Anthology series are always a hit or miss. They usually depend on the producer’s ability to ensure a steady quality from one unrelated episode to another. The Twilight Zone has proved to be one of the best and most enduring in doing so, while One Step Beyond stays relatively obscure, even though they’re practically identical in format, with host John Newland stepping in to bookend each episode with soliloquies not unlike Rod Serling’s. He even opens with a kindred mantra:
"What you are about to see is a matter of human record. Explain it, we cannot. Disprove it, we cannot. We simply invite you to explore with us the amazing world of the unknown. To take that One Step Beyond."
The catch is, it made its on-air debut 10 months before The Twilight Zone.
The main difference between them is that—and I believe this is why Serling’s show ended up being more popular—The Twilight Zone has Serling’s biting (though often obvious) social commentary, which keeps it lasting simply by its cultural relevance. By contrast, One Step Beyond is very, very silly and perhaps even trashy; though popular at the time. Presenting itself as a docudrama, it claims that all the stories dramatized are true reported cases. As a hardcore skeptic, I just had to laugh at this. Not only are there no references to the supposed actual events in the episodes, but even if they really were based on true accounts, most of them are laughably easy to dismiss; like the 8th episode, “Premonition,” about a woman who dreams that her living room chandelier would fall despite it being structurally sound—and it happens 40 years later! Shocking!
That’s not to say the show itself is laughable. It’s not. It’s nonsense to take it seriously as a docudrama, but as 30 minute spook stories, One Step Beyond is tremendous. It focuses almost entirely on the paranormal, with solid acting and directing to elevate the hearsay material. While Serling was a prolific writer, Newland was an actor and director who was able to craft truly creepy scenes from standard supernatural stories about possessions, haunts, and it’s favorite subject, premonitions. The latter is dealt with in a big way in the second episode, “Night of April 14th,” in which a woman having continuing dreams of drowning is surprised by her husband’s sudden invitation to spend their honeymoon on the doomed Titanic.
There are 22 black-and-white fullscreen episodes in total on this three-disc set, all of them directed by John Newland. The best of the bunch turns out to be the pilot episode, “The Bride Possessed” (of which an extended version is included featuring a longer introduction by Newland). It’s a stock story about ghostly possession, made captivating by the intense performances.
Other notable episodes are “The Dark Room,” featuring a young Cloris Leachman in a French ghost story that, though predictable, slowly burns from unsettling to quick riveting horror; “The Devil’s Laughter,” about a 19th century convicted killer who sees his own death, and not by execution, causing him to become a reckless risk-taker; and “The Haunted U-Boat,” about a haunted submarine that won’t stop producing eerie banging noises.
DVD Bonus Features
Given that the draw of this release is it being released officially for the first time, not much attention is given on any sort of supplemental features. The extras are all collections of existing material like promos, the original opening title sequence with the Alcoa aluminum sponsorship, and the “modernized” title sequence from its brief 90’s revival.
The show had actually fallen into public domain, so there were previous releases by cheap companies and on the internet (hence the need to stress “official” on this release’s cover), though in extremely poor quality. Fans would be happy to know that this 50th anniversary release has gone through great restoration to present the episodes in gorgeous picture and sound. The price might be daunting for such an old show, but it’s a show well worth it if you enjoy campfire stories.
"One Step Beyond: The Official First Season" is on sale September 15, 2009 and is rated NR. Horror, Mystery. Directed by John Newland. Written by Merwin Gerard (creator). Starring John Newland.
