Sports writer Paul Taylor (Granville Van Dusen) has a near-death experience after a motorcycle accident. As a result of his brief moments in the afterlife, spirits of the recently deceased now speak to Paul, warning him of threats to their still-living loved ones. Granted, these spirits seem to have difficulty communicating clearly in death, so these warnings tend to be quite vague and never actually say what the threat is. Unable to silence the voices, Paul sets out to protect these endangered lives from the various unknown, and generally supernatural, dangers awaiting them. Van Dusen would later appear opposite Lynda Carter in the 1982 TV movie Hotline and on soap operas “Port Charles” and “The Young and The Restless”, but had generally appeared in smaller roles in films and episodes of television series up to this point.
This is the premise of The World of Darkness, the pilot episode of an unsold television series from producers David Susskind and Diana Kerew, which aired on CBS in April of 1977. A second episode aired nearly a year later, in February of 1978, with the show now renamed The World Beyond. Think of these two pilot episodes as something akin to 1972’s The Night Stalker and 1973’s The Night Strangler, the two highly successful “movies of the week” that spawned the cult classic (but albeit short-lived) “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” television series. Clearly, “The World of Darkness” was not as well-received and, evidently, not as memorable.
For what it’s worth, Paul’s accident is never shown. However, a recounting of how it lead to his “powers” is used as the opening of each episode, much like the intros to “The Incredible Hulk” or “The Six-Million Dollar Man”.
“The World of Darkness” was directed by Jerry London, who directed episodes of iconic television series such as “Hogan’s Heroes” (which he also produced), “The Brady Bunch”, “The Bob Newhart Show”, and “The Rockford Files”. However, he may be best known for the 1980 Emmy-winning TV movie and mini-series, “Shogun“, starring Richard Chamberlain. London also directed the 1987 Burt Reynolds/Liza Minnelli-starring flop, Rent-A-Cop, which just proves that they weren’t all “winners”. Horror fans may be interested to know that London also called the shots on the infamous 1974 TV movie, “Killdozer“, which even received its own comic adaptation from Marvel Comics*. For some extra horror “cred”, both episodes were written by Art Warren, a key story developer on the legendary “Dark Shadows” series.
*In the pages of “Worlds Unknown”, issue #6, released in April 1974.
As the intro for the first episode (titled “Sentence of Death”) reaches it conclusion, Paul sees the ghostly visage of a man’s face. The man gives Paul the name of a woman, Clara, as well as the city in which to find her, and urges Paul to seek Clara out and protect her. This sets Paul off on a trip to what appears to be a small town, presumably somewhere in New England. He arrives to find Clara (Tovah Feldshuh – Terror Out of the Sky, Scream Pretty Peggy) at the funeral for her father, who had very recently died from an apparent suicide by hanging. Paul briefly introduces himself, providing no explanation for his presence, before giving Clara the phone number to his hotel and somewhat ominously urging her to contact him once she finds herself in need of his help.
After the funeral, Clara returns to the home of her aunt, where she will be staying. Clara’s aunt, Joanna (Beatrice Straight, Poltergeist‘s “Dr. Lesh”), advises her niece to accept the harsh reality of what happened to her father. However, as her father was not the type to take his own life, Clara naturally suspects foul play and indeed reaches out to Paul, asking him to help her prove her case.
The World of Darkness does take some time establishing its plot and limited cast of characters. Once things do start progressing, The World of Darkness plays out like something of a supernatural “whodunit?”. Set primarily at Joanna’s old, Victorian-styled home during winter, the snowy landscape and dreary grey skies help lend a sense of isolation and somberness to the already foreboding presence of the eerie, antiquated structure. The house is also quite large, making it feel quite empty as the only other person in residence is Joanna’s son. Alleged to be quite sick, the young man is confined to his quarters. As such, Clara has never actually seen her cousin, although she does occasionally hear her aunt talking to him through the closed bedroom door.
While the reveal of the culprit is more than a little predictable, the means by which they accomplish their evil deeds and the motive for their actions most certainly are not. It’s here that The World of Darkness dives deep into horror territory with the antagonist revealed to be something more than a “normal” human. As this was released in the 1970s’, there’s also a bit of possession thrown in for good measure.
All in all, The World of Darkness is a rather well-made and highly intriguing debut episode, offering some promise and potential for more satisfyingly spooky adventures to come. However, the biggest weakness to be found in The World of Darkness is actually its central character: Paul. Van Dusen’s performance isn’t “bad” by any means, but he’s outshined by both Feldshuh and Straight here. This is at least partially due to the fact that these “supporting characters” are far more fleshed out and have distinct personalities and behaviors.
As mentioned earlier, the series was renamed The World Beyond for its second episode, with the episode itself entitled “The Monster”. While I do not know if there was any gap in time between the filming of the two episodes, the only thing that appears to have changed is Van Dusen’s hairstyle. London had stepped aside by this point, now replaced with director Noel Black (1978’s Mirrors, 1983’s Quarterback Princess).
Much like the first episode, the intro concludes with Paul receiving another message in his head from another recently deceased man. This time, he is told to travel to a small island in Maine called Faber’s Island. The island is so small that only one person actually lives there; the guy who presumably named the island, Frank Faber (Richard Fitzpatrick – Survival of the Dead, “Storm of the Century” mini-series). While there, he’s to search for a Marian Faber, whom the spirit warned would be in danger. It takes absolutely no effort whatsoever to actually track down the woman as she just happens to be the only other passenger on a small ferryboat that Paul takes to reach the island.
In what may have just been coincidental casting, our “lady in distress” for this particular episode is another (future) star of Poltergeist, JoBeth Williams.
Upon reaching the shoreline, signs are discovered that Marian’s brother may be the victim of a possible boating accident. Although his body is nowhere to be found, Paul has a pretty good idea of what happened, as well as just whose voice urged him here. The man’s dog is recovered though; the animal quickly turning violent and sinking its teeth into the arm of Borchard (Bernard Hughes – The Lost Boys, The UFO Incident), the old ferryman that piloted them over.
Things move rather slowly from here, with little of note happening during an extended search of Faber’s island home other than some muddy tracks being stumbled upon in the cellar. Soon, the dog is found dead from a broken neck, covered with the same mud found earlier. This is followed by a loud roar-like sound, similar to that generally attributed to sasquatches in horror films and shows (kinda like this one) over the years. After digging through the dead man’s possessions, Paul eventually learns that Faber had been dabbling in alchemy and the dark arts, resulting in the creation of a golem; a magical creature made from mud.
Although they know that something is lurking just outside, going so far as to board up windows and doors to keep the thing out, both Marian and Borchard refuse to believe in the existence of a magical creature such as a golem. Meanwhile, Paul scours through Faber’s books and notes looking for any means to stop the creature, while also continuously advising the others against attempting to leave. Frustrated with the situation, Borchard ignores the warning and returns to his boat to attempt to radio for help. Unfortunately for him, the as yet unseen golem meets him first.
After another run-in with the golem (or, at least, part of the golem), it’s accidentally discovered that salt can harm the creature. There’s an unintentionally comedic sequence leading to this revelation that feels very similar to one later famously used in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II. However, the episode devolves into something of an extended chase sequence from this point only to conclude with our mythical monster being a klutz and accidentally killing itself. Our monster does finally make itself visible before meeting its demise, looking like a cross between The Incredible Melting Man and the titular creature from the 2003 horror-comedy Monsturd.
Much like the first episode, The World Beyond ends with Paul heading back home to New York City, prepared for where the voices took him next. Ultimately, as the show was never picked up, this proved to be nowhere. While I do not know the specifics of why the show was ultimately not picked up, I do believe that if The World of Darkness wasn’t strong enough to land the series a regular primetime slot, then The World Beyond surely did it no favors. Although The World Beyond does an excellent job of creating a more claustrophobic setting, it’s just not as well-paced or developed of a story as that featured in The World of Darkness, often feeling quite under-developed and, at times, like little more than people sitting around waiting for something to happen.
While I also didn’t find performances as strong as those in The World of Darkness, presumably due to the weaker script, the biggest fault that I can find still lies in the lead character. Paul has no real defining personality traits, which makes it quite difficult to relate to or root for him. In fact, one can argue that he is a victim, compelled to risk his life helping others if only to silence the voices in his head. What’s to say those voices would ever stop? Actually, the networks said that those voices would stop when the series wasn’t picked up. However, Van Dusen would later find a different world of “voices”, becoming the voice of “Race Bannon” for “Jonny Quest” cartoons of the 1980s and 90s.
As of this writing, both The World of Darkness and The World Beyond are available on YouTube.
Horror And Sons 