Tonight's episode: "Funhouse mirrors"

To be completely honest - I had thought that this week's article would be easy to write. While there were quite a few topics that had been on my mind, I'd known that I wanted to return to horror. Thus, with a trajectory in mind I'd quickly narrowed the theme down further: A look into bite-sized horror experiences.

As if to support that decision, I also recalled the perfect series that would fit into this theme. A series of short stories under the title Midnight Scenes, which were developed by Octavi Navarro in the years between 2017 and 2026 on Itch.Io and also available on Steam since 2020.
Originally, I'd come across this emerging series back in 2021, during a time when I'd been deeply intrigued by horror anthologies. The Magnus Archives had opened the floodgates, while simultaneously ensuring that those games would end up in my gaming backlog nonetheless.

Now, if I'd taken a bit more time to refamiliarise myself with the premise of this anthology before playing, things probably would not have derailed the way they did.

Midnight Scenes: The Highway (2017)

Unexpectedly, the title screen caused a sense of recognition that I couldn't quite place. I'd found myself wondering if I had actually played the game before, or if this was something else. Whatever it was, it would come to me, for sure.

It took a few quick button presses and then the game actually began. There was a dark screen, which was then followed by a few eerie tunes as the title appeared once more. Afterwards, the camera panned down to reveal our story's protagonist in a car. Lastly, text started appearing, that text functioned both as an introduction as well as a warning of what was to come.

It was this sequence that finally allowed me to make the necessary connection. All of this was clearly reminiscent of - if not a direct nod to - The Twilight Zone!

This revelation didn't feel satisfying. Instead, I felt like I should have recognised these elements far more quickly than I'd done. Nevertheless, I was still excited to play a game - and its homage to the classic did only lead to further intrigue.

Due to the game's nature as a short experience, I won't go into the details of the narrative itself. Though, it had been exactly what I'd expected from an experience advertising bite-sized horror. While the gameplay might have been on the lighter side, its presentation had quite charmed me.
Lastly, both aspects - anticipation and resolution - had been handled in a way that had me hooked for the series' next entry.

Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note (2018)

As a consequence of actually having engaged with the series, I at least new more or less what to expect this time.

When compared to the first game, this entry was already more polished. It had a slightly longer runtime, which also included a larger gameplay section. Additionally, the previously unknown narrator had now taken on a form: an eye.
It felt quite apt, as it was this entity that was watching the events unfold, and just like last time - it had made it clear from the beginning that the protagonist of the episode would not be having a good time.

Once again, the presentation had me immediately charmed. This series had quickly endeared itself to me.
I'd have played through all six entries in quick succession, if not for this terrible nagging feeling that slowly started to pervade my thoughts as I'd kept playing.
Earlier, I'd wondered why I hadn't picked up on those nods to The Twilight Zone; It had been this game that managed to open my eyes in the worst way possible.

Part of this game's setting was a plane, and due to my previous failure at recognition I had deliberately tried to tie this entry to the show it paid homage to - and I had succeeded.

A plane. I remembered that there had been an episode about a plane being sabotaged. I couldn't recall the name, but I knew I'd seen it. In my frustration I tried my hardest to remember - but all that came to mind was Bart Simpson; Because I hadn't actually seen "Nightmare at 20'000 Feet" but only one of its parodies: "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet".

Suddenly, the horror experience wasn't what terrified me. Instead, it was the slow realisation that most of my assumed knowledge hadn't been taken from a primary source at all.
Before any of this, I had been so sure in my familiarity with the subject at hand. Now, though, I couldn't help but wonder how distorted my view of The Twilight Zone truly was...

You know the Twilight Zone. Maybe you haven't seen a single episode, but you still know the Twilight Zone.
- Jacob Trussel, Introduction, The Binge Watcher's Guide to The Twilight Zone.

Well, at least I already knew that the Simpsons was at least partially to blame for this. In hindsight, it isn't such a surprise any longer. I'd been an avid fan of the Simpsons up until the 2010s - which would have been around season 21.
One of the reasons I'd been such a big fan had been the show's intertextuality; Not that I'd known that that was what it was called.

There was something so fascinating about the multiple references, direct allusions, or adaptations of known work - and I'd often scoured the fandom's wiki pages to read up on them during my free time.
This meant that even though I hadn't seen an episode of the Twilight Zone, I must have become quite familiar with its stories simply by proxy.

Similarly, in an attempt to track down my previous familiarity with the intro to the Twilight Zone, I'd found myself looking at... Futurama. The other show by Matt Groening that I'd been quite the fan of. There they had a fictional version of the Twilight Zone playing. They called it: "The Scary Door".

"You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter The Scary Door."

- The Narrator of 'The Scary Door' in "A Head in the Polls", Futurama (S02E3), 1999.

However, this couldn't have been the end.
While it explained some of my understanding of the show, I still felt like I must have seen episodes of it in my youth. Maybe I just hadn't recalled the right thing yet. The Simpsons had been the earliest memories associated with this show, but there had to be more.

This led to my second attempt at remembering a show that I might not have even seen. This time, I actually recalled some real actors as well.
It might have taken me hours, but this was a decent start. Additionally, I was actually able to recall the episode in some detail:
A professor tried to demonstrate the 'many-worlds interpretation' during a conference. It was also meant to cement the professors' immortality, however, the event goes south, and the professor ends up accidentally killing himself.

Relief.
It wasn't just made up. It wasn't just a distorted version of its source material. It felt real.
But that relief only lasted for a moment, as I'd quickly noticed an issue. I remembered the episode being short. Less than five minutes? That seemed compressed. It had been on a TV, and I remember that I'd been spooked. But why did it now feel wrong?

"That's weird. It's like something out of that twilight-y show about that zone" - Homer Simpson, in Treehouse of Horror VI (Homer 3D)

...I hadn't been remembering an episode of The Twilight Zone. No, I recalled an episode of Night Springs; The fictional TV show introduced in Alan Wake (2010). More specifically, the very first episode one could find in game: "The Quantum Suicide".

In a way, this shouldn't matter; But part of me couldn't help but be frustrated by the truth. I'd only seen one episode of the Twilight Zone. I'd watched "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" (S04E15) in 2025 for research purposes.

Trussel was right in his statement. We're so used to the Twilight Zone, that it is so easy to fall for its many distortions. Especially as a horror fan.

Because The Twilight Zone isn't actually a horror series. I called it a horror anthology, because my main exposure had been through a semi-horror focused lens. The aspects of either fantasy or science fiction being undermined by a focus on the potentially supernatural.

Jacob Trussel, in my opinion, had been right once - but not any more. By this point, I feel like we're far more familiar with the many distorted mirrors and references to that show that originally aired in 1959 than the actual show.

Then again, the concept of the anthology itself had been received well enough to be picked up and revived multiple times: The Twilight Zone (1959 - 64), The Twilight Zone (1985 - 89), The Twilight Zone (2002 - 03), and The Twilight Zone (2019 - 20).

Thus, I can't help but wonder how these different iterations compare to one another. How did our perception of The Twilight Zone - our assumed understanding of its structure - shape those newer iterations?

I don't know the answer to this question. I haven't looked into... yet. Though, I've come to realise that I am quite fed up with those distorted mirrors, allusions, and pre-emptive assumptions; Not due to a fault of their own, but due to my own incomplete knowledge.

How can one recognise the shape of the original if they've only ever seen it distorted?

By now, I've actually started watching The Twilight Zone (1959). It's been an interesting experience, and I'll probably continue casually watching the series. I'd always enjoyed what I'd seen reflected in those funhouse mirrors. It's been nice to realise that the truth was just as interesting.
Truly, those episodes had been quite fun. Maybe at some point I'll be sharing my favourites, but that will take a bit. I'm no Jacob Trussel. I don't think that I know The Twilight Zone, and I certainly am not ready to Binge-Watch anything.

Instead, I might even offset the occasional episode of the show with another more horror focused anthology on the side. There are still a few more Midnight Scenes left for me to play through...

The typing stops. The barista has made piece with the truth. An article was created, though, not quite like they'd thought. Intertextuality can be both a blessing and a curse. Moreover, familiarity can lead to assumptions... and article writing can simply turn into another distorted mirror, in the digital café.