Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S05E25: The Masks

Revisiting The Twilight Zone: S05E25: The Masks

Despite the reasonable idea of the written story, I think perhaps this episode is too drawn out to get the appropriate response from the viewer. Such is the way when you have a bed-ridden patient and a family that you are trying to cross-examine even as the story progresses.

The story is ok. An old man is dying, and his family shows up more to ensure he IS dying and that they can claim the enormous inheritance than to show any real sympathy for his own situation. Each of the family reveals their obvious character traits as they are there. As a result, in order to claim their inheritance, they must each don masks that are said to be the opposite of their character but are obviously not so, and must leave them on until midnight. Throughout the evening they all complain of being uncomfortable, but they dutifully await until the anointed hour, at which time the old man expires. Initially delighted to have become immensely rich, they remove their masks to discover why they were so uncomfortable – their faces have contorted into the same terrible expressions as the masks, forcing them to live with their character traits in full public view forever.

Like I said, it comes across as a reasonable story idea, but given the length of time that it takes to drag out to the final conclusion, it is not one of the episodes that you will consider as memorable for those reasons.

Rating: No more hiding behind a mask. 3/5