treated as Jew, black and Viet Cong sympathiser. Second segment, titled “Kick the Can” and directed by Steven Spielberg portrays Mr. Bloom (played by Scatman Crothers), new arrival in retirement home who shows apparent ability to magically turn other elders into children. Third segment, titled “It’s a Good Life” and directed by Joe Dante, shows woman on the road (played by Kathleen Quinlan) meeting mysterious boy (played by Jeremy Licht) who invites her to his home, where it turns out that he has ability to make all his wishes into reality and whose capriciousness creates reign of terror for other occupants. Fourth segment, titled “ Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and directed by George Miller, shows how John Valentine (played by John Lithgow), neurotic passenger on the plane, sees strange Gremlin-like creature sabotaging the engines during the flight.
Like in most anthology films, especially those made by different directors, quality of each segment can vary to a large degree. The first segment, the only one not being based on the television episode, is under the shadow of the helicopter crash which killed Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese child actors. Relatively simple story in which Landis tries to hammer out his anti-racist message is made very depressive and increasingly poignant for the viewers that know the ultimate fate of an actor. Segment, on the other hand, looks somewhat unfinished and unpolished for obvious reasons, and Landis’ direction at time leaves much to be desired.
Second segment represents major disappointment to all those who expected quality entertainment by Spielberg; instead they get rather boring exercise in infantile sentimentality. Third segment is much better, featuring energetic direction by Joe Dante and effective combination of black humour, horror and some ingenious special effects. Fourth segment is well-directed and features excellent acting, but John Lithgow is somewhat less effective than William Shatner who had played the same character in the original television episode. Although watchable and at times very entertaining, Twilight Zone: The Movie shows that what was good at monochromatic television sets more than half a century ago might not look good when transformed into modern high budget production on the big screen.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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