Time Travel Films 2020: Subgenres of Terror

By Steve Hutchison

Included in this book are 50 reviews of horror and horror-adjacent time travel films.

Time travel films focus on the consequences of traveling into the past or the future.

Each book in the Subgenres of Terror 2020 collection contains a ranked thematic watchlist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hutchison
• Release date: Feb 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781778870545

Steve Hutchison

Artist, developer and entrepreneur in film, video games and communications Steve Hutchison co-founded Shade.ca Art and Code in 1999, then Terror.ca and its French equivalent Terreur.ca in 2000. With his background as an artist and integrator, Steve worked on such games as Capcom's Street Fighter, PopCap's Bejeweled, Tetris, Bandai/Namco's Pac-Man and Mattel's Skip-Bo & Phase 10 as a localization manager, 2-D artist and usability expert. Having acquired skills in gamification, he invented a unique horror movie review system that is filterable, searchable and sortable by moods, genres, subgenres and antagonists. Horror movie fans love it, and so do horror authors and filmmakers, as it is a great source of inspiration. In March 2013, Steve launched Tales of Terror, with the same goals in mind but with a much finer technology and a complex engine, something that wasn’t possible initially. He has since published countless horror-themed books.

Book preview

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Tales of Terror’s

Subgenres of Terror 2020

Time Travel Films

INTRODUCTION

Included in this book are 50 reviews of horror and horror-adjacent time travel films.

Time travel films focus on the consequences of traveling into the past or the future.

Each book in the Subgenres of Terror 2020 collection contains a ranked thematic watchlist.

#50

Army of Frankensteins

2013

3/8

Two men are sent back in time to the American Civil War where an army of monsters has emerged from a portal.

We’re not talking, here, about an army of mad scientists but a revenant horde, rather. The erroneous title can lead to confusion and so can the convoluted plot. In this steampunk adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, time travelers revisit Civil War to fix a few things. Their quest is ludicrous but fun to watch. This is a low quality movie that tries very hard to stand out, and it does.

The special effects are cheap but aren’t your typical b-movie tricks. Director Ryan Bellgardt thinks outside the box, giving the feature an interesting role playing game vibe. Most of the cast is young; sometimes too young for their part. Fake mustaches, bad color keying, cheap set design, weak dialog; this is a flawed production that is much more annoying than it is charming, sadly.

This is a gorefest with slapstick violence and blood that is too red. The makers didn’t take themselves or their film too seriously so we shouldn’t either. It contains two cute love stories, sympathetic characters and a certain cool factor. Sure, the creature make-up looks terrible and the humour is childish, but this is as creative as Frankenstein flicks get.

#49

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

1997

3/8

Martial artists must win a rigged tournament to save Earth from an extra-dimensional invasion.

1995’s Mortal Kombat was one of the best video game adaptations in a streak of failures. It then took an odd mix of multiple genres; action and horror prominently, to appeal to the general audience and the loyal gamer expecting continuity. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is paved with the good intentions of visual specialists and storytellers who clearly struggled with their art.

Most antagonists are introduced in the first three minutes and half of them will ultimately meet their end without a fight. The choreographies aren’t great anyway. The goal is to cram as many characters, costumes, battlefields and game mechanics in 140 pages of script or less disregarding budget constraints. Sonia and Rayden are recast; Cage too but is disposed of before close-ups are required.

Sadly, this works more as a stand-alone fan fiction than a product for the mass. The mythology is expanded on but often improvised. The pacing is uncomfortable. The techno soundtrack lacks melody, color keying is botched, the procedural is spoon-fed and ludicrous dialogue constantly hinders momentum. Conversations are interrupted by duels and duels by interrupted conversations…

#48

Waxwork II: Lost in Time

1992

3/8

A couple travels through time portals