The Crowd

Perhaps to a jaded viewer this low-budget 20-year-old episode might seem dated; for instance not enough plot twists and/or not enough violence or gore. But I found it short and sweet (though "sweet" isn't the right word; "creepy" is the right word). I don't recall reading the short story on which it's based; if you have, you probably don't need to watch this. But watching this first and then reading the story might be the way to go, as Bradbury's poetic language makes him more suited to prose than movies and TV shows. The show is not for the very young or easily spooked. So preview it first, then watch it with your kids on Halloween. --Nov 2006

On a positive side, I found this to have a Cronenberg essence to it: cold, a bit surreal and content over "superb" acting or plot line. But what separates this is the special effects or production is seriously lacking vision. I feel like several key things were unexplained and the mystery around "The Crowd" could have been crafted better.

The core concept is fascinating, but most of this didn't hit for me.

This story adaptation is about a man who has too much to drink one night and rolls his car after speeding. As he crawls partway out of a window, he notices that within seconds, a crowd has appeared. He finds this odd, but he has suffered a blow to the head. Once back at work, he is explaining this phenomenon to his friend when an accident occurs out on the street. When he looks, he realizes that many of the same people that stood over him have arrived in less than half a minute. This time a woman is dead after being surrounded closely by the crowd. He begins to find accident scene pictures and realizes that they have appeared in many other locations. When he investigates, he finds that the people in the crowd are also in morgue photos. They are dead. Check out the ending. Real spooky stuff.

Ralph L. Thomas, who directed a brilliant little movie "Ticket to Heaven" about a religious cult, scores another great achievement with "The Crowd", one of Bradbury's finest macabre tales.

The half-hour show is lean and without any side issues, as Nick Mancuso becomes obsessed with an inexplicable fact he observes when he's trapped under his car one night after crashing it in a driving accident. As he recovers in hospital, he can't explain how a large crowd of gawking spectators assembled out of nowhere in just seconds at 2 a.m. On a deserted street.

With the aid of his co-worker R. H. Thomson who shot video for TV newscasts, he manages to identify several people who appear at a large number of such car accidents, but how and why? Mancuso concocts a bizarre conspiracy theory out of this, while his friend assures him there must be some simple, logical explanation. He still helps him pursue the truth, leading to a truly chilling conclusion.

Mancuso and Thomson also starred in Thomas's "Ticket to Heaven", and this strange second collaboration is terrific.

Despite living in LA nearly all his life, Bradbury is not a fan of the car. I'm not sure he ever learned to drive. Here a man survives an accident but notes the faces of the crowd that gathers and becomes convinced they were evil. Not long after he witnesses another accident and the same people arrive. Who are they? How do they know when an accident will happen? He investigates with his friend (who has the irritating American habit of constantly chewing gum). Decent fantasy idea with a good, scary ending.