episode #11 - It Crawled Out of the Woodwork

Air Date: 12/9/63 writer: Joseph Stefano Director: Gerd Oswald

A bizarre and unsettling monster story in this one - I was never clear on how or why this destructive creature was created (via a vacuum cleaner), but it was scary nonetheless. Personnel at a company called "Norco" are turned into, essentially, walking dead, with pacemakers attached to keep them alive in their 2nd lives. This is also vague; people are killed but brought back to life somehow as their normal selves; they don't behave like zombies or anything, just as they were before, except for the little gadgets on their chests. There are some frightening and disturbing scenes of people dying. The monster itself is inspired - a crackling, shifting, sometimes man-shaped demonic storm front.
My guess is that this monster, a being of pure energy, can alter matter or energy as it sees fit, including returning persons to life. And, in keeping with this premise, there's no dramatic conclusion involving the monster's defeat; as stated in the episode itself, energy cannot be destroyed, so it's left open ended, with the creature temporarily contained. The main characters are two brothers, the tall strong one (Michael Forest), who just starts a new job at Norco, and the weak one (Scott Marlowe); it's not the expected brother who is victimized. Marlowe plays it as a flake, perhaps a too sensitive, almost feminine loser who is almost helpless without his stronger brother. Barbara Luna has a thankless role as a lady whom the weak bro hooks up with. Ed Asner shows up as the 2nd half begins, playing a police detective. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
Outer Trivia: Star Trek TOS actor alert - Forest played the self-professed Greek god Apollo in Who Mourns For Adonais? and Luna showed up as a captain's woman in Mirror, Mirror.
NOTE: unlike pre-credits sequences in other episodes, which preview later scenes, the first sequence in this episode is the actual first scene, which shows how the creature is created (not that it makes much sense).