You've Probably Never Seen William Friedkin's Nightmarish Episode Of The Twilight Zone
One of the curious things about "The Twilight Zone's" enduring popularity is that Rod Serling's classic anthology series has been rebooted three separate times, and even spun off into movies, and yet the original series is still considered the gold standard. You'll hear "Star Trek" fans sing the praises of "The Original Series," sure, but you'll also find lots of them who think the franchise peaked with "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," or "Enterprise." (Okay, maybe not so much "Enterprise.") But the reboots of the "Twilight Zone" aren't nearly as well remembered or celebrated as the original series, no matter how many great filmmakers or actors appeared in them.
Take the first TV reboot, for example. That version of "The Twilight Zone" aired for three seasons between 1985 and 1989 — peak, influential pop culture years — and featured episodes directed by cinematic luminaries like Wes Craven, Joe Dante, John Milius, Curtis Harrington, Bill Duke, Martha Coolidge, and Atom Egoyan. And yet the episodes they made, and the show itself, doesn't get nearly as much love as Rod Serling's original.
Is that because the reboots just weren't as good? You could make that argument, but you'd have to ignore some dynamite TV to do it. One of the most disturbing episodes of any version of "The Twilight Zone" emerged from the 1985 series, and not for nothing, it was also the only "Twilight Zone" episode ever directed by the late, great Oscar-winning filmmaker William Friedkin, the director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection."
You ever see 'Nightcrawlers?'
The year was 1985. The day was October 18th. And between 8:30 and 9:00 pm on network TV, you had the choice of watching "Mr. Belvedere," a sitcom about a British butler in suburbia, "Knight Rider," a show about David Hasselhoff and a talking car, or the most violent, messed up thing you'd ever seen on television.
"Nightcrawlers" was based on a story by Robert R. McCammon and adapted by Philip DeGuerre, who previously wrote and directed the failed "Doctor Strange" TV pilot from 1978. It starred Scott Paulin ("Teen Wolf") as Price, a Vietnam veteran who stops at a roadside diner in the middle of the night. There, he runs afoul of a state trooper named Dennis (James Whitmore, Jr., from "The Rockford Files"), who finds Price very suspicious. He's jittery and refuses to take shelter in a nearby motel even though a big storm is brewing. There was also just a big, deadly shootout nearby, and nobody's caught the guy who did it.
When Dennis discovers that Price is a veteran, however, he changes his tune and says he supported the war and wishes he could have gone, and pressures Price for tales of heroism. What Dennis doesn't realize is that Price was no hero, and the only tale he has to tell is one of absolute, gory horror. Pushed too far, Price snaps and reveals his whole traumatizing story to the people in the diner, about crawling through the bodies of his platoon to escape a violent nightmare, and his shame at his own cowardice.
Price also reveals that he, and some of the other veterans who came back from the war, have the power to turn their dreams into reality. But when Price sleeps, he has no pleasant dreams. He relives his horrifying ordeal, so when Dennis hits Price over the head ... he unleashes hell.
This meant war
The "Nightcrawlers" of the title were Price's platoon, who emerge from the shadows outside the diner and lay waste to it, unloading their ammunition at everything that moves. It's a miracle anyone survives. Price doesn't, and with his death, the ordeal comes to an abrupt end. As the emergency services arrive and take the remaining customers and staff away, Bob the Cook (Robert Swan) remembers what Price said. There were other Vietnam veterans whose traumas can come to life, and they're still out there somewhere.
Performed at high intensity by Scott Paulin, top-notch a-hole-ery by James Whitmore Jr., and boasting a fine performance by Exene Cervenka from the legendary punk rock band X, "Nightcrawlers" is a frightening segment of "The Twilight Zone." And it's all the more shocking that its grievous violence came at primetime, usually considered a family-friendly time to watch network television.
In a 2013 interview, Friedkin told Vulture about shooting the episode:
"'Nightcrawlers' I did because it was a great story. It was a metaphor for how Vietnam continues to haunt us. We had a five-day shoot, and I approached it and shot it the same way I'd approach a film. It's one of the most watched things I've ever done, and so it restored my confidence. But I'd always dabbled in TV, so this wasn't an attempt to get away from film. To me it was no different from film, really."
But it certainly was different for "The Twilight Zone." Serling's original series had depicted the horrors of war, but in the 1960s, the level of violence inflicted in "Nightcrawlers" would have been unthinkable. And while it's hard to track down the 1985 version of "The Twilight Zone," episodes like "Nightcrawlers" make it worth the effort. Friedkin's installment stands up as one of the best of the series. Any of them.