User Reviews

Nick Mancuso stars as Spelliner, haunted by the faces of a particular crowd who gathered around him late one night when he crashes his car after a party he was attending. Mancuso decides to pursue the identities of these members of the crowd, learning some startling things, along with his reluctant videographer pal, Morgan (RH Thomson). This episode flies by and is over before you know it. Mancuso is rightfully creeped out (I can't remember a POV shot of the faces of a crowd of average everyday city folk looking so menacing without showing menace), but this obsession with the crowd will cost him (or cost someone dear to him). I think the highest praise goes to the spooky subject matter and twist regarding the crowd themselves, how the director capitalizes on the mentality of the morbidity for seeing the carnage of a devastating crash, the bloody remnants of the wreckage, the gathering of curious onlookers who just can't help getting a close eye view. I think the whispers on the soundtrack and those peering eyes as Mancuso looks up at the faces while lying on his back in the initial opening sequence after his crash really set the ominous mood nicely. While short, I think "The Crowd" is a real winner; good eerie fun. I would definitely say that the viewings of video recordings of those people who populate the crowd, as Mancuso gets more and more disturbed, not listening to his friend who advises him to stay away from them instead of investigate further, is the best scene of "The Crowd", as this sets in motion the series of events that lead to tragedy...we know he should leave well enough alone and that pursuing this will only complicate matters further, but, as the crowd itself, remain morbidly curious of what might transpire if he confronts them.

After leaving a party late night, Joe Spelliner (Nick Mancuso) drives in high speed through the empty streets and has a car accident. A couple of seconds later, he is surrounded by a crowd until an ambulance arrives with the paramedic at 2:00 AM. Twenty-four hours later he is discharged by the hospital and he is intrigued from where that crowd arrived. He meets his friend and colleague Morgan (R.H. Thompson) to celebrate and they witness another car accident. In twenty-one seconds, the victim is surrounded by a crowd and Joe recognizes many of the persons from his own accident. Joe asks Morgan to retrieve surveillance tapes of car accidents and he discloses that the same persons are present in the other accidents; further, all of them are victims of car accidents. Morgan asks Joe to forget the discovery, but the reluctant friend wishes to investigate further with tragic consequences.

"The Crowd" is an intriguing tale of obsession, with the lead character discovering a world of dead simultaneously existing with the world of living. The environment is creepy, using cold locations associated to an eerie cinematography. The result is an original and very well developed story along the short running time of the show. The unexpected tragic conclusion is unforgettable. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "The Crowd"

First off, even though Nick Mancuso's character in this story is listed as Spallner, I never heard him called by that name, though I could have missed it easily enough. He was however called Joe multiple times by his friend Morgan (R. H. Thomson), so that's the name I'll go with. I had a pretty good idea where this story was going, but even that didn't diminish the creepy vibe you get while watching it. For Joe, who wound up flipping his car after a party and surviving, happened to notice the faces of people who converged on his crash just before an ambulance arrived. He then began to notice that the same red haired woman, a young kid, and an old man somehow wound up appearing at the scene of additional accidents that took place within varying distances from his apartment. With no logical reason that could explain how the same characters could instantly show up within less than a minute of a fatal accident, Joe finally gets his answer when he finds himself in yet another car crash resulting in tragic consequences for Morgan. One's instinct earlier in the story might have come to the belief that Joe existed in the same realm as the other ghostly characters, but the actual conclusion proved that he became unusually gifted with a 'second sight' with the first tragedy he experienced. Not exactly the answer he was probably looking for.

I need to say that i really enjoyed this episode in all that weirdness that it offer . The music ,lights ,situations help us to dive into it and make us slowly understand what happened and whats all about : that crowd ( with that big revelation thats in fact dead people here ), the main character who investigate the problem but we will also have an interesting paranoïa of the main character and also at the end this scene where his friend have also an other accident and become part of the crowd too .

It was pretty well made and love how they did it and it really made curious the same way as the main character and we slowly understand. Love also how the music can be quite disturbing also with the different situations that we face .the lights and that blue tone who gave us an interesting sad feeling about all this .

I really enjoyed that episode and really get quick into this . Nice one.

Nick Mancuso (who I fondly remember from another 80s tv show "Stingray") stars as a car crash survivor who discovers that the same group of on lookers always appear minutes after every car accident. Mancuso discovers that they are actually ghosts, and sets out to find them, with dire consequences. Fun well written episode from Bradberry with a nice clover twist. Mancuso is great here to by the way.