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."
Review of Terror from the Year 5000
