The Twilight Zone is a show that is remembered for its horror, science fiction, thriller, and mystery-centric episodes… which is what makes it weird when your occasional Western episode pops up. That being said, it wouldn’t be a Twilight Zone episode if there wasn’t a little bit of genre storytelling thrown into the mix. Every Western episode of this series still ends up falling into Rod Serling‘s usual trappings, but none do the trick nearly as well as “The Grave” from Season 3. This episode largely takes place in a saloon, filled with a whole cast of characters who are all wearing cowboy hats, and even has a brief shootout at the top of its runtime. However, it doesn’t take long for the other to make its way in. For Conny Miller (Lee Marvin), he’s no longer playing horseshoes and hand grenades in the old West, he’s facing death… in The Twilight Zone.
Rod Serling is a writer who cast his net wide throughout his career, but his greatest fascinations obviously lie with science fiction, preying on his audience’s fears, and finding ways to explore social issues through genre storytelling. Many of his seminal series’ best episodes do all of these things, with most of them living on as some of the most highly acclaimed releases that the show has to offer. Think of episodes like “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and “The Encounter.” Despite having a good deal of thoughtfully made, socially conscious releases, most of the show is made up of episodes that fall into pure genre storytelling, including The Twilight Zone‘s scariest episode “Living Doll,” as well as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” and “Time Enough at Last.” These are the episodes that don’t have anything truly resonant to say, but that’s okay because their eerie stories will stick with you enough as it is. Most of the ways you roll it, this series tends to just creep you out for 25 minutes or so, then call it a day.
Season 3’s “The Grave” Is the Best Western ‘Twilight Zone’ Episode
That’s what makes it so weird when a Western episode does come along. For a series that’s so deeply embedded in 1950s and ’60s iconography, having The Twilight Zone being thrown all the way back to the 1800s always feels odd at first. Who knows what Rod Serling actually thinks of these episodes, but from a network perspective, it makes sense to have wanted to shift gears every now and then and throw audiences back to the Old West. Cowboy movies and TV programs were all the rage when Rod Serling was actively working on this show, so those looking for something to watch might accidentally stumble upon a Western episode and stick around, not knowing that it was actually part of The Twilight Zone. There were a few of these sprinkled throughout the original 1959-1964 run, including “Still Valley,” “Dust,” and “Execution” (you know, “it’s my mortal neck that concerns me now”). Despite doing so many times, none of The Twilight Zone‘s ventures back to the Old West would ever be better than “The Grave.”
This Season 3 episode of The Twilight Zone is one of the few Western episodes to kick off without feeling like a true-blue Western. Sure, it starts off in a small, rickety town square, with everyone wearing cowboy hats and drawing their pistols, but something feels off tonally. “The Grave” has an eerie, foreboding atmosphere from the first minute, and only becomes creepier as it goes along. The episode begins early one afternoon, and we see an outlaw named Pinto Sykes (Dick Geary) get gunned down and killed by the people of this very small town. A few days later, lawman Conny Miller (played by the forever badass Lee Marvin) rolls into the town saloon in the middle of the night looking for Sykes, just to find out that he has been dead now for days. The customers let Miller know that they are aware that he could have caught Sykes but never did. Then, out of spite for Miller, one of the saloon’s customers, Johnny Rob (James Best), challenges him to go to Sykes’ grave plot and stick a bowie knife in it. To prove that he’s not afraid, Miller takes the challenge on and makes his way to the graveyard.
Lee Marvin Leads the Way in This Western Ghost Story
There’s nothing about this episode that feels weighty or deep, it’s just a good old-fashioned ghost story dressed up as a Western. Once we enter the saloon, where we’ll be for most of the episode, “The Grave” starts to take on its most interesting haunting atmosphere. These are usually the kinds of places where cowboys are partying or outlaws are being gunned down. Instead, a solemn Conny Miller wanders his way into the dimly lit saloon, one that feels almost pitch black in some corners thanks to the show’s black and white photography. As we hear about Sykes’ last moments alive, vowing to reach up and grab Miller if he ever visited his grave, it feels like we’re being told a ghost story by a campfire. Everyone fears the graveyard, and Miller obviously does too, no matter what he says.
Soon after, the episode literally feels like it veers straight into the old-school horror lane when Ione Sykes (Elen Willard) wanders into the saloon looking for a drink. She comes in backward with a hood pulled over her head and it literally feels like Death is walking into the room. Lee Marvin might be the lead of the episode, and an early, mustache-less appearance from Lee Van Cleef is oddly memorable for being out of his usual tough-guy typecast, but Willard’s performance as Ione is what you’ll walk away unsettled by. Her three appearances are just flat-out haunting. She’s as cold as ice every time she comes into frame, and is clearly rooting for Miller to get what’s coming to him one day, so much so that it feels like she might have helped put the episode’s final moments into effect.
Rod Serling Ends ‘The Twilight Zone’ Episode on an Unnerving Note
Without spoiling anything, Miller does in fact go to the graveyard to plant the bowie knife into the ground. The episode takes on a real meat-and-potatoes horror vibe here, as it’s a graveyard scene that’s shot in black and white with the threat of a ghost looming over our heads, but it’s Ione’s presence and half-threat at the beginning of the scene that’s most chilling. Things end a bit ambiguously, but that only adds to its unanswerable supernatural atmosphere.
This episode ends on the perfect creepy note, only for Rod Serling to come in and rattle off an unintentionally hilarious closing narration. “Final comment: you take this with a grain of salt or a shovelful of earth, as shadow or substance, we leave it up to you. And for any further research, check under ‘G,’ for ‘ghosts’…in the Twilight Zone.” The whole “final comment” bit and basically confirming “yep, you just watched a ghost episode!” feels like he pulled this one off the top of his head in a recording booth. It’s one of his most “whatever” bookending voice-overs in the entire show, but honestly that just adds to it. I wish we heard Serling loosen up a bit more often.
Just imagine an episode of The Twilight Zone mixed with the Universal Monster Movies and with a few cowboys sprinkled in, and you’ve got “The Grave.” It wouldn’t be strange if this show had more Western episodes than it does, but thankfully, the only ones we have are pretty great. This dialogue-driven ghost story that is sure to satisfy any horror appetite that you might have. This Halloween season, if you’re looking for a quick atmospheric chiller to maybe warm you up for a good horror movie, then fire this episode up.
The Big Picture
- “The Grave” is a standout Western episode of The Twilight Zone that successfully combines the genre with the show’s trademark eerie storytelling.
- The episode’s haunting atmosphere and chilling performances, particularly from Lee Marvin and Elen Willard, make it a memorable ghost story.
- Rod Serling’s closing narration adds a touch of humor to the episode, but doesn’t detract from its overall supernatural and creepy tone.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
