Night Visions.

Night Visions was a totally awesome TV series in the early Noughts (or Aughts or whatev) that was totally cut short. It's like this millenium's Night Gallery, the horror genre's Twilight Zone.

I used to look forward to Wednesdays at 11pm because of this show. Nowadays on Wednesdays (and every other day) at 11, we watch Chef At Home.

Yup. That's how mellow TV programming has become.

Anyway, each episode is one hour, with two half-hour stories. Practically all of them have a twist ending, with the protagonist predictably getting it, but it was still fun because it was thrilling. And plus, every episode has someone (relatively) famous in it, with Aidan Quinn *swoon*, Bridget Fonda, Malcolm McDowell, Cary Elwes *dubbleswoon*, David Paymer, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jay Mohr, Gil Bellows, and a truckload of other familiar faces.

The special effects are, admittedly, a bit lame, but hey, it's a TV show. We're lucky that we're getting any special effects. I mean, look at Supernatural. An episode where angels and demons literally have a stand-off, and they fist-fight.


It was boring.

Right, getting back on-topic, I actually thought I'd missed the initial few episodes when they started airing it on TV, because we were away on holiday for about a week or so. The only reason why I wanted to watch the show because I saw Aidan Quinn in the commercials but turns out, I didn't miss any. Aidan Quinn's was the first ever episode, which was the first one we watched, and that one was pretty good (please see description here, somewhere in the middle). The second part of the show was called The Bokor, but that one was so-so, though it was awfully creepy.

My favorite episodes of the series are:

1) Darkness
Michael Rapaport inherits a huge mansion from the uncle he never knew, and inherits the evil that comes out whenever it's dark, refusing to let go of his newfound wealth. Simple storyline, but it stood out for me, and at the end, Rapaport's still staying in the house, except that in the process of eradicating the Darkness, he accidentally blinds himself permanently.

2) A View through the Window
Bill Pullman plays a scientist summoned to explain a mysterious phenomenon in the middle of the desert: a one-way "window" looking into a small house in the countryside. Pullman falls for the daughter of the house, and when the window opens for one brief moment, he goes through it. His ultimate fate is really quite predictable, but the episode really leaves a lasting impression in the final scene, where the window still exists, but the one-way view is now reversed.

3) Bitter Harvest
was another brilliant episode. A young man accidentally causes the token creepy old guy (played by Jack Palance, R.I.P.) to lose his forearms, and as the boy is afraid of telling his parents what happened, he is forced to work on the Palance's farm while he recuperates. Nothing happens to the boy, and at the end of the week, all that anticipation finally gets to him and he asks the old guy a flat out "Why??" Turns out, the old guy isn't into direct revenge. By the end, a foal born with no forelegs, and ominously, the boy's mother announces that she is expecting.

4) Afterlife
opens with a dead Randy Quaid, whose eyes keep popping open despite the very fact that he is, well, dead. During the funeral (his), he comes back to life, and his family is overjoyed. Later, though, Quaid keeps tasting dirt despite NOT eating dirt, and becomes obsessed with heaven, wanting to go back, and creates collages (lovely ones) that depict what he remembers of heaven. He eventually tries to kill his daughter, who totally runs, and as wife and daughter watch in horror, he commits suicide. We come back to the same funeral parlour, and as Quaid's eyes pop open again, the camera pans over to his POV, looking up at the (same) two funeral parlour people from the beginning, and moving up towards the ceiling, where we see a stained glass that is the splitting image of 'heaven'.


So anyway, those are my top few. A few episodes are on YouTube, like Afterlife and A View through the Window. Do check the other episodes out when you have time to kill; they won't disappoint :)