Terror from the Year 5000

RE: The DVD edition of 1958's "Terror From the Year 5000" recently issued by Incredibly Strange Film Works (ISFW) of Jamestown, MO: Those of you who've been waiting for a pristine-quality DVD edition of this fun Sci-Fi oldie will have to go on waiting. The very fuzzy picture and sound quality (with contrasts so bad that some night scenes are nearly impossible to make out) make this ISFW DVD a big disappointment, especially considering the $24.99 price tag! (The Horror/Sci-Fi fans among you may also remember ISFW's equally unsatisfactory VHS video edition of 1964's "Horror of Party Beach", mastered from a toned-down TV print with all the gore removed!)

I'd say that any DVD or VHS video bearing the ISFW logo should be approached with caution.

The titular menace in AIP's 1958 "Terror from the Year 5000" ('a hideous she-thing!' as the ads screamed) does not come from another planet but from Earth's future (5200 AD to be exact), a novel idea at the time but quite common since. Like her counterpart in "The Astounding She-Monster," both share the radioactive touch of death, this Future Woman revealing that every fifth child is born a mutation, and that their contaminated blood needs a fresh supply from the 20th century. Triple threat writer/producer/director Robert J. Gurney Jr. previously scripted the AIP sci fi comedy "Invasion of the Saucer Men," and does a pretty good job on the low budget, the lab located in an ordinary house on a coastal island in Florida (location shooting in Dade County), where two scientists have been trading objects from our time with those from the future, until the vain, glory seeking younger one brings back something alive, a cat with four eyes that gets dumped in the lake. Joyce Holden, sadly making her screen swan song, is a breath of fresh air modeling a nightgown and two bathing suits, former leading lady in Columbia's 1956 "The Werewolf," but it's the enigmatic Salome Jens in her film debut that audiences recall as the Future Woman, who alas only appears in the final reel. There's enough intrigue to last its hour long running time however, at least for male members of the viewing audience, topping a double billed in certain markets with either "The Screaming Skull" or "The Brain Eaters."

As a child I fell in love with 'monster' movies immediately upon seeing my first (Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman) on television. Fortunately for me I grew up in the fifties, an era prolific with cheapie horror and sci-fi films. A neighborhood theatre ran them almost exclusively at the time and I attended every Saturday (and sometimes a couple more days per week in glorious summer). Just couldn't get enough of this stuff.

I could take all the giant ants, scorpions and spiders, all the ghosts and haunted houses, the numerous editions of frankenstein monsters and invaders from space pretty well. For some reason, though, nothing frightened me more or stayed with me longer than the rare feminine monsters. Perhaps it was because women were always the loving caregivers (Mom, Grandma, my teachers, my sisters). When sick, or waking from a nightmare we always call for Mom. So, I think the idea of a woman being a vicious, scary thing was such a perversion of all I otherwise knew, the effect on me was especially chilling. I had no problem with the mutilated faces of men as in 'Horrors Of The Black Museum', 'The Black Sleep', 'The Unearthly' and so forth. But the visages of the female victims in 'The Hypnotic Eye' and of the niece in 'Frankenstein's Daughter' always made me squeeze shut my eyes.

'The Astounding She Monster' is a prime example of these fears - a malevolent, radioactive female relentlessly stalking me, her touch meaning sure pain and death. From the age of seven until seventeen, that particular luminescent character showed up in my nightmares. But the single most frightening thing I ever saw was the female terror that came shrieking out of the time machine in this movie, arms pumping in a marching style, coming right at me. Peeling off another woman's face to wear as a mask was incredibly disturbing. Yep - this was the single-most terror of my childhood movie-viewing. I couldn't even bring myself to keep my eyes open for more than half a second when the movie closes with a close-up of this hideously deformed feminist with a wicked widow's peak. Even at the age of sixteen, surrounded by buddies watching it on the late show, my body kept freezing with fear, though I didn't mention it to them.

Going by most of the reviews here, today's audiences, accustomed to the most graphic horror, just find this monster boring. But I'm still scared of this terror from the year 5000. Oh yeah, and the four-eyed cat gave me the creeps pretty good too.

In TERROR IN THE YEAR 5000, scientists somehow bring an artifact from the far-flung future into the present. NYC museum curator, Dr. Hedges (Ward Costello) heads for Florida to investigate this anomaly.

Untold horror ensues.

Another of the very talky sci-fi movies of its era, the action level is extremely low. Any real interest comes from the jealous tension between the head scientist's daughter (Joyce Holden), her dad's assistant, Dr. Hedges, and Angelo the caretaker, who happens to have the world's most interesting eyebrows. This soap opera is interrupted only sporadically, up until the "big finale".

Salome Jens plays the visitor from the future who runs around causing havoc. Her shimmery outfit and fingernails, along with her "transformation" scene are semi-interesting. The rest is a bit of a slog to wade through.

POINT OF INTEREST: There's a scene where the characters go to the movies, and the posters of I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN are on display outside the theater. Any collectors will drool over these vintage images!...

TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 (1958) was one of innumerable 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 later found out that TERROR was one of a handful of AIP titles that were withdrawn from circulation.

I didn't see TERROR again until recently when I caught it on YouTube. 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. 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 after 1958. Unfortunately she's only in the film for the last 20 of its 66 minute running time.

While TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 is not 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 I'm in no rush to repeat the experience. 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 archaeologist's secretary which really must be heard to be believed. To be fair, according to imdb, she was the production supervisor and had to fill in at the last minute for an actress who quit.

Although interiors were shot at Poverty Row studio ZIV who produced TV shows in the 1950s like THE CISCO KID and SEA HUNT, several location shots were done in Dade County Florida. 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 promises far more than it delivers...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.