I agree, it reminds me a little of "Christine", but like Walter suggested, it might have been better had the car bullied him into confessing, considering how much he tried to avoid facing his punishment.
This is one of my favorite episodes. It’s a great spin on the sentient car trope. I also, like how many ways you can interpret it the car coming alive. Maybe it has a mind of its own. Maybe Pope’s conscience took it over. Maybe the soul of the boy who died possessed it. There are a few ways you can interpret it.
This episode kind of reminded me of 'A Thing About Machines' insofar as the car having a mind of its own and the protagonist receiving his comeuppance. Although that was dealt out much more harshly with Finchley than with Oliver here. Edward Andrews was a really good actor and well respected individual. Elizabeth Montgomery (who was in the episode 'Two') named the Bewitched character Tabitha after Edward Andrew's daughter.
For a long time, I didn’t even know this episode existed. I never saw it in any of the 24 hour Twilight Zone marathons in New York. But when I finally watched it maybe 12 or 13 years ago, I liked it. Solid episode.
I always liked this episode. It’s not memorable like Nightmare At 20000 Feet, Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, To Serve Man, or anything like that, but it’s definitely an underrated episode
This episode wasn't on my radar before, maybe because Season 5 hasn't been easy to find online. But it's a gem! The visuals, especially the exteriors, are unusual for TZ, being daylight and wide shots. The car is gorgeous and utilized perfectly. Great review. Thanx for this series, Channel Awesome ❣️
A Thing about Machines had a death so maybe they didn't want to copy? Also I think nearly getting your head popped would convince someone to make it stop. Sometimes almost dying makes someone rethink their life. I love the change in scenery. The effects were well done and made it believable. The fact the car didn't hide its nature and revealed itself to the wife is scary. She might have been institutionalized if she said anything.
The Hunt has always been my favorite Hamner episode. I've known people like the old timer and his Old Woman in that story. There's such a genuineness to how the characters are written, like they were based on real people. James Best is at his finest in the episode, too, giving - in my opinion - one of the best performances of his career (no pun intended). And it makes me cry every time. In a good way.
Oh hey, it's Stephen King's inspiration for Christine. I always thought this episode was eerie in its tension, even if some of the effects don't hold up well.
A caustically effective presentation of the old Man vs Machine saw. But like the previous A Thing About Machines, it's really Machine vs MAN (again). And the hero again, is the formidable auto.
I dunno, I think being stalked, and nearly having your head run over by your own self-driving car would be a valid reason to feel spooked into telling the truth. At that point, it was probably pretty clear to him that he wasn't going to be left alone until he fessed up.
This episode will make you think twice about pulling a hit and run. I agree, the ending of Oliver simply confessing seems to be a little too clean, and it might have been more interesting had he put up more of a fight.
Yeah Walter makes a good point about the ending being too clean and out of character for Oliver. But on the other hand maybe Oliver realizes their was no more hiding the truth because his car almost killed him and it could’ve if the car wanted too. So the car opening the passenger door, Oliver realized at that moment its all over; he couldn’t run and or hide the truth anymore
Yes, this is a solid episode. It really feels like it could’ve been in the earlier seasons. The car acting as , his manifestation of guilt eating him up
The Piano in the House has my favorite performances, there are like 3 or 4 scenes of just excellent acting in it. Just a dream script for actors, the old man butler, the big gal, and his wife, and of course the main character is a hilarious misanthrope. But as far as one of the great TZ stories goes, The Hunt is still my favorite Earl Hamner for it's simplicity. It feels like a legend you might hear around a campfire in some mountainous parts of the United States. It somehow is still a little creepy due to it's subtleties, yet it has all the charm of a Mark Twain tale.
I always felt like deep down, he wanted to confess, and he just needed the car to give him the final push, almost as if the car was an extension of his own conscience.
I'd like to think the news on the radio getting the street wrong is an intentional choice because news reports often get details wrong. At least in my experience. The local news paper and radio station both reported that we were doing the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" I was in that play and I was there durring the interviews literally telling them it was not the musical but they still reported that it was. Also I think I've seen this story adapted and parodied before. I've even had nightmares when I was younger about THAT car following me and realizing that it was activly trying to run me over. It's a recurring nightmare I've had multiple times which is why I remember it so well years later.
It’s not BAD, I just don’t know why you’re so happy about it-IMO, it plays like the sort of straightforward, simple premise that would have appeared in Key’s Twilight Zone Comics, and ranks next to “Black Leather Jackets” for how generic S5 Earl Hamner scripts could be when he wasn’t on Walton Mountain. When I hear Hamner and TZ, it would have to be a pretty memorable episode to top ”The Hunt”.
When you were talking about the nitpicks involving the street names, I think it was meant to imply that the witness had been a block away. In other words, she witnessed the accident that occurred on 3rd and Park while she herself was on 3rd and Elm.
I kinda wished they went the whole “tell-tale heart” path towards the end where his guilty conscience makes a mundane sound like a car honk into something that torments him until he finally confesses.
It's Twilight Zone version of of Christine it was a pretty good episode I do remember this one a little bit but probably of all the episodes you mentioned from this director would be the hunt I always remember that part about the dog
It could be the car became anthropomorphic or just as likely the paper boy possessed the car like a poltergeist. My favorite Hamner episode is definitely "Jess Belle." I love Jess Belle's character, how she hovers between diabolical and empathetic and the folklore involving witchcraft.
I think he would because he knows if he doesn’t his car may just kill him so I think in that moment he would be safer in prison away from the living car, but that’s my opinion
I don't know how to feel about this one. Because Edward's performance is what stood out for me while Helen's felt lacking. I feel the wife would have been able to tell something is up, especially when supernatural things happen to her. I just feel after the car stopping in that spot and it driving itself back she would have been so annoyed when it made sounds in the middle of the night she would have made him drive it somewhere else. I do like how simple the plot is because you can imagine you having a car accident and freaking out on what to do next. I don't know I think maybe for the night the wife kicks him out and he just is walking through the night talking to himself while the car chases him might have been better for the story to me
Walter makes a good point that the ending for Oliver Pope just walking into the police station to confess about being the true perpetrator of the hit and run because the sentient car drove him there being too clean of an ending and out of character for Oliver. Yeah I can understand the ending not matching the tone of the story. But on the other hand maybe Oliver realizes their was no more hiding the truth because his car almost killed him and it could’ve if the car wanted too. So the car opening the passenger door, Oliver realized at that moment its all over; he couldn’t run and or hide the truth anymore
5:31 That most defenetely is not Edward Andrews. It is very obvious stunt double. Rumor has it that Andrews was so scared of scene going wrong and him getting hurt that he refused to do it.
This is a surprisingly influencial episode since this story basically had a pretty overt version of this story told in the Five Nights at Freddy's Anthology story Kid's at Play
To be fair, part of the reason cars crumple the way they do nowadays is so that the car itself absorbs more of the impact, and the passengers inside absorb less of it
As with a lot of TZ episodes, the "Twist" is anything but. I knew exactly what was going to happen long before Walter revealed it. A _true_ twist would've been if had been imagining the whole thing this entire time, starting after he killed the boy, because his guilty conscience was slowly driving him insane. They could've thrown in little tidbits like mentioning the boy's name randomly, saying they'd kill for a newspaper, or anything else his guilt-ridden brain would focus on, making his madness even worse. As a nice bonus they could have the sound of his car alarm going off after they show him going into the station, making you think it was _really_ possessed by the spirit of that boy, just to have someone come along and turn it off and, chuckling to themselves, go off-camera with a slightly confused look on their face. Ending it like that would make you wonder if the car was really haunted or not. It wouldn't have any _direct_ evidence that it was, but the car alarm going off at the end would make you wonder _just_ enough. The way it is now, you know exactly what's going to happen long before the end ever gets there. You already know the car's possessed by the boy's soul and you already know that he's going to turn himself in at the end, because that's exactly the way the story's being played out. The Twilight Zone has some *_KILLER_* episodes, but this is not one of them.
The 80s had Christine, but the 60s had Fairlane. I don’t know if this episode inspired Stephen King’s novel “Christine”; theirs too many similarities for this to be a coincidence
One way to up the ending would've been for the car to threaten his wife or even a child (would've been needed to be added). This would've admittedly taken away the moral high ground of the possessing force, of course.
You think the car almost running over your head and the thought of it torturing you for the rest of your life isn’t enough for him to want to turn himself in to escape it?!?!?!
They need a more exciting way of getting him to confess. I mean I could see him in the more subtle ways that the car keeps going to the police station by itself and people are like it's haunted you know and stuff and then that somehow drives him to say he did it because the car won't stop. But that's kind of lame.
Could you please do these as part of FanScription • What if Disney’s Cinderella didn’t make it to the ball (Disney’s Cinderella 1950movie) • What if Bambi's Mother survived (Disney’s Bambi) • What if Flik and Atta had children (A Bug's Life 2) • The Incredibles vs The Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and Vulture) • What if DreamWorks’s Rise of the Guardians 2 happened? • What if Disney’s Tarzan and friends found an unground world with dinosaurs and a lost civilization of people who mistake Jane as a Goddess (Disney’s Tarzan 2) • What if Elsa was the main villain of Disney’s Frozen • Batman vs The Green Goblin • Spider-man vs The Joker • What if The Evil Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937movie) had won? • What if Ridley Scott directed Alien 3
