The Twilight Zone Reboot: 10 Classic Episodes It Should Remake

The Story:

A woman waits at a small town bus depot for a bus that is late. As she glances in a mirror, she sees an exact double of herself, down to the exact same clothing, sitting on a bench outside. Later, as she boards the bus, she sees herself already sitting in her seat with a sinister smile on her face.

Why Remake It?

With his deeply disturbing doppelganger horror Us currently riding high at the box office, it's clear that Peele has a fascination with the fear of being usurped by a sinister double. Indeed, he has described this 1960 story of a previously level-headed woman gradually unravelling on encountering her exact duplicate as a direct influence on the movie.

Serling came up with the story upon seeing a fellow traveller in an airport terminal dressed in the same clothes and carrying the same bag as him. He wondered what he would do if the man turned around and had his face as well. The episode is highly effective at capturing this sense of the uncanny and rising discomfort. Unfortunately, Serling seems to have never quite resolved the question of how he would react to the encounter and the story doesn't play out in one of the show's better endings.

Mirror Image is, therefore, an episode with a classic Twilight Zone setup but no equally classic conclusion. It would lend itself well to a new, contemporary writer tackling a story from the same starting point, beginning with Serling's mysterious airport coincidence, and developing things in their own distinct way.