Rod Serling’s spirit was largely absent from the 2000s revival of The Twilight Zone. The long-derided update, hosted by Forest Whitaker, lasted only one season before it received the network’s ax. At the time, this new Twilight Zone was panned by most everyone; Variety went as far as to say the show came up with “so-so results” and failed to “capture the psychologically disturbing nature” of the original. Valid as that and others criticisms may be, there was the occasional gem hidden in the mix. And if any particular episode channeled Serling’s knack for thought-experiments and risk-taking, it’s Sunrise. This entry showed up far too late into the season, but if the whole series had the same quality and execution, perhaps this version of The Twilight Zone would be remembered more fondly.
Possibly inspired by the classic episode The Midnight Sun, Sunrise also deals with a catastrophic change in the weather. However, while the former story depicted unbearable heat as the planet fell out of its orbit and gradually approached the sun, this story demonstrates an unforeseen cold spell brought on by a mysterious force. Or so the characters think. The one-location thriller, one set inside a cave in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, begins innocently enough; college-aged friends embark on a scavenger hunt, only to then discover an Aztec artifact filled with liquid blood. The plot takes its inevitable sinister turn once someone spills said blood right before the sun disappears from the sky. Temperatures finally plummet around the globe, and the main characters ask themselves if they caused this.
A hurdle for any modern Twilight Zone series is whether or not the show should continue what Serling started. By default, these newer versions can never be as progressive as the original, seeing as Serling was always forward-thinking during a critical point in time. The frightful future he imagined has already come to fruition. Yet, does that mean other creators shouldn’t even bother trying? The middle ground between pure entertainment and enlightened fiction is an admirable third option.
The ’00s Twilight Zone generally preferred straightforward tales of the uncanny rather than anything too topical and blatantly allegorical. Even so, something like Sunrise managed to pipe in a bit of Serling’s trademark vision. Based on a story by Katrina Cabrera Ortega and scripted by Frederick Rappaport, Sunrise looks to be a play-by-play of collective error. It’s not entirely clear if there was a specific motivation for this dark episode, but the timing is suspicious. After all, the Iraq War commenced only a few months before this episode aired. Could the mass misconduct here be commentary on war and its participants’ rationale? Agenda or not, the story does broach the horrors of desperation and conformity in an unforgettable way.
Sunrise is a bleak episode that benefits from Tim Matheson‘s blunt direction. This kind of increasingly horrific story requires more demanding performances than usual, and the actual scenes of violence are rather hard to watch. The new Twilight Zone was already over by the time this potent episode — the season’s penultimate offering — came around. Before then, there wasn’t all that much to speak too highly of; most of everything prior to this point was mediocre at best, outrageously bad at worst. So while Sunrise may not hold a candle to the classic anthology’s greatest hits, it does its damndest to at least leave a burn mark.
Watch Sunrise:
So the Story Goes spotlights notable anthology tales from both television and film, with an emphasis on the horror genre.
Tales from the Paulside 
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