Exploring ‘The Day Time Ended’: A Bizarre Blend of Time Travel, Aliens, and B-Movie Charm!

The Day Time Ended DVD cover artwork from the 88 Films Grindhouse Collection

Back sometime in 1980, my uncle took me to the cinema to see Star Wars. Unfortunately, the showing was packed out, so instead, he took me to see a little B-Movie called The Day Time Ended. I would have been only five or six. It is my earliest memory of films, what small fragments of this wild creation lasted in my head. So, watching it for the first time since then, I knew would be an experience.

Nearly thirty-five years later, I can say that this may have been the birthing place of my love for ignored or forgotten obscure flicks. Brought to you by Charles Band, the man of a thousand time filling cheap horrors and science fictions. Like Roger Corman, a bit of money can go a long way.

A narrated beginning (the voice of the main character possibly?) explains the illusion of time itself, how each moment is constantly with us: “time exists in a continuum. Lights, sounds, words spoken hundreds of thousands of years ago are still around us somewhere in the vast infinity of space.” Three bright explosions in space follow on. A maelstrom of lights plummets to earth to circle a building in the desert.

According to a news report playing whilst our central character, Grant, drives to the airport to collect his family, it was a supernova caused by three stars, happening hundreds of years ago, the visuals just reaching our planet now. The Malone family have a new solar powered home built in the desert, miles from civilization. The house is huge, and the family are very apple pie happy.

As Granddaughter, Jenny plays with her new pony and the music becomes rather sinister. She chances upon a luminous green pyramid behind the barn, into which the pony disappears. “Have you seen my pony?” She hugs the pyramid asking for her pony to come back. It emerges in glowing white light, looking older and bigger.

The Malone’s enter their home and discover it has been turned over. “Looks like bikers did it,” says Grants son, Steve, in a very offensive comment — if you’re a biker. Only one room has been smashed up. The police are called but won’t come over until the morning. Jenny keeps asking her mum, Beth and Grant what’s behind the barn, and why it “plays funny music.” She takes them to see but, of course, it has gone. Afterwards Jenny notices it has shrunk, small enough to pop in her pocket. Weird things start happening around her. The bathroom light switches on, as she approaches, and it is green. The water also runs without her touching the tap.

Grant and his wife, Ana, watch the night sky alone. “No traffic, no sirens, no people.” They spy a light in the sky getting closer. Two circular objects flash above their heads. “We just saw some U.F.Os.” he smiles in delight.

Hours later, Jenny is awakened by a small alien creature which jumps around her room as she laughs. The crude stop-motion animation truly adds to the appeal. Then the room darkens, as what may be a tiny spacecraft, or just some sort of sentinel weapon hovers in front of her. Jenny hides away, scared. Green mist fills Grant and Ana’s room. She wakes up and stares in shock at the alien midget beckoning her. Grant wakes but sees nothing. Nevertheless, he patrols the house with his gun. Jenny is missing.

Suddenly, the walls and ceiling rumble. Blue lights zap and blast across the sky outside. Jenny returns. “I was outside playing with my friend. He made the bad thing go away.” Grant ventures out. He hears a commotion in the barn. The horses are unnerved but there’s nothing unusual. The decision is made; pack a few things and drive to the town. Suddenly, the car starts up by itself. Grant and Steve approach. “What is this dad? It makes no sense at all.” Steve says. Jenny simply tells the car to stop, and it obeys. Then the lights flash in the sky again.

The telephone is dead as an electrical storm begins. Trying to leave again, the small camera-looking sentinel thing halts them. It’s cool, it can stop a bullet in mid-air, scan it and erase it. Oh, and it has lasers to burn though the door that the family hide behind. Jenny’s pyramid glows green and the attack ends.

Next up, stop motion animated clay beasts appear outside and have a fight. Oh, my word, this movie is heavenly. (Creature maker, Lyle Conway also designed the remade of The Blob and worked on The Dark Crystal and Where the Wild Things Are.) Steve and Grant happen to be in the open, so they hide in the stables. The winning monster pursues them, crashing its head through the door, receiving a pitchfork into its skull for its trouble. The monster comically staggers and shakes itself. Steve releases a horse as a distraction. The creature lumbers along, into the path of lights, and it vanishes.

Without a chance for the viewer to take a breath, there’s simply tons of lights and effects and rumbling noises bombarding the house — there’s no let up, believe me. As the noise eases, Grant walks out and finds a graveyard of time debris — jets, trucks, NASA vehicles, or futuristic trucks. It’s no surprise that the time storm returns. Jenny is trapped inside, as things get a little trippy. Beth tries to save her daughter but both of them are sucked in and taken.

Grant decides it is a “space time warp.” So, the last members of the family saddle up and ride into the desert, looking for a solution to this movie, which is simply and assault on our visuals. Above the desert are twin suns, and more light effects. Then Beth returns somehow changed…

It’s all to do with aliens, and I won’t say anymore because that will spoil the rather acid inspired finale. Made at a time that George Lucas’ film was carving up the world and sadly neglected in the madness, The Day Time Ended is no masterpiece, but it is pure nonsense entertainment. David Schmoeller, one of three writers involved, also directed Tourist Trap, Crawlspace and Netherworld. He also wrote the original Puppetmaster. Larry Carroll wrote some episodes of the Ghostbusters cartoon series. Director John Cardos also helmed the classic Kingdom of the Spiders and The Dark, amongst others.

A minimum budget is made up for, by the deranged pace and eccentric plotting. Most of the cast are professional enough to take it all seriously though. Natasha Ryan, who plays little Jenny also played Linda in Kingdom of the Spiders — in both does she wear very short paedophile baiting dresses. It was certainly marketed as a kid’s movie at the time of release, but, ignoring the cute alien and the over-the-top sparkling conclusion, it can be mixed into any science fiction or fantasy pot for any age.

Composer, John Watson, with Don Perry and Richard Band keep the atmosphere thick with their score. It’s one of those films which has ‘that feel,’ if you know what I mean? Due to this, 88 Films has wisely allowed grain on the screen, for that video tape quality — and it hides a little of the poor special effects.

Of note, it amused us that, since The Day Time Ended is a PG certificated release, of the ten trailers accompanying the main feature, included are rather graphic ones for Castle Freak, Puppetmaster 1-3 and Stuart Gordon’s The Pit & the Pendulum. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama also pops up.

AKA: Time Warp, Vortex, Black Thunder, Explosion Galactica, La Nuit des Extra Terrestrial, Earth’s Final Fury, Invasion aus dem Weltall.

Directed by: John Cardos
Written by: David Schmoeller, Wayne Schmidt, Larry Carroll
Produced by: Charles Band, Steve Neill, Wayne Schmidt
Cinematography by: John Morrill
Editing by: Ted Nicolaos
Special Effects by: David Allen, Chris Casady, Lyle Conway, and many more
Music by: Richard Band, Don Perry, John Watson
Cast: Jim Davis, Christopjer Mitchum, Marcy Latterty, Natasha Ryan
Year: 1979
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Runtime: 1h 19min

Distributor: 88 Films