Nightmares & Dreamscapes – Autopsy Room 4 (TV)

Interestingly enough, it's the stories in Nightmares & Dreamscapes in which not much happens (i.e., the plot is very narrowly focused) that contain the most horror and suspense — Battlefield (still my favorite of the miniseries) is one, and now we have Autopsy Room 4, which is very dialogue-driven yet is the most cringe-inducing episode of all.

Richard Thomas stars as Howard Cottrell, a lawyer who decides to play though on the golf course in spite of lightning storms that flash deadly warnings across the afternoon sky. In spite of warnings from his friends, he hits the ball then winds up having to chase into a copse of foliage. Suddenly, he drops like a rock. Was he hit by lightning? Did he have a heart attack? ...What happened?

Heart attack is quickly determined as the cause of death after a very cursory examination, but the dead man begs to differ. That's right — the dead man isn't really deceased. His body is only feigning death, but his mind is wide awake. As we listen to his internal dialogue, we watch as the coroners poise wicked knives and knuckle-whitening drills and cutting devices over his prone body… only to be distracted from their work time and time again. This is a Stephen King story, so we never really know if Howard is going to get cut or not.

As the story progresses, the tension is broken up by flashbacks of recent happenings in Howard's life, as well as other goings-on the hospital. Pay attention, as all the clues to how the story will end are embedded here.

A fun, fast-paced story, Autopsy Room 4 is one of the best in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson