Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Directors:

Joe Dante
John Landis
(more)

Writers:

Rod Serling (television series The Twilight Zone)
John Landis (prologue)
(more)

Release Date:

24 June 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!

Plot:

Four horror/sci-fi segments directed by four famous directors which are their own versions of classic stories from Rod Serling's landmark television series.

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Nazi | Kick The Can | Airplane | Retirement Home

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Dan Aykroyd	...	Passenger / Ambulance Driver (Prologue / Segment #4)
Albert Brooks	...	Car Driver (Prologue)
Vic Morrow	...	Bill Connor (Segment #1)
Doug McGrath	...	Larry (Segment #1)
Charles Hallahan	...	Ray (Segment #1)
Rainer Peets	...	German Officer (Segment #1) (as Remus Peets)
Kai Wulff	...	German Officer (Segment #1)
Sue Dugan	...	Waitress No. 1 (Segment #1)
Debby Porter	...	Waitress No. 2 (Segment #1)
Steven Williams	...	Bar Patron (Segment #1)
Annette Claudier	...	French Monther (Segment #1)
Joseph Hieu	...	Vietnamese (Segment #1)
Al Leong	...	Vietnamese (Segment #1)
Stephen Bishop	...	Charming G.I. (Segment #1)
Thomas Byrd	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Vincent J. Isaac	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
William B. Taylor	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Domingo Ambriz	...	G.I. (Segment #1)
Eddy Donno	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
Michael Milgrom	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
John Larroquette	...	K.K.K. (Segment #1)
Norbert Weisser	...	Soldier No. 1 (Segment #1)
Scatman Crothers	...	Mr. Bloom (Segment #2)
Bill Quinn	...	Mr. Leo Conroy (Segment#2)
Martin Garner	...	Mr. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Selma Diamond	...	Mrs. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Helen Shaw	...	Mrs. Dempsey (Segment #2)
Murray Matheson	...	Mr. Agee (Segment #2)
Peter Brocco	...	Mr. Mute (Segment #2)
Priscilla Pointer	...	Miss Cox (Segment #2)
Scott Nemes	...	Young Mr. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Tanya Fenmore	...	Young Mrs. Weinstein (Segment #2)
Evan Richards	...	Young Mr. Agee (Segment #2)
Laura Mooney	...	Young Mrs. Dempsey (Segment #2)
Christopher Eisenmann	...	Young Mr. Mute (Segment #2)
Richard Swingler	...	Mr. Gray Panther (Segment #2)
Alan Haufrect	...	Mr. Conroy's Son (Segment #2)
Cheryl Socher	...	Mr. Conroy's Daughter-in-Law (Segment #2)
Elsa Raven	...	Nurse No. 2 (Segment #2)
Kathleen Quinlan	...	Helen Foley(School Teacher)(Segment#3)
Jeremy Licht	...	Anthony (Segment #3)
Kevin McCarthy	...	Uncle Walt (Segment #3)
Patricia Barry	...	Mother (Segment #3)
William Schallert	...	Father (Segment #3)
Nancy Cartwright	...	Ethel (Segment #3)
Dick Miller	...	Walter Paisley(Diner Owner)(Segment#3)
Cherie Currie	...	Sara (Segment #3)
Bill Mumy	...	Tim (Segment #3)
Jeffrey Bannister	...	Charlie(Diner Patron)(Segment#3)
John Lithgow	...	John Valentine (Segment #4)
Abbe Lane	...	Sr. Stewardess (Segment #4)
Donna Dixon	...	Jr. Stewardess (Segment #4)
John Dennis Johnston	...	Co-Pilot (Segment #4)
Larry Cedar	...	Creature (Segment #4)
Charles Knapp	...	Sky Marshal (Segment #4)
Byron McFarland	...	Pilot Announcement (Segment #4)
Christina Nigra	...	Little Girl (Segment #4)
Lana Schwab	...	Mother (Segment #4) (as Lonna Schwab)
Margaret Wheeler	...	Old Woman (Segment #4)
Eduard Franz	...	Old Man (Segment #4)
Margaret Fitzgerald	...	Young Girl (Segment #4)
Jeffrey Weissman	...	Young Man (Segment #4)
Jeffrey Lampert	...	Mechanic No. 1 (Segment #4)
Frank Toth	...	Mechanic No. 2 (Segment #4)
Carol Serling	...	Passenger (Segment #4)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Burgess Meredith	...	Narrator (voice)
Rod Serling	...	Narrator (end of Segment #4) (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Carol Vogel	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Joe Dante		(segment 3)
John Landis		(prologue & segment 1)
George Miller		(segment 4)
Steven Spielberg		(segment 2)

Writing credits
Rod Serling		(television series The Twilight Zone)
John Landis		(prologue)
John Landis		(segment 1)
George Clayton Johnson		(segment 2) screenplay "Kick the Can" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 2) and
Melissa Mathison		(segment 2) (as Josh Rogan)
Jerome Bixby		(segment 3) story "It's a Good Life" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 3)
Richard Matheson		(segment 4) short story "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and
Richard Matheson		(segment 4) screenplay "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
Robert Garland		uncredited

Produced by
Jon Davison	....	associate producer
Jon Davison	....	producer (segment 3)
Michael Finnell	....	associate producer
Michael Finnell	....	producer (segment 3)
George Folsey Jr.	....	associate producer: prologue and segment 1
Kathleen Kennedy	....	associate producer
Kathleen Kennedy	....	producer (segment 2)
John Landis	....	producer
Frank Marshall	....	executive producer
Steven Spielberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Jerry Goldsmith

Cinematography by
Allen Daviau		(segments 2, 4)
John Hora		(segment 3)
Stevan Larner		(prologue and segment 1)

Film Editing by
Malcolm Campbell		(prologue and segment 1)
Tina Hirsch		(segment 3)
Michael Kahn		(segment 2)
Howard E. Smith		(segment 4) (as Howard Smith)

Casting by
Marci Liroff

Production Design by
James D. Bissell

Art Direction by
Richard Tom Sawyer		(segment 1) (as Richard Sawyer)
James H. Spencer		(segment 4)

Set Decoration by
Jackie Carr		(segment 2) (segment 3) (segment 4)
Barbara Krieger		(segment 1)

Costume Design by
Deborah Lynn Scott

Makeup Department
Rob Bottin	....	special makeup effects artist (segment 3)
Rob Bottin	....	special makeup effects designer (segment 3)
John M. Elliott Jr.	....	makeup artist (segments 2-4) (as John Elliott)
Michael McCracken	....	special makeup effects artist (segment 4)
Craig Reardon	....	special makeup effects artist: segments 1-4
Bob Westmoreland	....	makeup artist (segment 1) (as Robert Westmoreland)

Production Management
Dan Allingham	....	unit production manager (segment 1)
Dennis E. Jones	....	unit production manager (segments 2-4)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Daniel Attias	....	second assistant director (segment 2, 3 & 4) (as Dan Attias)
Elie Cohn	....	first assistant director (segment 1)
Andy House	....	second assistant director (segment 1) (as Alan Smithee)
Pat Kehoe	....	first assistant director (segment 2, 3 & 4)
Alan Smithee	....	second assistant director (segment 1) (really Anderson G. House)

Art Department
Henry Alvarez	....	sculptor
Larry Clark Bird	....	property master
Gregory Pickrell	....	set designer
William James Teegarden	....	set designer (Segment 2, 3 & 4) (as William J. Teegarden)
Daniel Turk	....	carpenter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Thomas Causey	....	production sound mixer (Segment 2, 3 & 4) (as Tommy Causey)
Carl Fischer	....	boom operator (prologue & segment 1)
Richard Bryce Goodman	....	sound mixer (prologue and segment 1)
William B. Kaplan	....	production sound mixer (Segment 1) (as Bill Kaplan)
Gregg Landaker	....	sound re-recording mixer
Steve Maslow	....	sound re-recording mixer
Philip Rogers	....	sound recordist
David E. Stone	....	sound editor
Bill Varney	....	sound re-recording mixer
David Lewis Yewdall	....	supervising sound editor (as David Yewdall)
Donald C. Rogers	....	technical director of sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Rob Bottin	....	monster effects (segment 3)
Gene Grigg	....	special effects assistant (segments 2-4)
Kevin Pike	....	special effects supervisor (segments 4)
Paul Stewart	....	special effects supervisor (segment 1)
Ed Verreaux	....	monster effects (segment 4)
Michael Wood	....	special effects supervisor (Segments 2, 3 & 4) (as Mike Wood)

Visual Effects by
Dave Allen	....	visual effects (segment 4)
Jim Danforth	....	effects photography
Jim Danforth	....	matte artist
Rocco Gioffre	....	matte artist (segment 3)
Peter Kuran	....	visual effects (Segment 4)
Hal Miles	....	titles producer and director
Eric Guaglione	....	matte photography: DQI (uncredited)
Hoyt Yeatman	....	matte photographer: DQI (uncredited)

Stunts
Eurlyne Epper	....	stunt double
Terry James	....	stunt double: Jon Lithgow
Gary McLarty	....	stunt coordinator
Thomas Byrd	....	stunts (uncredited)
Eddy Donno	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joseph Hieu	....	stunts (uncredited)
Al Leong	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary McLarty	....	stunts (uncredited)
Debby Porter	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Dale Alexander	....	key grip
Jamie Anderson	....	camera operator (segment 3)
Richard Benda	....	first assistant camera (prologue and segment 1)
Garrett Brown	....	Steadicam operator (segments 2-4)
John J. Connor	....	camera operator (segment 1)
Rick Fee	....	assistant camera (as Richard Fee)
Mark Ludwig	....	second assistant camera (prologue and segment 1)
Steve Lydecker	....	camera operator (segment 1)
John C. Moulds	....	first assistant camera
Lee Redmond	....	assistant camera
Arnold L. Rich	....	camera operator (Segment 1) (as Arnold Rich)
Randall Robinson	....	first assistant camera: helicopter unit
Roger L. Smith	....	camera operator: helicopter unit (segment 1) (as Roger Smith)
John Toll	....	camera operator (segments 2-4)
Michael Hofstein	....	additional camera operator (segment 3) (uncredited)

Animation Department
Sam Cornell	....	cartoon researcher (segment 3)
Sally Cruikshank	....	cartoon supervisor (segment 3)
Mark Kausler	....	cartoon researcher (segment 3)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Deborah Nadoolman	....	costume designer: segment 1

Editorial Department
Donah Bassett	....	negative cutter

Music Department
Bruce Botnick	....	recording mixer
Robert Fernandez	....	music scoring mixer
Kenneth Hall	....	music editor
James Newton Howard	....	song producer
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Tommy Tedesco	....	musician: guitar

Other crew
David R. Lawson	....	medic
Carol Serling	....	project consultant
Kathleen Switzer	....	assistant to director
Dorcey Wingo	....	helicopter pilot

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1986) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Argentina Video Home (198?) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Fazer Musiikki Oy/Fazer Video (19??) (Finland) (VHS)
• V8 (2003) (Netherlands) (TV)
• Warner Bros. Pictures (1983) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1984) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (1985) (Japan) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1984) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Warner-Columbia Film (1984) (France) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Films (1983) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1995) (Finland) (TV)

Special Effects

• Dream Quest Images (matte paintings) (segment 3)
• Visual Concept Engineering (VCE) (visual effects) (segment 4)
• Effects Associates (visual effects) (segment 4)

Other Companies

• Cinema Research  titles
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• Lip-Shtick  post-production dialogue
• Novocom Inc.  titles

Runtime:

101 min | UK:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Vietnamese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:14 | France:Unrated | Singapore:PG | New Zealand:PG | Netherlands:12 | South Africa:10V | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG (certificate #27045) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Canyon Country, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Cameo: [Carol Serling]as the woman who asks "Is there something wrong" when the flight attendants knock on the airplane restroom door, holding a copy of the Twilight Zone magazine in her arms. She was the wife of "The Twilight Zone" (1959) creator Rod Serling.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: In Segment #3 "It's A Good Life", shadows of the crew can be seen moving on the ground next to the large tree as the camera pans following Helen Foley's car as it arrives at Anthony's house.

Quotes:

Mr. Bloom: The day we stop playing is the day we start getting old.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

Soundtrack:

THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

A good film tainted by a senseless onscreen tragedy

It is very hard to think of another film anywhere that had such a great potential as TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE had, only to have a senseless and totally preventable tragedy--the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two illegally hired Asian child actors--mar the impact. Aside from that, and some heavy-handed moralizing that even the original show's creator Rod Serling would have had problems with, this is a fairly good tribute to what was perhaps the best TV series in history.

The prologue (with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) and Segment 1 are both originals, written and directed by John Landis. The segment deals with a very embittered white man (Morrow) who, after being dealt the denial of a promotion at work in favor of a Jew, unleashes his bigotry at a bar. But when he steps outside, he soon gets a dose of his own bitter medicine: persecution by the Nazis in Vichy France circa 1943; stalked by the KKK in Alabama in 1956; attacked by US soldiers in Vietnam circa 1969. Landis' penchant for hamfisted dialogue and erratic direction dilute what could have been an effective piece; and the tragedy that occurred on his watch taints not only this segment but much of the rest of the movie.

Segment 2, a remake of the 1961 episode "Kick The Can", directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Scatman Crothers as an elderly magician who brings a sense of youth to the residents of a senior citizens home, though over the objections of a veritable old fuddy-duddy (Bill Quinn). Spielberg has often been attacked, mostly unnecessarily, for his tendency toward sloppy sentimentality, but here a lot of the attacks may be justified, despite the best of intentions. He is still my favorite director, but this is one of his weakest.

Segment 3 remakes "It's A Good Life." Under the inventive hands of director Joe Dante (THE HOWLING), this film stars Jeremy Licht as a boy with the power to enslave and terrorize his family when he comes to feel that they hate him. Kathleen Quinlan stars as the teacher who unintentionally gets caught up in the melee, only to wind up volunteering to teach Licht how to better use his powers before they become too big for him to control (a la CARRIE). Dante's use of inventive special effects (courtesy of Rob Bottin) and black comedy enliven this segment, despite some weird overacting from the rest of the segment's cast (including William Schallert and Kevin McCarthy).

Segment 4 is a reworking of the famous episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet." With George Miller (MAD MAX) at the director's helm, the segment stars John Lithgow as an incredibly anxious passenger with a morbid fear of flight who constantly sees a monstrous gremlin tearing apart at the wings of his plane during a severe storm. His anxiety explodes into terror and madness, and the other passengers think he is certifiable. But when the plane lands, and the damage is inspected...

The final score on this is that Landis and Spielberg, who also produced, come up with the weaker segments, and Dante and, especially, Miller come up with the best ones. Miller's segment is a truly kinetic piece of suspense and terror, though I did find the little girl (Christina Nigra) an extremely obnoxious and unnecessary presence. Lithgow, who takes over for William Shatner (who had the role in the TV episode), gives a bravura performance, arguably paving the way for his role in "2010" as an astronaut deftly afraid of heights.

Jerry Goldsmith's usual efficient score and some good special effects work help to make TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE not only an above-average tribute to a great TV show, but also a good anthology film that combines fantasy, suspense, and mystery. It is a shame that the film is tainted by a pointless tragedy. But if one can ignore that, there are rewards to be had by seeing this.