MartinHafer
AIP and 2.5 statue 5200 ad Florida swamps future---medallion asking for helpCurrently, "Terror From the Year 5000" has an abominably low score of 2.5. This would indicate that this is a truly horrible film...but it isn't. Now I am not saying it's a good movie, but the picture clearly is suffering from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" syndrome. In other words, when a film is made fun of my the show, huge numbers of the viewers of the show go online and bombard IMDb with scores of 1. If you look at the bottom 100 films on IMDb, you'll also see that nearly all of the American films from the 1950s, 60s and 70s were skewered on that TV show as well. Often, much worse films manage to stay off the list simply because of exposure. So, if you are looking for a film as wretched as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or "Robot Monster", well, you should keep looking.The film is about a weird experiment going on in the middle of nowhere in Florida. Why this odd location? Because the project requires so much energy it would tend to interfere with the equipment of folks living nearby. And what IS this huge power draw for....well, to make contact with folks from the future! Eventually, they are able to bring objects from the year 5200! And, a bit later, they get a medallion that is begging for help! So is this future trying to contact us? And, is this a good thing? Now I am not going to say that this is a great film. The 'monster' is silly but there are much worse examples from the era. Overall, an okay movie but certainly not an awful picture. The acting and direction are competent...not really good, but competent.
loserfilmnerd
This is the first time reviewing a movie featured on MST3K, but I do not let Mike and the bots influence my opinion on the movie. I have seen some pretty good movies on that show, and the hilarious riffing just enhanced it. This movie, however, was really bad, like most movies featured on the show.I think the worst thing about this movie is the pacing. Basically a guy finds some statue thingy, which he uses some kind of weird science to determine it's from the future, and then nothing really happens for half the movie. There's nothing wrong with a slow- building thriller, but there's no tension in the first half. Sure we get some pointless subplot about a love triangle or something, but this is a movie obviously marketed as a sci fi thriller. How about some thrills? Those of you patient enough to get to the titular "Terror" will at least be treated with some cool make up effects, which is basically the only reason I gave it a three instead of a one. But other than that, the second half doesn't have much thrills either.But enough of the pacing, let's talk about some of the filmmaking. Like I said before, there's some good make-up near the end. But the person wearing the make up was in a really stupid costume, but I can't really explain much more without ruining the film. There was some on location shooting that appears to be shot at night, without much lighting, so it was too dark to see what was happening at times. There was also lots of padding, with pointless shots of driving and walking, and a couple over long scenes with a scientist and a time machine being, uh, scientist-y. As for the acting, it was wooden, but the average amount of wood you'd find in a b-movie.I would recommend the MST3K episode, but this movie is probably unwatchable without it.
nepreneaux
Of all the horror movies that I subjected myself to in the sixties, this was the most terrifying. Werewolves, vampires, Frankenstein or aliens didn't phase me. The "lady from the future" as we call her to this day, scared the crap out of us. If we were out playing at night, she was behind every tree. That vision haunted me until I was somewhere in my 20s. I have not seen the movie since around 63 and it may make me laugh today, but that was the most horrifying creature they ever came up with as far as I am concerned. From the time she exited that water heater with a window until she was sprawled out on that table at the end, all I wanted was for her to be gone.
bobhoberg
Hey, the night scenes were even hard to make out on the 1962 Zenith black and white TV, but it still scared us so much that my sister and I couldn't wait to be frightened by it the following year or whenever it was shown again and it was definitely tops on our scary movie list. I mean come on, Sorry, Wrong Number(1948) was pretty scary back then. But this hideous looking creature stole the beautiful nurse's face and the scene where she confronts the guy in the hospital bed is chilling indeed. This is one horror flick that has managed to stick in my mind for forty some odd years. Its not like it won any academy awards but neither did Hitchcock.