Season 1, Episode 15.1: Monsters

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

Season 1, Episode 15.1: Monsters

Airdate: January 24th, 1985
Writer: Robert Crais
Director: B.W.L. Norton
Starring: Ralph Bellamy

A boy who loves monster movies has a strange neighbor move in.

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[the human man]

If someone can explain this episode to me I'd be thankful. Did the old man moving into the neighbourhood set off a kind of disease that turned people into monsters? Did the young lad become a vampire? It flummoxed me

[fail:safe]

As I followed it (spoiler alert) the old man was a vampire. In the mythos of the episode this meant he couldn't settle anywhere for too long as humans are genetically programmed to be alergic to vampires and after extended exposure to them, to mutate and attack vampires.

It hadn't occured to me that the boy might become a vampire. I'll give it another watch to find out.

Otherwise- I loved this episode. It felt like true TZ through and through. An over imaginative boy in small town America discovers the world is stranger than it seems. Great twist, good acting and a nice little nod to joe Dante in the opening scenes.

F:S

[fail:safe]

SPOILER ALERT I watched this one again. I think the ending was ambiguous. They discuss the fact that there's nothing to be afraid of, then the father sneezes and the camera zooms in on the son.

I always took this to mean that there was another vampire nearby and the boy realised it after his dad sneezes.

But, it could also be that his father sneezes because his son has become a vampire and the boy realises he is now the monster others will be afraid of.

Either way, I really loved this episode.

F:S

[the human man]

When the dad sneezed I took it that the kid had become a vampire. For fans of the Airplane! films, the kid was Joey. The boy Captain Over takes a liking to. He was also in Poltergeist.

[fail:safe]

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?

[the human man]

You ever been in a Turkish prison?

[fail:safe]

Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

Oliver Robins was the kid in Airplane? How funny.

I actually got the chance to interview him recently, but unfortunately I had to pass.

Would love to have asked him whether he'd been a Turkish prison....probably closely followed by the receiver going down at his end!

[the human man]

I've double checked this. He played Joey in Airplane 2 but not 1.

He confirmed that he liked it when Scraps rubbed up on his leg...