TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 (1958)
Tagline: From Time Unborn ... A Hideous She-Thing!
(Sci-Fi, Time Travel, Polka Dots) [PG-13]
Note – This movie did not originally have an MPAA rating, but I am pretty sure it would have been a PG-13 given a few horrifying moments. This movie was released as a double feature with THE SCREAMING SKULL.
Hey, this thing's radioactive. It's hotter than a firecracker.
In this one, Professor Erling builds a time machine that is designed to be able to transport objects from the past to today. However, the first thing they bring back is actually from the year 5200 AD (and it’s radioactive). Meanwhile, Victor who wants a relationship with Erling’s daughter Claire is doing experiments of his own at a higher frequency trying to bring a person back from the future. Of course, all of this involved just a ton of radiation and Victor suffers a radiation burn from something that has come through the time machine. In this story of jealousy, love, rage, and desperation, can earth survive the TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000?
First off, when you look at the poster for this thing, it kind of looks like we are going to get some sort of space vampire. That isn’t what goes down, but you will have to watch the movie to find out what does. I will say this, for a movie that just gets torched to hell by critics, this film has an incredible and cool storyline.
Acting-wise Joyce Holden who plays Claire Erling basically drives this movie. She is definitely given all the best lines and her interaction with Ward Costello (who plays Dr. Robert Hedges) is pretty great. Holden only acted in Hollywood for 8 years and is best known for THE WEREWOLF. After this movie, she only appeared in 2 more projects. Born in 1930, as far as I can tell, she is still alive as of the writing of this review. Victor is played by John Stratton and he gets quite a few lines and does a good job, but this was actually his only film. Ward Costello who I mentioned earlier was most famous for his role in the soap opera “General Hospital”. The woman from the future is played by Salome Jens. She actually has a movie coming out this year and has been in everything from GREEN LANTERN to “Bonanza”.
What I felt was really strong about this movie was the script. It’s witty, fast-moving and we don’t get a lot of wasted lines. The story is really strong overall and this is actually a movie I wish they would take a shot at remaking.
Where this movie kind of fails is in the really goofy polka-dotted costume from the future they have the woman from the future wearing. When you have a story this outstanding, you don’t put your lead character in what amounts to a circus costume. This is something you would expect a really artsy acrobat to be wearing. It looks like someone stole a bodysuit from Cirque Du Soleil.
In spite of all that this flick does a great job of ratcheting up the fear factor in the final act and this is not a movie I see myself forgetting any time soon. Overall for me, this is a strong outing even with the campy outrageous-looking “terror”. I have to give this one a solid 6 out of 7 just for the idea alone.
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