Personal Demons (The Twilight Zone)
"Personal Demons" is the second segment of the eighteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. Martin Balsam plays writer Rockne O'Bannon, who is hounded by diminutive clawed creatures which only he can see. Rockne S. O'Bannon is a real screenwriter, who also wrote this segment. Because it is a part of the twist ending, the screenwriting credit appears at the end of the segment instead of in the opening credits.
| "Personal Demons" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
 Scene from Personal Demons | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 18b |
| Directed by | Peter Medak |
| Written by | Rockne S. O'Bannon |
| Original air date | February 14, 1986 |
| Guest appearances | |
| Martin Balsam: Rockne O'Bannon Joshua Shelley: Herman Gold Clive Revill: Agent Marlena Giovi: Widow Penny Baker: Pam Stephen Flanigan: Gary Tommy Madden: Creature #1 Billy Curtis: Creature Gary Friedkin: Creature Kevin Thompson: Creature Don Frishman: Creature Lou Carry: Creature Jerry Maren: Creature | |
Plot
Rockne O'Bannon is a television writer who feels he has fallen into a rut and yearns to have just one more genuinely original idea. He begins seeing mysterious, hooded creatures in his neighborhood. No one else can see them, even though they can perceive the damage the creatures do to Rockne's car and apartment and the establishments he visits. The creatures appear in increasingly greater numbers, and Rockne stops writing because he can no longer concentrate with the creatures constantly hounding him.
One night the creatures break into his apartment. Rockne asks what they want and what it will take to get them to leave him alone. The creatures answer, "Write about us." Rockne sits at his typewriter and begins writing, and as he puts words on paper the creatures vanish one by one.