Three Skeleton Key

Originally Aired: November 11, 1956 Suspense #673, "Three Skeleton Key," stars Vincent Price as a lighthouse keeper stationed with two companions on a desolate rock rising from shark-infested waters. The narrator works alongside Louis, a taciturn head keeper from the Basque Country, and Auguste, a garrulous former Parisian actor. Their isolated routine is shattered when they spot a mysterious three-masted ship sailing directly toward their dangerous reef. Through their telescopes, they discover why the beautiful vessel was abandoned: its decks are swarming with thousands of enormous, ravenous ship rats. As the derelict vessel runs aground on the rocks at low tide, the nightmare begins. The rats, desperate and starving, swim toward the lighthouse in a churning brown carpet across the water. The three men race to secure the bronze door at the base of their tower, but one monstrous rat gets inside before they can seal it shut. As they fight off the creature and flee upward through the winding staircase, they discover rats covering every window, their wild red eyes and yellow teeth visible through the glass, trapping the keepers in their cylindrical prison.