---
title: "Twilight Zone: The Movie"
year: 1983
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/twilight-zone-the-movie"
fi1m_id: "twilight-zone-the-movie"
imdb_id: "tt0086491"
tmdb_id: 15301
fi1m_score: 63
critics_score: 64
critics_reviews: 5
published: "2026-09-24T21:25:30.730899+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-24T21:26:09.455417+00:00"
region: "TR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Directed by John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller · 1h 41m · Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction

## Identity

Twilight Zone: The Movie

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/twilight-zone-the-movie
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** twilight-zone-the-movie
- **IMDb ID:** tt0086491
- **TMDB ID:** 15301
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086491/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/15301

**Fi1m score: 63** · Critics 64 (early) from 5 reviews

*In a sentence:* Four directors queue for the same haunted house and only the last one bothers to switch off the lights

> Four directors revisit Rod Serling’s series and produce one frightening story, one clever design, one sermon and one hug. George Miller’s aeroplane segment is worth the evening on its own; Spielberg’s rest-home fable is the one you will want to skip.

## Synopsis

Two men (Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) drive a dark American road at night, singing along to the radio and quizzing each other on old television themes. Then four stories follow. Bill (Vic Morrow), passed over for a promotion, sits in a bar blaming everyone who is not like him and steps outside into a France occupied by German soldiers. Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers) arrives at a retirement home with a bag of tin cans and proposes a game of kick the can after dark. Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan), a schoolteacher, gives a lift home to a boy from a roadside diner and is asked to stay for dinner with his oddly cheerful family. Valentine (John Lithgow), terrified of flying, sits in a night flight through a thunderstorm and sees something on the wing.

## Review

Four directors, one hundred and one minutes, and a television series that had been off the air for nearly twenty years. *Twilight Zone: The Movie* asks John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller each to make one short film in the manner of Rod Serling’s programme, which ran from 1959 to 1964, and stitches them together with a prologue. Three of the four are remakes of episodes people remember; one is new. The result is what anthologies usually are, uneven, and one quarter of it is worth the whole ticket.

The prologue is the best joke in the film. Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks drive a dark road with the radio on, singing along, then switch it off and test each other on television themes, and Stevan Larner lights them with nothing but the dashboard and the headlamps. It is loose, quick and slightly menacing, and it ends on a gag Landis has plainly been waiting his whole career to spring. Then he starts his own story, and the fun stops. Bill (Vic Morrow) sits in a bar having lost a promotion, blames the Jews, the Black people and the Asians for it, and walks out of the door into occupied France. It is written as a lesson, and it is taught with a stick. Malcolm Campbell cuts it hard and fast, and the piece feels cut short, as if it had run out of things to say before it ran out of places to go.

Spielberg’s segment, written by Melissa Mathison from George Clayton Johnson’s original, is the one we would skip. Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers) arrives at a retirement home with a bag of tin cans and a grin, and proposes to the residents that they play kick the can after lights out. Allen Daviau lights every room like late afternoon in September, Michael Kahn cuts to wet eyes, and Jerry Goldsmith, sly and nervy elsewhere in the film, turns on the strings. We felt embarrassed, and then a little cross, because the old people are treated as adorable rather than as people, and Crothers is asked to beam at them for the length of the story as if beaming were a performance. It is the one tale here with no shadow in it.

Dante’s is the best-made thing in the film. Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan), a schoolteacher on the move, gives a lift home to a boy she meets at a roadside diner and is invited to stay for dinner. James D. Bissell builds the house as a cartoon: staircases at the wrong angle, a television that is always on, colours out of a cereal packet, and a family who smile too much and too long. John Hora shoots it low and wide so that the ceilings seem to lean in, and Tina Hirsch keeps cutting to the animation on the screen until we are not sure which side of it we are on. We were delighted and uneasy at the same time, and the two feelings never settled, which is what Jerome Bixby’s story wants. Where it finally goes we will not say.

Miller’s closer is the reason to watch. Valentine (John Lithgow) is a passenger on a night flight through a thunderstorm, already afraid of flying, who then sees something on the wing. Miller keeps the camera in the cabin, so the storm is only ever lightning at the porthole and the aircraft lurching under us, and he lets Lithgow run: sweating, praying, clawing at the blind, begging the cabin crew to look. Richard Matheson wrote the original, and William Shatner played the part on television in 1963, but Lithgow gives it something new, a man who knows exactly how mad he looks and cannot stop. We gripped the armrest. It is the only time the film frightened us, and it frightened us properly.

Two of the four stories end on a hug where the series would have ended on a sting, and the film is softer for it. Watch it at home, where you can arrive for the car, sit through the rest home with a drink within reach, and stay for the plane. It runs 101 minutes, carries a 12 certificate, and opened in British cinemas on 1 September 1983.

*Fi1m score 63, published 24 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

With only 5 reviews in so far, the picture is thin but consistent: most critics find the anthology uneven, and the praise clusters on George Miller’s segment about a passenger who sees a creature attacking his aeroplane, which both Variety and Radio Times single out as the one that works. Variety alone is warm overall, arguing the vignettes improve as the film goes on and finish strongly. Radio Times is cooler, calling the rest a mixed bag and Spielberg’s contribution slushy. Time Out picks out the opening night drive with Aykroyd and Brooks. Two further reviews are not readable in full, so the spread may yet widen.

## Straight answers

**Is Twilight Zone: The Movie worth watching?**

*Twilight Zone: The Movie* is worth watching for George Miller's aeroplane segment alone, and we scored it 63. The other three quarters are uneven: Joe Dante's story is the best-made, John Landis's is a lesson taught with a stick, and Spielberg's rest-home fable is the one to skip. It suits anthology fans who are prepared to wait for the good part.

**How long is Twilight Zone: The Movie, and what is it rated?**

*Twilight Zone: The Movie* runs 1h 41m. It is a horror and fantasy film.

**Where can I watch Twilight Zone: The Movie in Türkiye?**

*Twilight Zone: The Movie* is not on any streaming or rental service in Türkiye at the moment. It is available in 5 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Twilight Zone: The Movie, and is it suitable for children?**

*Twilight Zone: The Movie* carries a 12 certificate, and its frights are concentrated in the last two stories. Dante's segment is unsettling rather than gory, a cartoon house with a family who smile too long, and Miller's night-flight closer is the only part that frightened us properly. Young or nervous children will find those two too much; the Spielberg story has no shadow in it at all.

**How does Twilight Zone: The Movie compare to The Twilight Zone?**

*Twilight Zone: The Movie* is the weaker relative of Rod Serling's television series, which does more with less and wastes nothing. The film has bigger sets and louder frights, and two of its four stories end on a hug where the programme would have ended on a sting. Go to the series first; the film is for those who already know Serling and want to see Lithgow on the plane.

### Reviews we read (5)

- **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): Variety gives the anthology a positive verdict, saying its vignettes improve in quality and build to an electrifying finale. It singles out George Miller’s reworking of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” as the best segment. [Read](https://variety.com/1982/film/reviews/twilight-zone-the-movie-1200425352/)
- **Time Out**, DP (64/100, inferred): The available text offers no clear overall verdict. It praises the opening sequence of Aykroyd and Brooks driving at night and singing along. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/twilight-zone-the-movie-1)
- **RogerEbert.com** (63/100, inferred): The page is blocked by a browser check, so the critic’s verdict cannot be verified. The review’s specific praise or criticism is also unavailable. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/twilight-zone-the-movie-1983)
- **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (63/100, inferred): The issue identifies this as Pauline Kael’s review of the film, but the review text is unavailable here. Its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be determined from the accessible page. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1983/07/25)
- **Radio Times**, John Ferguson (3/5): Ferguson finds the anthology a mixed bag, with one truly scary segment standing out. He praises George Miller’s story about a passenger who sees a creature attacking an airplane, while calling Spielberg’s segment slushy. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-m0jz8y/twilight-zone-the-movie/)

## Details

- **Director:** John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller
- **Director:** John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller
- **Screenplay:** George Clayton Johnson, Melissa Mathison, Richard Matheson
- **Writer:** John Landis
- **Story:** Jerome Bixby, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson
- **Cinematography:** John Hora, Stevan Larner, Allen Daviau
- **Editor:** Tina Hirsch, Malcolm Campbell, Michael Kahn, Howard E. Smith
- **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith
- **Production design:** James D. Bissell
- **Costume design:** Deborah Lynn Scott
- **Producer:** George Miller, John Landis, Steven Spielberg
- **Cast:** Dan Aykroyd as Passenger; Albert Brooks as Driver; Scatman Crothers as Mr. Bloom; John Lithgow as Valentine; Vic Morrow as Bill; Kathleen Quinlan as Helen Foley; Charles Hallahan as Ray; Doug McGrath as Larry
- **Runtime:** 1h 41m
- **First release (the US):** 24 June 1983
- **Genres:** Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction
- **Budget:** $10 million
- **Box office:** $29 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcx-Kx_WOvQ

## Where to watch in Türkiye

Not streaming, renting or buying in Türkiye at the last check.

Also available in: CA, GB, HR, RS, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Dead of Night* (1945): The British anthology that set the pattern; the ventriloquist story still unsettles.
- *Kwaidan* (1964): Four Japanese ghost stories, painted rather than shot, and patient enough to frighten.
- *Creepshow* (1982): Romero and King do the comic-book version with far more relish and fewer scruples.
- *Black Sabbath* (1963): Mario Bava’s three tales, lit in colours no house has ever been.
- *The Twilight Zone* (1959), Fi1m 84: Go back to Serling; the originals do more with less and waste nothing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-twilight-zone.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/twilight-zone-the-movie