The Stranger Within 1974

Ann Collins Barbara Eden, a painter, and her husband David Collins George Grizzard are expecting a baby, a situation that should be joyous but quickly becomes puzzling. David, who had a vasectomy, is torn between disbelief and fear, suspecting that Ann might have been unfaithful even as he clings to his support for her. Because Ann has a history of risky pregnancies, David presses for an abortion, but every attempt is thwarted by sudden, extreme labor pains that force them to abort the plan at the last moment.

As the pregnancy advances, Ann begins to show a string of bizarre, almost cinematic changes. She develops unusual cravings for black coffee, raw meat, and unusually large amounts of salt, and she undergoes startling shifts in temperament and ability: a sudden compulsion to read, an intolerance to cold, hyper-aware hearing, long and grueling mountain treks, a growing inability to listen to others, and an astonishing talent for healing injuries in minutes. These symptoms are accompanied by physical and psychological transformations that deepen the mystery surrounding the unborn child.

To uncover the cause, David enlists Bob, a hypnotist, and also calls in Dr. Edward Klein to examine the medical sides of Ann’s condition. Ann, however, remains eerily quiet—even under hypnosis, she says nothing. The tension mounts when, after a particularly draining mountain walk, Ann returns home and drinks boiling hot coffee to steady her breath; the caffeine renders her temporarily intoxicated, and the session with Bob leads to a revelation of another, otherworldly presence within her.

He says his father banished him to Earth and that his home world is “cool.”

From this point, the tale leans into the uncanny: a being speaks through Ann, describing an origin far beyond ordinary human frailty. The alien explains that Ann was impregnated during her painting in the mountains, a claim that reframes the entire pregnancy as something governed by forces beyond human understanding. The moment the alien voice fades, Ann sinks back into sleep, leaving David shaken but determined to understand what he has witnessed.

That night, Ann slips away to an abandoned house in the woods and gives birth. She then wanders deeper into the forest, where she encounters other women walking with alien babies—a quiet, eerie fellowship that hints at a broader, hidden world. David, meanwhile, stares at one of Ann’s paintings, a depiction of the alien home planet, which begins to smoke as if the image itself is alive. He witnesses a spacecraft lifting Ann away, the sight sealing the unsettling truth: she is headed to the alien world with the child she carried.

Across these events, the cast threads the narrative with a sense of stoic inevitability. Phyllis, Ann’s friend, remains a steady presence through the unraveling mystery, while the scientists and the hypnotist offer procedural windows into what might lie beneath the surface of an ordinary life turned extraordinary. The story unfolds with a quiet intensity, balancing intimate relationship dynamics and a science-fictional premise that asks not only about pregnancy and fidelity but about belonging, home, and the possibility of worlds beyond our own.