In the final quarter of 2022, the edited collection The Many Lives of The Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise, was published by McFarland. Edited by Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. and Ron Riekki, the book contains nineteen essays that take a variety of academic approaches to different Twilight Zone texts. One of those essays is mine, “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown.”
In my essay, I compare and contrast the original run of The Twilight Zone with the 1972 anthology-horror film, Encounter with the Unknown, which uses Rod Serling’s narration and Twilight Zone visual cues to, more-or-less, rip off the legendary series. While I consider the essay exhaustive and complete, I feel it could benefit from an addendum. The final section of my essay, ‘Voices and Images,’ I bring up examples of how VHS releases of Encounter of the Unknown mimic iconic visual elements of The Twilight Zone. While these descriptions are as detailed as possible, I figured readers of the essay would benefit from supplemental material that contains pictures of these VHS releases.
If you haven’t read my essay and are curious, (or the entire book sounds intriguing), The Many Lives of The Twilight Zone can be purchased at McFarland and Amazon.