‘Hey… you wanna see something really scary?‘
While there are many films in which trying filming conditions and unconventional directing techniques are well documented (The Shining, Apocalypse Now, The Exorcist etc), I don’t think there is another example of a film so overshadowed and defined by its tragic production history as Twilight Zone: The Movie. It is impossible to even begin to analyse this film on any kind of critical level without engaging in the helicopter accident that killed veteran actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. So, let’s cover that now.
On July 23, 1982, A stunt that involved pyrotechnic explosions and a helicopter went horribly wrong resulting in three fatalities. Despite contravening a number of child labour and safety laws, director John Landis went ahead with the stunt anyway with disastrous consequences. The fallout from this incident understandably halted production and had legal ramifications for years afterwards. As this was the ’80s, however, filming eventually recommenced and the finished film was a modest box office success. Now that we have dealt with that unfortunate business, is Twilight Zone: The Movie any good?
The brainchild of Steven Spielberg, this adaptation of the celebrated TV show sees Spielberg joined by Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller (who abruptly left the project during post-production following the helicopter crash leaving Dante to finish his segment) with each of them adapting a pre-existing Twilight Zone segment (apart from Landis who wrote his own). Landis’ entry sees Morrow’s horrible racist learning a valuable lesson, the second segment is a schmaltzy, sentimental morality tale in which Scatman Crowthers breathes new life into a group of elderly people in a nursing home, the penultimate segment has Dante utilise all of his practical effects expertise for a strange tale of an awful child with the ability to grant wishes and the final and most famous segment is an update on the classic Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, with John Lithgow taking on the William Shatner role.
As with any anthology series, the final product is patchy. Landis’ effort is so/so, which perhaps makes all the mayhem that it caused even more heartbreaking and Spielberg clearly lost heart in the project following the accident but the final two segments are excellent with Dante’s entry properly chilling (and very Joe Dante) while Miller’s contribution delivers an exquisitely ostentatious turn from Lithgow. It’s also nice to see Dan Aykroyd pop up in the silly but enjoyable wraparound story that bookends the other segments.
Taken as a whole, Twilight Zone: The Movie should be a snapshot of four of the most celebrated filmmakers of their generation paying homage to an institution of American television. Instead, however, its legacy will forever be tarnished by a horrific accident made all the more tragic by just how avoidable it was.
