Terror from the Year 5000: Robert J. Gurney Jr.

Why is it that in B-movies scientists almost never report miraculous discoveries or advances to the rest of the world?  I can't count the number of movies I've seen where a scientist manages to make contact with alien civilizations, invent world destroying robots, or engineer biological monstrosities without bothering to tell anyone else. It would seem to me that when their experiments inevitably go awry and start killing everybody, a little backup from the military or the police would be greatly appreciated. But, no, they almost never do. Robert J. Gurney Jr's Terror from the Year 5000 is such a film. Two scientists, Professor Howard Erling and his assistant Victor, manage to invent a time machine in their tiny laboratory. At first they manage to grab strange artifacts from the year 5200 AD. But then they are able to transport a woman from that futuristic era to their own.  Of course, she begins to attack and kidnap people all in an attempt to bring "healthy males" back to the future with her.  It is revealed that in the year 5200 mankind has nearly destroyed itself with radiation, thereby grotesquely deforming the survivors. And still, the scientists don't tell anybody. Terror from the Year 5000 is a clunky, obscenely padded, and boring film. The make-up effects are ridiculous to the point of hilarity. I have heard that this was one of the very first American feature-length films to contain time travel.  It's a pity that such a well-loved sci-fi trope had to begin so pathetically.

4/10