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[tab title="Movie Review"]
What’s that funny thing behind the barn? That’s what Jenny (Natasha Ryan, in a performance that steals the picture away from the rest of the cast) wants to know. It’s green; it glows; it makes noise and somehow, maybe due to this house’s desert location, this triangle-shaped object is connected to a supernova from a galaxy far, far away. And it makes the house function on its own. Pretty cool service, yes? Oh, sure, but it is all unintentional. Just what IS happening to the house is key to understanding this alien visitation across time and space.
The Day Time Ended, directed by John “Bud” Carlos (Mutant, Kingdom of the Spiders), is STILL a magically entertaining film about aliens AND dinosaurs. Produced by Charles Band (Laserblast, Puppet Master), the film is just really, really strange and low-key in its rollout. And, due to its budgetary limitations, the film appears on many “So Bad, It’s Good” lists. The one thing you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) fault it on is its acting. The cast delivers when the film itself – especially through its special effects – cannot. I’m not putting down the work of artist David Allen at all. Yeah, the film is cheesy and full of goofball events, but that’s part of the child-like charm of this low-rent VHS find.
Starring Jim Davis (Dallas), Christopher Mitchum (as in son of Robert), and Dorothy Malone (The Big Sleep), begins with a tour of the family’s new solar powered house. And, yeah, this house is pretty damn impressive. Except that Jenny, visiting her grandparents, notices something extraordinary about it . . . freakishly GREEN lights emanating from each and every room she wants to go into. {googleads}
And it’s all because she had an encounter out by the desert barn. The family was warned, though. After all, when they arrived the house and its décor had been trashed. The explain it away as easily as they do the vortex they are about to slip into: bikers. Mojave Desert bikers did this . . . except they weren’t. No, this was the work of time warping aliens. Go figure.
Now, thanks to some funky stop-motion effects, these aliens are beckoning her and her family to follow them through time and space. And so they do. What were once just lights in the distance become vehicles by which to grace the sky with for this family of sudden travelers. While the plot goes out the window on this little science fiction jaunt through time and space, The Day Time Ended is a fun spin on some rather B-grade close encounters. Just lower the expectations and turn the brain off. Because dinosaurs about to appear! 
Maybe that loopiness in its plot construction, comes from writer David Schmoeller’s insistence that time does not happen in a chronological sense. We are told this in an opening voiceover that we can hardly hear, but it matters little to the overall craziness of this quirky flick.
Co-starring Marcy Lafferty, Scott C. Kolden, and Roberto Contreras, this is a movie where a shrugged-off time warp is the only explanation of the otherworldly bizarreness as dinosaurs come knocking on front doors and one family reunites across the stars as they hiccup through a time space warp, Steve.
The Day Time Ended is available in a 40th Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray NOW.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Full Moon Pictures
Available on Blu-ray - May 28, 2019
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
Released by Full Moon Features, this 1080p transfer goes above and beyond the call of duty here. The scan of the original film elements for the film is wonderfully crisp. Colors are good - especially the neon greens. Shadows run deep and the crisp textures in the walls and in the backgrounds are on point. This is a fabulously fun movie that, rather successfully, makes for one hell of a transformation thanks to the efforts of Full Moon.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- Fans get an audio commentary by Wayne Schmidt and Paul Gentry to help them fully appreciate and understand this odd flick.
Special Features:
The print is remastered. I guess that’s the point of this release because all there are in the way of Special Features is a photo gallery.
- Photo Gallery
Blu-ray Rating:
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[tab title="Film Details"]
MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 80 mins
Director: John 'Bud' Cardos
Writer: Wayne Schmidt, J. Larry Carroll
Cast: Jim Davis, Christopher Mitchum, Dorothy Malone
Genre: Horror | Adventure
Tagline: Jim Davis, Christopher Mitchum, Dorothy Malone.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Maybe this was all meant to be. This is our new way of life."
Theatrical Distributor: Compass International Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: November 1980
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: May 28, 2019
Synopsis: Deep in the desert, a rural American family is forced to endure a night of inter-dimensional, extra terrestrial terror when a UFO appears over their home. Suddenly, the clan is besieged by a warring race of reptile monsters, a fleet of lethal, laser-shooting miniature spaceships and rift in the very fabric of time and space itself.
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[tab title="Art"]
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