2.07 --- The After Hours

Directed by : Bruce Malmuth Written by : Rockne S. O'Bannon (original story & teleplay by Rod Serling) Starring : Terry Farrell, Ann Wedgeworth, Ned Bellamy First aired : 18th of October, 1986. Marsha Cole (Terry Farrell, Star Trek : Deep Space 9), an attractive young lady in her 20s, is fanatically rushing to the nearest mall, as she wants to buy a particular doll for her landlord's son. She gets there just as the place is closing, but she manages to convince the security guard to let her in for just one quick errand. She finds the toy store and gets the doll, and strikes a random conversation with the shopkeeper, a middle-aged lady looking casually like a witch from old Disney cartoons (Ann Wedgeworth, Bang the Drum Slowly, Dragonfly). While the shopkeeper is away fetching her doll, a mother and her son bump into Marsha, and the little boy addresses her by name, asking her openly if she can take him on her way out as he's "ready". Marsha doesn't have a clue what's this about, and both the boy's mother and the shopkeeper dismiss this as a minor incident. The shopkeeper soon starts asking Marsha questions which she can't seem to answer. Amazingly, she can't remember anything which didn't happen past last month - she can't tell where's she from, or who are her parents, or how was life before that last month in general. As the shopkeeper starts turning more sinister, Marsha decides to run for it, and quickly enters the elevator. She's not alone there, as one of the security guards who let her in (Ned Bellamy, Being John Malkovich, Saw) follows her and also tries to apprehend her. Marsha is now running for her life, but wherever she appears, a drowning noise of voices coming from the mall plastic mannequins seems to haunt her. Eventually, the shopkeeper and the security guard corner her and tell her the truth - everybody walking after-hours in the mall is actually a mannequin, and for the last month she had the chance to experience the "outer" world, as all mannequins can do occasionally. Marsha tries to run away, but her limbs betray her - her arms and legs morph into plastic, and she's back to her mannequin self again. *** A reimagining of the Rod Serling original, The After Hours is an interesting, well-acted and well-directed episode which is one of the choice cuts of the second season so far. Serling's original had a bit more complex plot, involving phantom mall floors, and the main character of Marsha remembering her "plastic" roots in the end. Rockne S. O'Bannon, who adapted Serling's story for the 80s Zone, takes a different, more up-tempo route - O'Bannon's Marsha is in constant denial, which creates a more tense atmosphere and a chase reminiscent of 80s slasher films, complete with one downright nightmarish scene when the protagonist locks herself up in a mannequin repository. Sadly, what could have been a real hair-raiser is ruined by whoever's decision to score this piece with an obnoxious loud carnival-like music, which seems more suited to those antiquated "houses of horrors" you might run into at your local fair. Pity, as this takes it down a full notch. *** On a personal note, the lack of updates can be attributed to the Italian mother's day. I work in the floral industry, and we had a massive shipment of azaleas heading to Italy last week. On a more positive note, I made a mental commitment to review at least one episode every two days, so my audience can be sustained. My apologies again.