It Crawled Out of the Woodwork

Ed Asner is right; it is a terrible script, not helped by Scott Marlowe chewing scenery in a role he was far too old to do. All of the "scientists" are deadly dull, the monster is poorly animated, and the first half is plagued by the slow-pacing-and-overly-dramatic-music so typical of Outer Limits. Joan Camden must have been bored out of her mind.

But now for the good news: the director makes interesting use of shadows and lighting, and the pacing picks up as the story progresses. While Michael Forrest's naturalism warms the first third, the mid-show picks up with Barbara Luna's energy -- sadly wasted, as the script basically runs out of things for her to do. But the final third is enlivened by Ed Asner, who holds our attention despite the so-so scripting. Acknowledgement must also be made for Ted de Corsia's security guard, who is equally convincing in his small role.

Star Trek connections aplenty, with Michael Forrest and Barbara Luna on screen, Vic Perrin as voice-over Fred Phillips doing make-up, and Gerd Oswald directing (noticeably similar to his work on TOS "The Conscience of the King")

A creature of sheer energy is released by a poor cleaning lady at a facility called Norco. The people who run the place have a kind of pacemaker attached to their chests, allowing them to continue living. A young scientist goes to work and is soon dispatched because he has become privy to the evil doings of the people there. A guard tries to warn him off and he makes the mistake of telling the head of research. Meanwhile, his brother, who is supposedly twenty years old (he looks thirty-five) becomes embroiled in the mystery of his brother's death (there's even more I won't tell you). Ed Asner (looking younger than I've ever seen him) is a police detective who, after the brother's death, begins snooping around. An attractive young female scientist is mixed up in all this, but we don't know why. Asner confronts her and that leads to the ultimate resolution. As is the case with this series, they were very good at producing cloudy monstrosities that overwhelm their victims. This is a decent episode and worth a look.

I was two years old when this episode originally aired in 1963 - and I was allowed to watch it. To this day, when I exit our basement I leave the light down there on until after shutting and locking the upstairs basement door (the switch for the light is upstairs) so that the "Energy Monster" is attracted to the light bulb and doesn't come upstairs with me. LOL This fact demonstrates both the power (pardon the pun) of this particular episode, and also, how much a two year old can understand (admittedly a very smart two year old). And yes, this also demonstrates how strongly a scary program can effect a little kid.

Note that I fully realize that the Energy Monster is not real (I sure hope it can't read!).

I was 8 when this show aired. All of us kids in the neighborhood were nearly traumatized by it every week yet couldn't not watch it. Yet nothing but nothing terrorized me more than the truly alien "life form" of this episode. As frightening as the Zanti Misfits were, this is the only thing from my entire childhood besides Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West that actually gave me nightmares. Superbly imaginative rendering of a thing as truly alien and terrorizing as could be. The film noir and desolate presentation is reminiscent of Carpenter's "The Thing".

Weird episode over two brothers who goes to California to works at Norco, a center of studies and research of experimental physics, the old brother Dr. Stuart was hire, however he was induced to enter in a narrow passageway that ends up in a pit, two doors control the access, suddenly the last door opens and release an unknown creature of utter energy of a dust shape, he died of fear, it was appeared on the lab out from nowhere, therefore the director Dr. Bloch got to rise again with a special cardiac peacemaker, but no longer as a usual human being, the young brother Jory Peters received a sudden visit of the disappeared, after a little chat on the bathroom he feels that his brother is too shallow and odd, Dr. Stuart fell down in bathtub, in contact with water he receives an electric discharge from the peacemaker and going to die, aftermath on the lab the Seargent Siroleo has been making his regular inquire, then Jory appears later, together they can solve the murders and what's really was the unrestrained creature!!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7