Stephen King Was Terrified By One Segment In The Twilight Zone

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The "The Twilight Zone" episode "Gramma" (February 14, 1986) is a strange one. Based on the short story by Stephen King and written by Harlan Ellison, "Gramma" tells the story of an 11-year-old boy named Georgie (Barret Oliver from "The NeverEnding Story" and "D.A.R.Y.L.") who has been tasked with looking after his infirm grandmother while his mother (Darlanne Fluegel) goes out for the afternoon. Georgie feels he is equal to the task, even though he is notoriously terrified of Gramma (voiced by Piper Laurie, played physically by Frederick Long). Gramma does nothing more than lay in bed all day, occasionally calling out for a cup of tea. 

While alone with Gramma, Georgie begins to recall weird details about their family, recalling that she might have had some stillborn children. We hear Georgie's inner monologue throughout the episode as he nervously ponders everything he sees. After accidentally dropping Gramma's tea, Georgie finds a crack in the floor. He pries up the floorboards, and finds a cold-burning hell-like opening that contains a copy of the Necronomicon. Georgie tries reading it, but can't make heads or tails of it. What's a "Cthulhu?" 

The episode climaxes with Georgie going to visit his Gramma in bed, and finding that she has transformed into some kind of monster. She seizes Georgie and presses him into her monstrous torso, bodily absorbing him as he screams in terror. When mom comes home, Georgie — now somehow restored — gives her a hug. He says he was scared and that Gramma has died. He then looks at the camera, bearing the same cat-like red eyes that Gramma had. 

In Ian Nathan's 2019 book "Stephen King at the Movies: A Complete History of the Film and Television Adaptations from the Master of Horror," King was quoted as loving this adaptation of his work, feeling that it was one of the scariest pieces of television he had seen.

It should be noted that "Gramma" is the only time one of Stephen King's stories was used for an episode of any version of "The Twilight Zone." King, like many of us, was deeply fond of Rod Serling's original 1959 iteration of "The Twilight Zone," and King talked about his fandom in the well-worn "The Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree. It stands to reason that when "The Twilight Zone" was revived in 1985 that King — already a hitmaker in the horror community — would be more deeply involved. Weirdly, this was the only time "Twilight" tapped his work for adaptation. 

At least King was lucky enough to see the deeply experienced Harlan Ellison handle his work. According to the DVD commentary track for "Gramma," no one on the "Twilight Zone" writing staff wanted to adapt the story, feeling it was just be a boring recitation of the central kid's internal monologue. The producers spent a lot of money to license a Stephen King story, though, and weren't willing to eat the cost, eventually hiring Ellison to do something — anything — with it. 

King loved it, calling "Gramma" "the most terrifying 19 minutes ever put on television." The episode is certainly unnerving. The Gramma creature, only briefly glimpsed, is a horrible monster with big round eyeballs, broken teeth, and horrifyingly puffy cheeks. Oliver is typically better when he's playing flippant, everyday heroes, but in "Gramma," he can at least communicate the nerves and fright of a kid who lives with a relative they don't want to be around. King notoriously dislikes some of the better adaptations of his work (he doesn't like Kubrick's "The Shining"), so his approval of "Gramma" is high praise indeed. 

Some fun trivia: the late, great William Friedkin was slated to direct "Gramma," but had to bow out for personal reasons. Friedkin previously directed the episode "Nightcrawlers" (October 18, 1985), an episode that featured Exene Cervenka from the band X as a waitress.