hfonthebeach

Like most reviewers here, I found this movie tedious and confusing. Why would animals start acting strange if a foreign combatant attacks the internet? Deer do not encircle people with threatening movements. Flamingos do not travel to northern environments nor do they swim in deep water like ducks... so why put that in here? And why the attempts to create sexual tension with these characters? Do people really get horny when terrorists attack? The film felt a lot like the kind where the writers create a bunch of unexplainable weirdness for two hours, asking the audience to ride along, trying to figure out the mystery, only to abruptly give up in the end and jump to "...it was all just a dream..." Lazy, unimaginative writing sinks this leaky boat.

"The Masks" by Rod Serling has enough inferences and similarities to Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story, "The Masque of Red Death" that one can conclude Serling was making a kind of 'homage' to Poe with this episode. As with Serling's teleplay, Poe's story concerns a group of people all gathered together in a remote house with a sinister host who forces them to put on masks and participate in a "game" which turns out to be a morality lesson tailored to each guest's particular sin/flaw. Poe ends his story with everyone dying of the plague while simultaneously horrified how wretched a human being they had become. Bummer huh? Not to spoil it for everyone, but this episode of Twilight Zone pretty much goes there too. It is no wonder that Serling, (clearly not an optimist about humanity!) would be attracted to such a cynical tale. The remarkable part is that this episode ever got on TV at all! Today, this type of moral fable would never make it to production: not sexy enough-too depressing-zero physical action, etc. But that is why this series was SO GREAT! Serling operated outside all accepted conventions of television drama, and somehow did not let network hacks ruin his vision. And that is a rare thing in television, my friends. To get a sense of the genius of Serling as a writer, read Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" first, then see the show.