There is always more to explore in The Twilight Zone. Over the course of its original five-season run, this anthology series built up quite an expansive mythology. Even enthusiastic fans of The Twilight Zone probably haven’t seen half of its 156 episodes. Only so many of them are famous, after all. Created by Rod Serling, this show has such a variety of genres and scenarios that there isn’t always a villain acting against the protagonist. Sometimes a character simply finds themselves in extraordinary circumstances, with no specific person or group out to get them.
That said, many of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone are indeed driven by antagonists. Sometimes they’re monsters, sometimes they’re personifications of death, and they can even be the devil himself. But they don’t need to be; sometimes they’re just people with a special power, and sometimes they’re people without any more abilities than anyone else. The force of evil need not be acting alone, either. So long as they captivate the audience and communicate a resonant theme with some nuance, then they can be called a successful antagonist, regardless of whether they’re eventually conquered or not. So, without further ado, here are possibly the best of the worst beings you can come across in The Twilight Zone.
10
The Hitch-hiker
From “The Hitch-hiker” (Season 1, Episode 16)
A great antagonist doesn’t need to have a scary costume or menacing voice to strike terror into the audience. Sometimes he can look just like any other guy who needs a lift, at least in The Twilight Zone. Season 1’s “The Hitch-hiker” is about a woman named Nan (Inger Stevens) traveling cross-country by herself during her vacation. The episode begins with the aftermath of a minor car accident, and the rest of the story is about her resuming her trip.
The problem is simply that she keeps passing the same exact hitch-hiker (Leonard Strong) she saw at the beginning of the episode. He’s got normal clothes, a hat, and his thumb is always hitched up. But there’s no way this guy can keep getting ahead of her; the only explanation is that cars keep picking him up and dropping him off on Nan’s route, which becomes more and more impossible. The simplicity of this concept is perfectly conceived, and the twist at the end of “The Hitch-hiker” cements this anonymous villain as one of the most effective bad guys in the Zone.
9
Willie
From “The Dummy” (Season 3, Episode 33)
Jerry (Cliff Robertson) is a very troubled ventriloquist, and that’s because of his dummy. The dummy’s name is aptly Willie, who appears to have a mind and will of his own. According to Jerry, this doll will make its own jokes during the routine, which sounds pretty wild. Jerry should have thrown out this dummy a long time ago, but instead, he puts it off until this evening. He has a new doll, and he’s going to do a completely new routine with it.
Well, it turns out that Willie’s sentience isn’t just a figment of Jerry’s imagination. The dummy is alive, and he is not happy about being replaced. It’s scary to notice this wood-carved doll has changed positions, showing how you don’t need wacky camera tricks or special effects to make us feel like this toy is able to move on its own. What makes this villain really send a chill down your spine is what he does in the end, making this one of The Twilight Zone‘s most disturbing entries.
8
The Neighbors
From “The Shelter” (Season 3, Episode 3)
For those building their own bomb shelters out there, tell others with caution. As “The Shelter” suggests, too many of your unprepared neighbors may want in. In this case, that would be all of Bill Stockton’s (Larry Gates) so-called friends. In the middle of Bill’s birthday party, the radio heavily suggests that there may be nuclear missiles heading our way. Given how close these neighbors live to New York, they’re bound to get hit.
In response, pretty much everyone but Jerry (Jack Albertson) goes nuts. They don’t have shelters of their own; some don’t even have basements, and they have families to worry about. Becoming more and more unruly, these neighbors quarrel with each other while begging Bill to let them in. There is no single antagonist here; rather, it’s this mob of ill-prepared party-goers. Representative of society in general during the paranoia of the Cold War, these realistic characters are scarier than most other villains because we know that many people would act this way in real life.
7
Grandma Bayles
From “Long Distance Call” (Season 2, Episode 22)
Little Billy Bayles (Billy Mumy) sure loves his grandmother, but Grandma Bayles (Lili Darvas) has one hell of a way to show that she loves him back. At first, it seems nice that she got him a toy telephone for his birthday, but it turns out to be one of the most terrifying devices in The Twilight Zone. Grandma dies shortly after gifting Billy with that phone, and the boy’s poor mother quickly becomes worried.
Billy uses that phone, and it appears that he’s pretending to talk to Grandma on it. That’s already weird enough as it is. Though the boy can have a very active imagination, the amount of time he spends on that phone is concerning. But that really is Grandma on the other end, which makes things much worse. She tells her grandson to do things so that he can join her in the afterlife, making her a villain who is already dead and can only be pleaded with. In short, this evil grandma makes “Long Distance Call” one of The Twilight Zone Season 2’s most skin-crawling episodes.
6
The Whole Block
From “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (Season 1, Episode 22)
One of the best Twilight Zone episodes written by Rod Serling, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” is another example of when the crowd is the antagonist. When the power goes out on Maple Street and people lose the ability to even drive their cars, they struggle to understand not so much how this is possible but who is responsible. Soon enough, pretty much everybody becomes a suspect.
It just takes one working car to raise eyebrows. A flicker of light in the house or on the porch, a tendency to watch the stars at night, a simple hobbyโthese anomalies, whether they’re inexplicable or simply out of what the neighbors consider ordinary, are enough to turn everyone against each other. Technically, there is a more conventional idea of a villain in the end, but its function is merely to emphasize that humanity tears itself apart over the pettiest things when in the midst of a panic. So, for the purposes of this list, Maple Street (a microcosm of human civilization) is the problem.
5
The Kanamits
From “To Serve Man” (Season 3, Episode 24)
When things seem too good to be true, they probably are. Case in point: Season 3’s “To Serve Man.” When an alien species is regularly 9-feet tall, extraordinarily more intelligent than humans, swiftly ends world hunger, and brings about world peace, it shouldn’t be a cause for celebration so much as a cause for alarm. If they can do that, what else can they do? There may be an ulterior motive to gaining people’s trust.
Michael Chambers (Lloyd Bochner) is a code-breaker tasked with figuring out how to read one of their books, which proves an extremely complicated task. These aliens, called Kanamits, invite people aboard their spaceships. Apparently, they’re doing this for beneficent reasons, and the plan understandably fools lots of people. The famously wild plot twist in the end explains the real reason why, though, making the Kanamits among the most intimidating villains of any Twilight Zone galaxy.
4
Jason Foster
From “The Masks” (Season 5, Episode 25)
Jason Foster (Robert Keith) didn’t do a good job of raising his daughter. Likewise, she’s done a terrible job raising her own children, and her husband is no more virtuous. Aside from Jason, they’re all selfish, spoiled people. Meanwhile, Grandpa Foster is going to die very soonโand he’s got a ton of wealth to leave behind. His visitors hope it will be left to them, but he tells them the only way they’ll inherit his money is if they indulge him for a short while: wear some ugly masks until midnight.
Season 5’s “The Masks” easily ranks among the greatest Twilight Zone episodes of the original series, and Foster’s idea is what drives both its narrative, its themes, and that awesome plot twist at the end. Now, Grandpa Foster may be the only person with a sense of morality in this episode, but he’s still implementing a rather devious plot against the others. He could have just lent his money to charity and let his progeny go nuts without immense wealth, which means he technically qualifies as the villain here, one of the few the audience can’t help but cheer on.
3
Talky Tina
From “Living Doll” (Season 5, Episode 6)
Annabelle (Mary La Roche) bought her lonely daughter Christie (Tracy Stratford) a Talky Tina (voiced by June Foray), which is both the best and most terrifying thing to happen in this house. Stepfather Erich (Telly Savalas) is immediately against the idea and wants the expensive doll brought back to the store. This guy is basically the opposite of positivity, and Talky Tina has something to say about that. She tells him to be nice, and it’s rightfully perceived as a threat.
Given why she’s doing this, though, it’s hard not to take the doll’s side. As a much-needed toy whose loyalty to her owner knows no bounds, she does what she has to do to keep her child happy. Or, as Rod Serling narrates: “to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian.” In that sense, she is one of the most devoted dolls of all time, one of the most sympathetic villains of all time, and among the best characters in The Twilight Zone.
2
Anthony Fremont
From “It’s a Good Life” (Season 3, Episode 8)
Child actor Billy Mumy gets his second mention on this list, except now he plays not the victim but the perpetrator of unspeakable acts. Season 3’s “It’s a Good Life” sees him as Anthony Fremont, a young boy who inexplicably has the ability to kill, maim, mentally harm, and teleport anyone else with just his thoughts. He can also change anything else around him. What makes the boy especially dangerous, though, is that he can read people’s minds. So, if people nearby aren’t thinking happy thoughts and making him feel good about himself, he’ll punish them severely.
He’s essentially the supreme ruler of Peaksville, filled with citizens who have to pretend that they’re not absolutely revolted and terrified of him. There is no way to punish him or make him become more mature as he grows older, so he’ll probably only get worse. The volatility, absolute power, and how he uses that power on others make this psychopath of a child one of the most disturbing villains in The Twilight Zone by far.
1
The Gremlin
From “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (Season 5, Episode 3)
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is undoubtedly one of the strongest cases for maintaining, after so many years, that Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone is still the best anthology series of all time. The plot is simple: a man just released from a mental hospital (William Shatner) is on board a plane with his wife. He has a great fear of planes, and he is sitting in the window seat. During the flight, he sees something in that window that completely freaks him out.
Whether you want to call it a gremlin or a hairy creature or whatever, it’s a hairy monster that can stand on the edge of a jet wing mid-flight without any issues. It also jumps away whenever anyone other than Mr. Robert Wilson is looking. What makes this creature so terrifying is not just the effect it has on Mr. Wilson, and it’s not just the fact that it’s trying to tear the plane apart. It’s also how it makes us wonder, like Mr. Wilson, if it’s even there in the first place. This thing is iconic, and (as the title suggests) can indeed leave you with nightmares.