Writers Steve Neill, Paul Gentry, and Wayne Schmidt came to producer Charles Band with an ambitious concept. Neill and Gentry had a working relationship with Band, having done effects work on End of the World and Laserblast. Their concept was, as Schmidt described, “an intergalactic Death Race 2000“, but Band turned it down, deeming it too expensive. However, Band offered to produce a film for them if it could be done cheaply using one or two locations. They quickly banged out a script called Vortex, and they hired director John “Bud” Cardos from Kingdom of the Spiders. The script was rewritten twice: once by David Schmoller and J. Larry Carroll and again by someone Cardos had hired. At some point, distributor Irwin Yablans insisted that the title be changed after receiving a cease-and-desist from Disney. Finally, in late 1980, the film was released as The Day Time Ended.
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Rating
Synopsis
The Williams family has relocated to the Sonoran Desert to stay with grandparents Grant (Jim Davis) and Ana (Dorothy Malone). While there, the young Jenny (Natasha Ryan) finds a mysterious object glowing green behind the farm, but nobody believes her. That night, a UFO lands near their house, and mysterious aliens start making their way to the house. Turns out a triple supernova that exploded 200 years ago has opened a rift in time and space. Soon, giant alien monsters start invading the house, many of them with the intent to kill the family. Meanwhile, Richard (Christopher Mitchum) tries to make his way back to the house after hearing the reports of the supernova. Soon, Jenny is taken away by the extraterrestrial visitors, and the family must fight to survive against the strange monsters. What will become of the Willams family during this, the day time ended?
Review
It should come as no surprise that The Day Time Ended is near impossible to summarize given the synopsis. There’s hardly any kind of explanation given as to why anything is happening, who/what the aliens are, etc. Ordinarily, not having everything explained to you can work if what’s presented is interesting enough that you can follow along. Here, unfortunately, there is so much dead air and filler that makes it hard to really care what’s going on. Given this film was written by visual effects guys, it’s clearly meant to be more of an effects showcase. In their defense, the effects are the best part of the film, mixing stop-motion animation and optical effects. The stop-motion was done by the late great David Allen, who also did the stop-motion on Laserblast. His effects, as well as the many opticals, help carry the film despite the literal nothingness on screen.
The cast does the best they can given how little material and direction they’re given to work with. Jim Davis, who sadly passed away shortly after filming, is a consummate professional despite delivering some laughable dialogue. Dorothy Malone gives little to no reactions to all the crazy stuff going on around her, even the gigantic aliens. Natasha Ryan is ok as a precocious young child, but she can get aggravating at times with her high-pitched voice. Christopher Mitchum and Scott Kolden are alright if somewhat bland, though they have some decent scenes with Davis. Marcy Lafferty, who starred in Kingdom of the Spiders with then-husband William Shatner, is above average even with little material. In terms of Band’s 70s output, it’s somewhere between Laserblast and Tourist Trap, so take that for what it’s worth. Overall, The Day Time Ended has ambition but is otherwise a confusing mess.
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