Terror from the Year 5000 is a film about time travel, when time travel on the big screen was hardly represented. Not as of 1958, at least. In this respect, it is quite novel that it would be featured as such. The end results may not have lived up to audience expectations, but it is not possible to please everyone.

Released by American International Pictures, the studio was known for having a limited budget to spend on its films, and the results of all these pictures ranged in quality from one end of the scale to the other. At times, they would also release films under their banner, having purchased the distribution rights. Those movies, for the most part, would not be of the greatest stature either, at least compared to those larger studios like Warner Bros., MGM and the like. This movie, as one might guess, was made on a budget, and most likely a tight one, making it an attractive feature for AIP. That being said, it is not terrible, at least not so much as many would have one believe. It is by no means the greatest piece of celluloid to ever make its way to the drive-in, but it does have its merits, as limited as they might be.

The story consists of a professor and his assistant conducting experiments that involve the time barrier. They believe they have succeeded in contacting someone from the future as they are being sent random statues and strange objects. The professor’s daughter decides to send one off to a museum, where Bob gets it tested and discovers that it is made of a material he cannot quantify, not to mention being highly radioactive. Bob decides he had better go and see this professor, and while he does so, the experiments get out of hand.  A woman from the future appears, searching for a good man who can help to save the very irradiated human race from her post-apocalyptic future.

A positive aspect of this is that the film’s makers recognized they lacked the funds for special effects and instead chose to focus their creative efforts elsewhere in the production. That is proven both by the time machine itself, which is extremely basic, and the costume sported by the time traveller, a leotard with shiny bits all over it. Being shot in black and white, the lack of colour worked to their credit, obscuring some of the amateurish efforts, and yet, it was still plainly evident that things could have been so much better.

The story, or at least the basic plot, was a good one. Man should ever push forward, whether it be into space or into time, but the execution was not as solid as it could have been. Where the makers of this film should have focused a little more on the science in this science-fiction endeavour, they chose to prioritize drama, romance and characterization. Not bad things normally, but they detracted from the main idea and distracted from the picture’s focus. It makes one wonder if this movie had simply set out to concentrate on the terror that was promised in the title of this film, it might have been a totally different beast. As it was, the acting was not all bad, and there was enough to hold a person’s interest, but at the end of the day, Terror from the Year 5000 needed more to push it from being okay to good or better.

2 out of 5