One Of The Scariest Episodes Of The Twilight Zone Had Virtually No Dialogue

As for the invaders themselves, they did not simply look small on-screen. They have been made “life dimension” on the set, and have been carried out by the episode’s director utilizing two fingers for the arms, and two fingers for the legs. “By having them that dimension, she was in a position to seize them bodily and hurl them throughout the room, which made it much more attention-grabbing than in the event you have been utilizing course of and he or she could not actually contact them,” Douglas Heyes defined in “The Twilight Zone Companion.”

Heyes claims the inspiration for the design got here from the Michelin Tire Man, and served two functions: The invaders appeared like they weren’t human, however after the revelation that they are really human, it made sense looking back: “Ah hah! Then subsequently, they have been in inflated spacesuits, proper?”

Apparently not content material to play his invaders together with his personal fingers, he additionally offered the voice of the aliens as nicely. On the finish of the episode, when the people contained in the UFO make a radio announcement to Earth, warning them of this planet of terrifying and violent giants, “that was my voice,” Heyes mentioned, “as a result of I used to be these little guys.”

Heyes’s enthusiasm for the episode’s depiction of the invaders wasn’t shared by the episode’s writer, Richard Matheson, who, along with claiming the episode was paced too slowly, mentioned: “I believed these little roly-poly dolls have been ridiculous wanting. The best way I had written it, you’ll solely catch very fast views of them and by no means something clear. To see these little issues waddling throughout the ground was about as horrifying as Peter Rabbit coming at you.”