And, like a Twilight Zone episode itself, I should have been careful what I wished for.
Good Pedigree of Creative Talent
Gramma is based on a Stephen King short story. The story was adapted by Harlan Ellison. Yeah, the Harlan Ellison. With a pedigree like that, the episode should have been better. Well, it was back in 1985. It's mostly okay, just not knock-it-out-of-the-park territory.
A Standard Horror Story
The story centers around a boy of probably twelve. His name is George, and his mom leaves him alone with his bedridden Gramma. George knows she's a monster, and dreads her asking for her tea. But she does, and he delivers it. She scares him and he drops the tea, the liquid seeping into the cracks of the wooden floor...
...and to the red, fiery light below a trap door. There are screams. Frightened though he is, George opens the door and pulls out a couple of old books. Like every young kid, he's curious about things of this nature. He manages to phonetically pronounce out the words like Cthulhu and Necronomicon before slamming the book closed.
Gramma dies on his watch, but George needs to verify. Which means touching her fat, bloated arm with a hand that isn't quite right. Then he tries the mirror trick, hoping to see if she's still breathing. She is, and she grabs him.
The twist ending is when George's mother returns, George confesses Gramma's dead. The mom mentions he should comfort himself with the knowledge Gramma will always be with them...and then George opens his eyes.
They are the eyes of Gramma.
The Problem of Memory
Now that I just wrote that, I realize it makes for a pretty good introduction to the ideas presented by H. P. Lovecraft who created the Cthulhu mythos. My guess is that this 1985 episode might have been the first time I'd ever been exposed to that kind of horror. At that point, I was still two years away from my first Stephen King novel, Pet Semetary.
In 2019, having read Lovecraft's work and seen Cthulhu stories and inspired stories for thirty-four years, the impact isn't as great. To be honest, my favorite King-written Cthulhu-type story is "Crouch End," a short story from his collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, as narrated by Tim Curry. Talk about narrator perfect for a story.
But back to Gramma, it is a decent episode, I suppose. And, considering it's only one of two I can remember from the 1985 version of the Twilight Zone, I should continue to think highly of it. I will, but I won't have to see it again.
I guess that's problem with memory: sometimes, something is better in your memory rather than visiting it again. Like going back to your growing up house or the town of your youth. Everything just seems a little smaller.
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