Episode 73: 'It's A Good Life'. Six year old mutant Anthony Fremont rules the small town of Peaksville, Ohio like a vengeful,
childish God. He controls the weather, supplies, electricity, what's on TV, and has the power of life and death (and worse) over every human and animal inhabitant of the frightened town. Naturally, pandering to Anthony's every whim puts the adult members of the community under a great deal of strain...
From a short story by Jerome Bixby, this episode was later remade as a segment of the patchy 'Twilight Zone' movie made in 1983. Despite much more money and vastly improved special effects, the newer version isn't a patch on this, with its creeping unease and sense of horror and futility.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks U-W, I must watch the rest of this. I read the short story in the good anthology 'Best SF 4', edited by Edmund Crispin. Get the edition which has a good cover... or read the story online.
ReplyDeleteThis rather reminds me of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.
ReplyDeleteI started watching one of my xmas presents last night which was the Twilight Zone set for season one the other night. I highly recommend it, the transfer is amazing and the extras are great. The episode "Where is Everybody" ruffled just about every hair on the back of my neck. Also, they had a special on the complete Outer Limits series on Amazon. I got every episode for around 28.00 US dollars. Outstanding stuff.
ReplyDelete