TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 (1958) was one of innumerable low budget B&W American International horror/sci-fi movies that flooded local TV stations in the early 1960s. I first saw it in 1961 when I was 9 years and unlike other AIP favorites such as THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, THE SCREAMING SKULL, and EARTH-vs-THE SPIDER, it disappeared from the airwaves. But there were parts of it I never forgot. I found out TERROR was one of a handful of AIP titles withdrawn from circulation by the widow of AIP co-founder James H. Nicholson. Why she chose to let this film go out of circulation is is anybody’s guess.
I didn’t see TERROR again until recently when I caught it on YouTube. That’s 60+ years and hundreds of movies later. This time around it made a different impression on me. Turns out that what I didn’t remember was worth forgetting. The movie has lower than usual production values, cheap special effects, and performances that are singularly one note throughout. The one exception is Salome Jens who plays the title character, a woman from the future mutated by radioactivity from atomic wars which took place post-1958. Unfortunately, as she’s in the film only for the last 20 of its 66 minute running time, that is not enough to make up for all it lacks.
The plot is simple, and, actually, rather interesting as it’s a reversal of the usual time travel scenario. Most time travel deals with people in the present doing the time travelling but in TERROR, someone from the future time travels to the present instigated by someone from the film’s 1958-era. 2 scientists transport a statue from the year 5000 and then mail it off to an archaeologist for further verification. The archaeologist comes to visit the scientist’s homemade lab in Florida where he mostly spends his time falling in love with the younger scientist’s fiance’. Lots of dull, repetitive romantic subplot fritters our time away before the future woman finally makes her appearance. To say the least, the conclusion is hurried.
While TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 is not, by any stretch of any imagination, a good movie, I do give it points for trying something different with the time travel twist. I’m glad I saw it again although it might be another 60 years before I consider a rewatch. Salome Jens went on to a busy career on stage and TV as well as acting in a few movies. The same cannot be said for the others. The worst performance of the film can be awarded to the archeoloogist’s secretary (Beatrice Gurney) which really must be seen to be believed. Still, to be fair, according to imdb, she was the production supervisor and had to fill in last minute for an actress who quit.
Although interiors were shot at Poverty Row studio ZIV (formerly the home of PRC and Eagle-Lion Films) who produced TV shows in the 1950s like THE CISCO KID and SEA HUNT, several location shots were done in Dade County Florida (the movie’s setting is supposed to be the Everglades). On the “you’ve got to start somewhere” front, Dede Allen, the film’s editor, would go on to such major movies as THE HUSTLER, BONNIE & CLYDE, & DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Also the film has a great poster that, like most movie posters, promises far more than it delivers.
The Capsule Critic 