This Criminally Overlooked Horror Anthology Series From 70’s Was An Astonishing Piece Of Art

Are you a fan of horror anthologies? Many directors and producers have attempted horror anthologies in the past, but only a few have been truly successful. Today, we are bringing to your attention a 50-year-old horror anthology that has been buried over time but deservingly so. The anthology’s title is Ghost Story (however the name was later changed to Circle of Fear for the last 9 episodes of its run).

Ghost Story was constructed in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and, to a lesser extent, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and was hosted by Sebastian Cabot as Winston Essex, the affluent hotel owner of The Mansfield Hotel. The show’s content was produced and written by Richard Matheson.

The following is a partial list of who will appear in front of the cameras: Martin Sheen, Patty Duke, Meg Foster, Kim Darby, Janet Leigh, Rip Torn, Karen Black, Melvyn Douglas, Jodie Foster, Stuart Whitman, and many others are among the actors who have appeared in the film. The writing was tempting as well, given who authored the episodes: Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Jimmy Sangster, and other prominent scribes delivered great teleplays in an hour-long format.

The shows were directed by Richard Donner, Leo Penn, John Llewellyn Moxey, and other highly seasoned TV veterans, guaranteeing consistency and stability. Keep in mind that this program is not going to scare the crap out of you, and after you get over the poor picture quality, it is mildly chilling at best, and a joy to binge-watch on a chilly night in.

Without further ado, let us get right into the top ten Ghost Story episodes from the 1970s.

The Dead We Leave Behind [Season 1 Episode 1]

Jason Robards plays Elliot Brent, a forest ranger who lives in the middle of nowhere with his wife, Joanna played by Stella Stevens. However, the isolated home isn’t quite the haven Joanna had imagined, and she’s bored and frustrated, all alone in the house. So, Elliot buys her a television to keep her contented so that she can spend the time being entertained. The TV soon begins to consume her, she sits in front of the tv for hours on end, staring at the screen, which irritates Elliot and the two keep getting into fights. However, things escalate and she decides to leave Elliot and they get into a terrible fight which results in Joanna’s death.

Immediately after, Elliot starts to see images and videos of his wife and their life, from both the recent past and the approaching future on television. He thinks that he is going crazy from the shock and the grief but the videos keep playing on the tv. He discovers through the tv that his wife was cheating, and the man with whom she was having it happens to be passing by his house that he was helping.

He hides the murder of his wife from him and then kills him. But, the dead don’t stay dead in this episode and both Joanna and her lover come back from their graves to hunt Elliot down and the episode ends with all 3 of them 6 feet under the ground. The TV drove him insane in many ways. This twisty tale of betrayal, technology, and guilt is truly creepy. You’ll want to stream this one with the lights turned on. Afterward, you’ll want to double-check to make absolutely sure the TV is truly turned off. Quite the scary one and a narrative of how technology can truly drive one to the brink of insanity.

Doorway to Death [Season 1 Episode 17]

In San Francisco, a father proceeds to shift his three children into a brand new apartment. However, they find out very quickly that they were able to get such a good bargain on the place because there was something odd about the unit above them, that has been vacant for a long time. Robert decides to investigate the empty apartment and discovers a cabin in the woods beyond one of the doors in the apartment and a man waves to him.

Not only does he discover a cabin, he believes that he has made a friend. He keeps having conversations with the man and he takes his younger sister, Jane, upstairs to meet “the man upstairs,”. However, creepy men who make friends with young children? Well, that is a red flag is we’ve ever seen one and this man turns out to be the spirit of a deranged axe murderer who has a strong desire for the siblings’ older sister, Peggy.

Peggy goes up to check who this man is that her younger siblings have been spending time with and comes across a completely empty apartment, no magical door. The intensity of the suspense of an axe murderer is spine-chilling. Bizarre incidents start happening as the axe murderer starts manifesting in human-like physical form and bricks up Peggy behind a door so that he could be with her forever. However, probably the only time we have ever seen this in a horror movie, the family actually packs up and moves out of the house, leaving the deranged axe murderer behind.

Doorway to Death is perhaps the best episode of Ghost Story or Circle of Fear and it might be a little obvious for those who have seen the series, but the best is sometimes truly the best and you cannot help but recognize brilliance. This episode most accurately portrays the tone of the series. It’s a frightening hour of network tv that flawlessly melds paranormal spooks and classic horror elements. 

Time of Terror [Season 1 Episode 13]

Ellen Alexander awakens in her hotel room at the casino resort where she is holidaying to discover that her husband has gone missing as she sees his luggage being taken out by a bellboy. She makes a call to the front desk to have him paged, only to discover that he has already checked out. She confronts the hotel staff, who assures her that it is not a misunderstanding or an error and that he has indeed, checked out.

As Ellen gradually pieces together the tale, she realizes that this may not be the holiday she expected. She is left alone and helpless and a sweet couple comes to keep her company. This is when she notices that there is something up with the casino itself where they separate couples as she notices people’s numbers getting called one by one according to a little bingo slip and then being led away by senior hotel staff. It is always the men being taken away in this manner.

She continues to investigate and finds out bits and pieces of information but before she can completely figure it out, her number gets called. She runs out, thinking she’ll find her husband but ends up on a desert terrain and gets picked up by a casino official. Turns out that all of this was an allegory for death. Ellen had already died in a car crash and was waiting to pass over while her husband was fighting for his life. She decides to pass on without him and let him have a long and full life. Towards the end, as one realizes the analogy, the story really scares you because death is inevitable.

Neal delivers an Emmy-nominated performance that is almost entirely based on a variety of facial expressions. “Time of Terror” is a heartbreaking story, despite being highly enjoyable to watch and well-executed.

The Phantom of Herald Square [Season 1 Episode 22]

Holly played by Sheila Larken is a young art student. She meets James played by David “Hutch” Soul in the park one fine day and they immediately hit it off. However, things are not great as Holly thought they would be after meeting the man of her dreams and she is harassed and hassled by an older man who goes to the extent of stalking her as the two initiates a relationship. Is this a strange coincidence, or does this old man know something about James?

Holly makes a startling discovery while searching for the truth. She is cautioned by the old man to stop seeing James and this makes her extremely paranoid. She calls the police but they dismiss her concerns and James effectively gaslights her out of her fears and concerns and convinces her to keep seeing him. Things seem to go smoothly for a while but something is noticeably off with James. Something sinister is afoot. She sees a picture of James with an old woman in her youth and gets extremely scared and confused.

However, she finally listens to the old man and learns the truth. He tells her about a racket where people who are scared to die make pacts or agreements with the devil in a suit that give them back their youth, makes them reborn in a manner however, there is always a dark side.

Turns out that the old man who was stalking her was in fact James and the price they have to pay for their youth was never being able to die as a younger alter ego takes their place during the day. They remain young by transferring other people’s youth to themselves. James’ alter ego had already started off the aging process for Holly. However, out of love for James, she also sells her soul and this prompts James to stand up to the devil and he dies as he secures a regular life for Holly.

The series finale was “The Phantom of Herald Square,” and while it’s a sad romantic drama, it serves as a nice send-off for this anthology that didn’t get a fair chance.

Dark Vengeance [Season 1 Episode 15]

A construction worker excavates a strange box and brings it home to open. He tries to open it but it’s sealed. He tries his best to open it but to no avail. He slowly starts becoming obsessed with opening the box and his wife, Cindy starts having terrible nightmares. Her dreams are shrouded with mystery but she keeps seeing a rotating object like a giant wheel rolling towards her, glass eyes and a horse neighing in the background before its face pops up and she screams herself awake.

He finally manages to get it open and the object it contains is a harmless toy horse made of wood, however, it develops into something much more and begins to terrorize his wife. However, her nightmares don’t ease and his wife becomes more and more paranoid and wants to get rid of him. The white horse becomes a recurring guest in her nightmares as it haunts her subconscious. The story is a slow burn with a manifestation esque haunting horror.’

One day his wife goes to the park and finds a young boy somehow playing with the horse and takes it back home and places it on the mantle. However, things come to a head that day as she hears loud neighing noises while awake and the toy horse starts rolling toward her. Over the next few days, the horse changes places and the couple still doesn’t have the bright idea of throwing it away.

They try to figure out why these odd things are happening and stumble upon old pictures. It turns out that his wife knew the horse and in fact, there were even pictures of her holding the toy and playing with it. There was another similar horse that had broken into pieces during play. The horse keeps getting bigger and bigger and more menacing by the day. They finally find out that Cindy’s uncle’s entire family was cursed and the remaining horse was coming after her life. However, they manage to defeat the horse, put it back inside the box, and evade the curse.

This one is definitely a slow burn but enjoyable for those who appreciate classic horror tropes like the haunted doll and things moving by themselves.

Bad Connection [Season 1 Episode 4]

Barbara, a youthful widow on the cusp of a second marriage, is stalked by an unidentified but malevolent force. Karen Black plays Barbara in this spine-chilling episode. Barbara’s predator begins making odd telephone calls to both her office and her residence saying her husband will die soon. He is eventually seen standing on top of her roof, peering in through the skylight.

Barbara eventually gets scared and tells her fiancé whose role is played by Michael Tolan and she further tells the cops, and yet they do not even believe her and assume she’s having a nervous breakdown. Barbara finally recognizes the stalker as her deceased husband, who has returned from the grave, with little help from others. This episode would be a fantastic companion piece to Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man but is just as enjoyable on its own.

As the phone calls continue to crescendo in panic, Barbara becomes progressively – and dramatically – frantic. She soon notices a shadowy figure following her every step. Is it her husband, who is no longer alive? Or did she misunderstand what he said on the phone? Is it possible that someone else is attempting to drive her insane? If so, what’s the reasoning behind it? However, it turns out that her deceased husband was only trying to protect her and there were no evil intentions from his side.

“Bad Connection” belongs to a strange horror TV subgenre in which the telephone serves as a terrifying vehicle. Both “Long Distance Call” and “Night Call” in the original Twilight Zone featured the telephone as a source of dread. An evil telephone frightened Jean Marsh in “Answer Me,” a first season segment of Tales from the Darkside, in the 1980s, well after this episode of Ghost Story.

Some of the imagery in “Bad Connection” is truly terrifying, such as the antagonist emerging in the flesh at a pier. Also, at the end of the episode, there’s a lovely, upbeat surprise, a re-parsing of Barbara’s “promise” and how it’s actually used in the story. As it should, fear inevitably leads to catharsis.

Alter-Ego [Season 1 Episode 6]

Children can be creepy, and this is a tale about one of the creepiest of them all. Robert, played masterfully by young Michael-James Wixted and as the double, he stands head and shoulders over a lot of creepy kids. There’s no creepy gazing up from behind the brows, no staring, and none of the other stuff that may be rather unnerving. He plays the double with the body language of a grownup, and he plays Bobby with more restlessness and emotion, which is remarkable. Because neither persona is overly dramatic, seeing them together is extremely unnerving.

Robert or Bobby is a nice kid who works hard in school and is friendly to everybody. After being confined to a wheelchair due to a leg injury, he creates an imaginary chess partner. This acquaintance is a dark-skinned version of Robert and quickly develops into Robert’s alter-ego.  While he considers this alter-ego to be a friend, the audience clearly feels like something is off. He starts tormenting school teachers and other kids.

The first instance of things going downhill is when the family cat is found dead in the kitchen cupboard. What he once considered as his companion and a friendly presence, was completely the opposite. Robert’s alter-ego intends to murder and substitute the real Robert and effectively, take over his life. But, before he could even do that, he needed to get some practice killing other people.

As Bobby connects the dots between the mummified flies, the killed cat, and the presence of a supernatural being who has taken on his appearance, the penny starts to drop for him. But he’s still convinced that the double is something he can manage, that it’s something he made up.

However, slowly the double becomes stronger and kills Bobby’s hamster as well. The double had a special penchant for harassing and scaring their teacher, Miss Gilden who he also kills. However, in the end, it is Miss Gilden’s ghost that comes and helps Bobby defeat his double and regain his life.

The series’ most distressing episode is easy “Alter-Ego.” Evil Robert is a coldhearted, ruthless assassin who can send shivers down your spine with just one menacing glance.

Graveyard Shift [Season 1 Episode 19]

A couple’s unborn baby seems to be in danger from poltergeists from an old horror movie studio. The castle appears in the film “Graveyard Shift” as the proprietor of a failing horror studio. The studio, in reality, is about to be demolished, and Castle’s character, Fillmore, shows there late one night to take one last glance around. He doesn’t realize it, but the demons who used to be the studio’s bread and butter are still alive and well, stalking the studio premises. The Wolfman, the Apeman, The Claw, and, most horrifying of all, Dr. Death are the grotesque creatures.

According to Fillmore, Dr. Death was never extremely popular with crowds because he was simply too terrifying. These macabre inventions, including Dr. Death, want to live again in the body of his unborn child, as unlucky security guard Fred Colby finds in his last few nights working at Fillmore Studios.

The monsters try to force Linda, Colby’s wife, to choose between them for the honor of possessing her kid, but she refuses to allow it. Meanwhile, Colby, a former star of Fillmore’s horror films, must face his nightmares and anxieties, as well as the cinematic demons who have come to life. Despite his wife’s pleas not to fight the demons, he knows that his son’s whole soul is at stake. The film does finish with a happy ending as he successfully defeats the demons and saves his son.

Because of the gloomy and scary atmosphere, it creates, “Graveyard Shift” is a relatively powerful episode in the canon. The antagonists need to have the same thing that so many of the series’ villains want: to possess the living, but their unique nature sets them apart this time.

The cinematic demons depicted in the episode, in particular, harken back to a simpler era in Cinema history, and “Graveyard Shift” expresses admiration for them and the age from which they came. The episode has a pleasant, eerie mood, thanks in part to the nighttime setting and in part to the sense of realism in the major scene. Colby appears to be patrolling the premises of an old, deserted studio, and “Graveyard Shift” has the ominous impression of a dark past about to erupt into the present.

Half a Death [Season 1 Episode 7]

Christina is a young woman who is distraught after learning of the passing of her twin sister Lisa, whose ghost begins to trouble Christina supernaturally in this episode. Christine comes back to her parents’ house after living in Rome after she discovers that her twin sister, Lisa, has died in “Half-a-Death.” Christine’s dad dies a few days later, and Christina’s cunning mother, Paula, begins to develop feelings for a neighbor, Mr. Claiborne.

Christine is soon visited by the spirit of Lisa, a young girl who spent most of her life in a mental institution and suffered from delayed emotional development. Christine then remembers the old adage that twins have “one soul,” and she wonders if Lisa is attempting to take her life or perhaps make Christine experience “half-death.”

Christine’s greatest worries are confirmed when she receives a visit from a clairvoyant, Miss Eliscu. Twins are said to be “single spirits” who share one spirit. She has hallucinations of her twin emerging from an open grave in the middle of the night, calling out to her as the haunting gets worse. Lisa’s haunting becomes more terrifying, reminding her of the asylum-bound side of herself she has never met in person. And, because twins share one soul, she comes to feel that Lisa is promising her an early death to relieve her boredom, a half-death that will make their spirits whole again.

Christine falls victim to her sister’s pleas for the company in death after being deprived of a locket that guards her against the ghostly Lisa’s approaches… only to have her mother step forward and replace her. Thus, offering her life in order to save her daughter.

This episode is directed by Leslie H. Martinson, who previously directed Batman TV and Fathom, and features a story by Richard Matheson and Henry Slesar, who previously worked on TV anthologies such as The Twilight Zone. It contains some melancholy cemetery scenes and scary moments that will undoubtedly creep you out, and the twin trope is used effectively in the tale. The ending is a little ambiguous, but the spirit of the narrative remains.

House of Evil [ Season 1 Episode 8 ]

Judy, a deaf and mute girl who lives with her brother, father, and stepmother, is played by a young Jodie Foster in this entertaining episode. On her dearly departed mother’s side, her grandfather, who is played by Melvyn Douglas, pays her a visit and presents her with a dollhouse that is a mirror image of the place that they live in. He also teaches Judy how to telepathically converse with him.

However, this is not as innocent as one would think it is and it is definitely not your regular grandparent-child bonding. Turns out that grandpa can use this ability to force Judy to unwittingly harm others. Grandpa blames Judy’s father for the death of his daughter and he’s also not happy about Judy’s adopted brother who he believes is the reason Judy’s father and step-mother don’t pay complete attention to her. So, he hatches an evil scheme through which he first gains Judy’s trust and slowly takes over her mind. He makes voodoo dolls of the entire family and gives them to Judy to play with, in her new dollhouse. 

Judy begins playing with the doll and causing accidents all over the house like making her brother push their maid down the stairs and things come to a head as the incidents keep getting more and more violent. Finally, in the climax he makes Judy set fire to the dollhouse after putting all the voodoo dolls to sleep.

As her actual house goes up in flames, she tries to wake up the rest of her family but to avail. However, in the very last moment, she hears her deceased mother’s voice who tells her to wake up the dolls and they all make it out. However, she drops her grandpa’s doll and, in the end, only the grandfather goes up in flames. This creepy tale by Robert Bloch is impactful, and it includes voodoo dolls made out of soul cakes in addition to the telepathic carnage.

With that we come to the end of this video. Did you know about this anthology or did we introduce the next horror show for you to binge? Let us know in the comments below!