6. Twin Peaks "Northwest Passage"
Twin Peaks was a brilliant TV show that I strongly recommend you watch all of if you have yet to do so. I have to admit, I am not at all a fan of David Lynch's movies, but this show was almost perfection for me. The episode, which is another feature length pilot, introduces us to the surreal small town of Twin Peaks... how surreal the town is is not explored in too great a detail in the pilot, but from the weird characters and eerie music, we get a good enough vibe early on. The episode opens when the body of the most people teenage girl in the entire town is found dead on a riverbank wrapped in plastic, and the following episode pretty much explores every important town members reaction to this horrific murder. Murder or death is an extremely common thing to include in a pilot- in fact, I can't think of that many shows that don't start with one of these two things (only 2 shows on this list do not) but Twin Peaks does this better than all the others. If you are looking for a really great murder mystery/weird surreal horror, you wont find a better example than this. The pilot also introduces us to one of the most iconic characters in all of television history, and one of my all time favorite, FBI Agent Dale Cooper played by Kyle MacLachlan in his best role yet. FBI Agent Dale Cooper was exploring weird supernatural events a good three years before Mulder and Scully were. If you were too young to watch this show in its original run then get the box set like me (or get Netflix) and prepare to be weirded out in the best way imaginable. Like I said previously, I do not get scared easily by films or television, but I can honestly say I have never, ever, ever, been more frightened by anything on TV or Film than I was whilst watching this show. In fact, even typing this sentence whilst remembering the shows terrifying moments is creeping me out just a little. For any one who has seen the show, is there a scarier moment ever than when Bob creepily climbs over the couch and slowly walks towards the camera grinning? I don't think so.