The Twilight Zone was one of the great anthology series and this episode, directed by Montgomery Pittman, which aired in 1962 came from the third season. Certainly, one that dealt with the restless dead (or just a premature burial) this wasn’t so much about a vampire but does mention the V word in its run time.
The place is the southern end of the mid-west, sometime in the mid-1920s, and a church service is being held for the funeral of Jeff Myrtlebank (James Best). The Reverend Siddons’ (William Fawcett, The Munsters & The Return of Dracula) suggests that God must have had a reason for taking him so young. The lid of the coffin lifts and Jeff sits up.
 |
| awakening |
The congregation runs out screaming and Jeff follows bemused. There is his Ma (Helen Wallace) and Pa (Ralph Moody), as well as his sweetheart Comfort (Sherry Jackson) and all of them seem scared witless of him. Doc Bolton (Edgar Buchanan) is defensive, he pronounced him dead but concedes that there is a rare illness (that has only had 30 known cases in the last 1500 years) which can look like death – later he concedes he made this up. However, Jeff’s little sister Liz (Vickie Barnes) hugs him, and they all calm down.
 |
| Edgar Buchanan as the Doc |
As things go, however, his mother starts to get suspicious. Jeff only eats two eggs for breakfast (he always ate three) and he has suddenly developed a work effort, where before he was verging on shiftless. Rumours spread – taking these minor (and positive, in the last case) things and building on them. The townsfolk suddenly start suggesting he might be a haint.
 |
| James Best as Jeff Myrtlebank |
Haints are restless spirits and in this it is qualified to suggest that one such restless spirit might have taken over Jeff’s vacated body. Haints came up in the film Sinners, where they are suspected until vampires are identified. In this Jeff actually says that people “treat me like a vampire”. However, we do also get him taking flowers to Comfort and they have wilted though he only picked them that day. The death of flowers does sometimes follow in a vampire’s wake – especially energy vampires – and this is one of our tropes, along with being accused of being the restless dead.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
No comments:
Post a Comment