Scary as HELL!!!!! ;D

I liked this episode. David Ellington is telling a story and we see him in a flashback as a traveler, in post World War I Europe, caught in a storm and seeking shelter at a monastery. John Carradine is a monk, Brother Jerome, who gives him shelter.

Ellington hears a man howling and finds him in a cell secured only by a staff. The imprisoned man states that the monks have wrongfully imprisoned him and asks to be released.

Brother Jerome intervenes to state that the imprisoned man is the devil and is being held by the Staff of Truth. Jerome recognized the devil when he came to the village and was able to imprison him. The world has had five years of peace.

Ellington acts as if he believes the monk, but is convinced that Brother Jerome is crazy. Ellington sneaks down and lifts the staff and the prisoner rushes over Ellington and as he escapes assumes his real diabolical shape. Ellington realizes his mistake.

Brother Jerome gives the Staff to Ellington who chases the devil through WWII, the Korean War, the nuclear buildup and finally catches him and locks him up with the Staff of Truth. He is going to take him back to the monastery and place him back under Brother Jerome. He is explaining the whole story to a skeptical housekeeper so she does not let the howling man out while Ellington makes final preparations.

The show ends with the unbelieving housekeeper raising the Staff of Truth to let out the howling man!

I WAS NOT READY FOR THE ENDING TO THIS ONE! TOO SCARY!!! :D

All in all, kind of so-so. Since it's the Zone, I figured the prisoner was the Devil so the ending wasn't shocking for me in that sense, but since they portrayed John Carradine's character as bizarre, the ending isn't all that predictable.

Overly melodramatic for my taste. I prefer the subtler stories in the series.

We watched this as a family on one of those New Year's Day T-Zone Marathons. My 10-year old son was afraid to go to bed for a week. John Carradine looked old even back then.