Out of all the famous twists and turns in all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone, the ending of The Eye of the Beholder sports the most terrifying and repulsive reveal, enough to sneak it above the others on this list to claim the scariest episode of the show. Janet Tyler is undergoing yet another operation to cure her of her terrible facial disfigurement - although we never see her face we are told it is a horror to behold. At the climax of the episode, we find out the truth. To our eyes, Janet is perfectly normal but her doctors, and everyone in this world, are the ones who are disfigured. They might be clearly wearing masks but the shock of the twist makes up for it. As with every other episode on this list, the half hour is made up of so much tension and suspense - we see nothing but shadows and silhouettes the whole time - that when we finally see the horrid porcine faces of the hospital staff the only option is to scream along with our heroine. Her attempt to flee from the creatures through the featureless hospital really is the stuff of nightmares - but the situation gets worse when we see a speech on the television from the president, who is just as hideous. Forget Planet of the Apes, this is Planet of the Pigs. Of course, this is also a more cerebral aspect to the horror of this episode. As a critique of society's fascination with beauty it is razor sharp. It seems the world in this story is one where the human race has had enough of prejudice over looks and everyone has been made into a monster to form an equal world. Perhaps that is the message we should take from the series as a whole. That we have to be careful to not give in to the ugly side of our nature. Because if we do, it might be very easy to get lost and end up in... The Twilight Zone. Is there a gremlin in this system who has made us pick the wrong choices? Or is everything as good as life under the control of little Anthony Freemont? Journey into a dimension of conversation in the comments section below!
