The new trailer for Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone” reboot looks exactly the way a TV show reboot should. It’s full of fresh images and nods to the original. Fitting for the science fiction show, both are terrifying.
“Everything that happens in this universe has to be the way it is,” a voice says as the camera zooms in on a closed door. “Things happen the way they should.”
The door, a nod to the iconic title sequence used in seasons four and five of the original 1959 series, gives way to a series of short images, including a window in the background and a ticking clock in the foreground, like the one that appeared while creator Rod Serling read the words, “You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.”
The host and co-executive producer of the show’s third reboot, Peele has come a long way since his days at Comedy Central. He rose to prominence with “Get Out,” a debatably comedic thriller, and he directed the upcoming psychological horror flick “Us.” Now he’s bringing both his experience with the horror genre and his ironic humor to “The Twilight Zone,” which will begin streaming April 1 on CBS All Access.
The show is bound to succeed, following horror-thriller successes such as “Bird Box,” “The Haunting of Hill House,” and, most similar to “The Twilight Zone,” “Black Mirror.”
Viewers love the supernatural, the bizarre, even the macabre, and the reboot may be equipped to present them in new ways. The original show dealt with timeless themes: nostalgia, mortality, fear. It also questioned what we might do with new technology such as driverless cars and robots. The upcoming “Twilight Zone,” if it addresses our modern technological concerns like artificial intelligence, data tracking, and surveillance, may define horror for a new generation.
“It may be said with a degree of assurance,” intones Serling at the opening of a 1964 episode, “that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears.” Whether 60 years ago or today, science fiction has the power to make us question not only our relationship to technology but also the ethereal qualities that make us human.
“The Twilight Zone” reboot may or may not live up to that potential. Either way, the trailer is satisfyingly creepy. Watch the camera zoom in on Peele as the iconic four-note sequence begins, and tell me you don’t get goosebumps.
