In the Year 2889 Reviews

Though civilization is decimated by nuclear warfare, a hard-nosed former Navy officer (Neil Fletcher) and his daughter (Charla Doherty) escape certain death by retreating to their well-stocked and remote mountain home. Their situation is soon compromised by the arrival of several strangers, each seeking shelter from the fallout: a young geologist (The Donna Reed Show's Paul Petersen) and his radiation-scarred brother; an exotic dancer (Quinn O'Hara) and her two-faced heel of a boyfriend (Hugh Feagin); and a whiskey-loving "old coot" (Bill Thurman). As time passes and supplies dwindle, the group's security is threatened from within by squabbling, and from without by a hideous mutant that prowls the nearby woods. Texas-based director Larry Buchanan's TV-movie redo of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956) is as threadbare and blandly executed as the five other films he directed for American International Pictures TV (including Mars Needs Women and Zontar, the Thing From Venus). But in its defense, the film boasts more professional performances (in particular, from Petersen and Buchanan regular Hoffman) and a less enervated pace than his other, better-known efforts. It also features a more coherent and less gloomy script by occasional collaborator Harold Hoffman (The Black Cat, 1966). No one will mistake this for a classic of the genre, or even one of Corman's titles, but for Buchanan completists and late movie devotees, it's a harmless and agreeable time-killer.