Synopsis: A woman enlists the help of a paranormal skeptic to search for her missing son and girlfriend who have vanished after entering an abandoned house.
Review:
This seems like an odd subject for a series like 'Outer Limits' which survives on predominantly sci-fi themed tales. Yet, here is a woman who searches for her missing son in an alleged 'haunted house' and hears him calling to her. With a promise of $5000, she is able to convince a well-known published paranormal skeptic to accompany her to the house and assist with looking for her son. It plays like an all-too-typical haunted house story, sudden drafts, noises, and visions...nothing remarkable but everything very much what you might expect from a series like 'Night Gallery' or 'One Step Beyond'. Then they discover a hidden room and an object that manages to plant this episode back into the sci-fi realm. This is good because so far the episode was surprisingly unoriginal. Unfortunately, what is done with this plot device isn't original either. It is a cross of 'Andromeda Strain' with a smidgen of 'John Carpenter's The Thing' and an eventual nod to the original 'Poltergeist'.
Dwight Schultz and Alberta Watson do an adequate job of acting out the roles they've been given to a point. The episode's conclusion doesn't give them or the viewers much to work with. Most would agree that the best OL episodes leave a haunting residue embedded in the viewer's mind to toy with, ponder over. I waited for it...nothing. It was then that I was reminded of the second season of the original series and how nearly all of those episodes simply ended without much bravado. This episode would fit nicely into that uninspired period.
Conclusion: It is a shame that something more profound or enlightening couldn't have been done with this vehicle. The opportunities were there and were missed. The worst thing of all is that I feel any viewer will notice it. If this happens to be the first OL episode you've ever seen, there is every likelihood that you will walk away with little compulsion to prioritize yourself to watch another episode. There are many far better ones. Don't give up.
Review:
This seems like an odd subject for a series like 'Outer Limits' which survives on predominantly sci-fi themed tales. Yet, here is a woman who searches for her missing son in an alleged 'haunted house' and hears him calling to her. With a promise of $5000, she is able to convince a well-known published paranormal skeptic to accompany her to the house and assist with looking for her son. It plays like an all-too-typical haunted house story, sudden drafts, noises, and visions...nothing remarkable but everything very much what you might expect from a series like 'Night Gallery' or 'One Step Beyond'. Then they discover a hidden room and an object that manages to plant this episode back into the sci-fi realm. This is good because so far the episode was surprisingly unoriginal. Unfortunately, what is done with this plot device isn't original either. It is a cross of 'Andromeda Strain' with a smidgen of 'John Carpenter's The Thing' and an eventual nod to the original 'Poltergeist'.
Dwight Schultz and Alberta Watson do an adequate job of acting out the roles they've been given to a point. The episode's conclusion doesn't give them or the viewers much to work with. Most would agree that the best OL episodes leave a haunting residue embedded in the viewer's mind to toy with, ponder over. I waited for it...nothing. It was then that I was reminded of the second season of the original series and how nearly all of those episodes simply ended without much bravado. This episode would fit nicely into that uninspired period.
Conclusion: It is a shame that something more profound or enlightening couldn't have been done with this vehicle. The opportunities were there and were missed. The worst thing of all is that I feel any viewer will notice it. If this happens to be the first OL episode you've ever seen, there is every likelihood that you will walk away with little compulsion to prioritize yourself to watch another episode. There are many far better ones. Don't give up.