Summary

• The Twilight Zone is a classic TV show known for its scary and creative stories that explore mature themes and societal commentaries.
• It paved the way for other classic horror anthologies and has been revived multiple times, but none have matched the inventive nature of Rod Serling's original series.
• The best episodes teach valuable lessons while delivering spooky and suspenseful tales that have captivated viewers for decades.

The Twilight Zone is still considered one of the scariest and most creative TV shows of all time, and the best Twilight Zone episodes remain iconic decades later. It deals with mature themes and commentaries on society and blends them into well-crafted creepy and suspenseful stories that have terrified viewers from generation to generation. The best of the best has a lesson to teach its audience but hides it within a well-crafted spooky tale that is at turns terrifying, creepy, and often fantastical.

It was ahead of its time and The Twilight Zone paved the way for other classic horror anthologies such as The Outer Limits, Tales From The Darkside, and Tales From The Crypt. There have also been many revivals of the TV series, including a recent one by Jordan Peele, but no matter how good the stories were, they never really matched up to the inventive nature of Rod Serling's classic horror/sci-fi anthology series about things that unlock the key to the viewer's imagination and taking them into a "land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas," before finally crossing over into the Twilight Zone.

25 A Game Of Pool

Season 3, Episode 5

As with most of the best Twilight Zone episodes, "A Game of Pool" is carried by its leads, featuring two fantastic and legendary actors. The entire idea involves two men who set out to prove to be the best at something - in this case, playing pool. Jack Klugman (12 Angry Men) is Jesse Cardiff, one of the best players in the world, who feels that he will never be considered the best because he never had a chance to play the deceased Fats Brown. This brings Fats back from the afterlife to play him, with Jonathan Winters (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) in that role. If Jesse loses, he forfeits his life, but if he wins, his fate could be even worse.

24 And When The Sky Was Opened

Season 1, Episode 11

Alternate realities and reality-shifting events are practically the bread and butter of the best episodes of Twilight Zone. The episode titled, And When The Sky Was Opened is a prime example of the horror of such events as three astronauts return to Earth and stay in a hospital. Throughout the episode, the three astronauts vanish and are forgotten from existence. Each disappearance is represented through a newspaper that changes with each shift. There is no direct explanation for these events, much like other episodes, which adds to the horror as the astronauts slowly succumb to the event.

23 Mirror Image

Season 1, Episode 21

The season one episode "Mirror Image" has a woman waiting for a bus at the bus stop (Psycho's Vera Miles). When she tires of the long wait, she asks the attendant when the bus will arrive, but she is told she already asked three times, which she knows is not true. When a woman cleaning the bus stop tells her that she just saw her in the bathroom, the woman looks into a mirror and sees her doppelganger sitting on a bench. This episode remains notable for one key trivia fact. Jordan Peele, who made his version of Twilight Zone years later, said this was one of his favorites and influenced his movie Us, which was also about doppelgångers.

"It’s terrifying, beautiful, really elegant storytelling, and it opens up a world. It opens up your imagination."

22 The Midnight Sun

Season 3, Episode 10

Due to the Earth changing paths, it is getting closer and closer to the sun, leading to the heat gradually rising more and more. Immediately, the concept is something that feels somewhat realistic enough that can put anyone into a state of dread. It follows two women in an apartment building, essentially slowly succumbing to the heat. "The Midnight Sun" does a great job of making it seem so hot that it makes watching the episode feel uncomfortable. This is enhanced by commendable performances by Lois Nettleton and Betty Garde. By the end, the dark twist ending is a relief as much as it is disturbing.

21 Little Girl Lost

Season 3, Episode 26

"Little Girl Lost" has a legendary horror master behind the script. Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) wrote one of the best episodes of Twilight Zone in this story about parents who can hear their child but can't find them. When a married couple hears their daughter crying, they head into her room and can't find her there. No matter where they look, they can't find her or pinpoint where the crying is coming from. This episode received a parody in The Simpsons on a Treehouse of Horror episode and shares much in common with the movie Poltergeist.

20 Nightmare As A Child

Season 1, Episode 29

When a school teacher finds a very serious little girl named Markie, the girl claims she knows her, but the teacher doesn't know where that would be from. Soon, a man shows up and says that he was a witness to her mother's death years before, but she had blocked that all from her memory. When she mentions the little girl, the man tells the woman her nickname as a child was Markie. The episode was a basic murder mystery and the twists and turns offered nothing new, but it remained a great episode thanks to the performances and the slow burn reveals that kept viewers in a constant state of tension.

19 The After Hours

Season 1, Episode 34

"The After Hours" did something that wasn't hard to do for a horror story. It brought mannequins into the picture. Decades after this episode aired, it is not hard to the mannequins in one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, and not feel a little uneasy around them. When a woman goes to a department store, she decides to buy a gold thimble and is taken to the ninth floor, where nothing is there but one counter with a salesperson and a gold thimble. This leads to the creative twist ending that turns everything on its head. This episode ended up being remade for the 1986 revival.

18 A Stop At Willoughby

Season 1, Episode 30

Where most of the best Twilight Zone episodes deal with the surreal and the horrific, "A Stop At Willoughby" is mostly just a depressing story about an unhappy man. Gart is treated miserably by both his boss and his wife, leading to him being transported to a seemingly perfect town called Willoughby in the 1800s. Gart becomes infatuated with Willoughby and continues to see it whenever he falls asleep on a train. It's easy to feel sympathetic for Gart, especially when it comes to the scenes with his wife. Nobody can blame him for wanting to live life in the serene town, but like most episodes, it ends on a sour note that is both sad and thought-provoking.

17 The Hitch-Hiker

Season 1, Episode 16

The Hitch-Hiker plays on the rational fear of hitchhikers and the legitimate possibility of them being someone insidious. On a road trip across the country, a woman begins seeing a mysterious hitchhiker who keeps reappearing no matter how far she travels. The Hitch-Hiker fills every scene with uneasiness using the titular villain. He never does anything menacing, but his blank stare gives him a creepy vibe. This concept seemed to inspire Stephen King and George A. Romero as a similar story appeared in Creepshow 2. There is a great twist to the episode which is a staple of the series that hints at the hitchhiker's identity in a subtle but effective manner.

16 Twenty-Two

Season 2, Episode 17

While many of the best Twilight Zone episodes have a dreamlike feeling seeping into the stories, when it comes to "Twenty-Two," this episode uses dreams as part of its story. Barbara Nichols plays a dancer who opens the episode in the middle of a horrific nightmare. She is in a hospital and arrives at the morgue, where a nurse welcomes her in. She wakes up and is in that same hospital, under treatment for exhaustion. She then sets out to learn what the dream means. With the recurring dream, the episode takes on a creepy Groundhog Dog feel that builds the dread to the end.