Time Walker (1982)

Wonderful character development!

Let's be realistic.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This film had something almost going for it as at times the movie held my interest even with the gang from Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing it. It held my interest enough that I may actually want to see this film in an uncut state as this one not only got the MST3K edits, but also looks like another casualty of that video company that would get older movies and repackage them with either a new generic title screen (this one and Marooned in Space) or they would play an entirely different film during the opening credits (Pod People and Cave Dwellers). In the end, it is still probably pretty bad though as there were aspects of the film that were interesting and it had some good effects, but it had a horrible setting and completely idiotic plot points. This film stars Ben Murphy and the only other film that I have seen him in is another MST3K film, Riding With Death. He is actually somewhat decent in this one, I don't fault him for the horrid aspects of the film, that falls back squarely on the screenwriter who seemed to have absolutely no idea how to end the film so he ended it quickly and vaguely, kind of reminiscent of Monster-A-Go-Go. Or, perhaps, the blame for that ending falls on the company that repackaged the film and they cut it short? Who knows? The story has people discovering a mummy and bringing it back to a college where the head of the university is strongly in favor of using it to get more money or something. The man who discovered it, wishes to take a slower approach and considering the guy who discovered it is Ben Murphy and the hero, you know he is right. Well, a strange fungus is found with the mummy and an idiot who finds a secret compartment of things that look like diamonds and steals them. He X-rays the mummy a couple of times and this awakens the fungus which is very deadly to the touch and the most interesting aspect of said film. It really does a wicked number on anyone who touches it! The mummy wants those gems and the head of the school's sidekick wants to frame Ben Murphy who thinks the mummy is an alien and his girl gets one of those diamonds as a gift and soon gets targeted by the mummy who doesn't mean her any harm, but he sure meant to harm that dude he threw into the wall! This made for a pretty good episode of MST3K. I found it a bit absurd when Tom Servo suggested that this film was worse than many of the films they had viewed up to said point. This was not worse by a long shot, in fact, it had some things working for it. I thought the way the fungus got people was cool, but they ditched that aspect, probably because it was too costly an effect. There is also a lot of point of view monster going on here with green light. It is not a good film I guess, but to say it is worse than some of the crap they had riffed is absurd.So not a good film, but it had some points in it that were interesting. I would like to see an unedited version of the film just to see if they showed more of the fungus as it may have been something they cut out because it was too graphic. I do think the college setting and some of the plot points kind of doomed this one. We did not need to have a kid trying to sell the stones nor did we really need to see the head of the college and his sidekick trying to frame Ben Murphy as both of these things were just filler. You had an entire campus to kill, and you go really light on the kills. I guess because they wanted that really cheesy ending that just kind of halts the film and brings it to a complete stop.

Boy, I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid. So naturally, I almost remembered nothing of it. Except for the fact that it somehow left a strange impression on me, and a dormant urge to some day revisit it. That urge awakened recently when I found this obscure gem on an old ex-rental tape, so this was my chance to re-watch it. As to be expected, this is by no means a 'good' movie. Far from, probably. But it still remains a curious and strange gem.A mummy gets dug up in King Tut's tomb and transferred to an American University. A student finds 5 diamonds hidden in the sarcophagus and steals them. The next day, the mummy is gone too. I'll just stop describing the story now. But if you want to know how a mummy, ancient diamonds, green dust that turns into flesh-devouring fungus, a blue-skinned alien with big black eyes and a college campus tie in all together, then you might want to consider watching TIME WALKER. But be warned, most people might generally classify this as a bad movie, and I don't even have much arguments to compete with that. The acting is just tolerable and the directing isn't top notch either. What had me chuckling most, were many inserted reaction shots of certain actors, just standing there looking for a second, not saying anything, or just giving a short stupid reply. But here's an interesting contradiction: Not much really happens in this movie, but still there's a lot going on (just remember the previous things I mentioned). Everything ties in together nicely, but it's all very predictable. The mummy prowling the campus provides a couple of nice and creepy shots, but his green-colored POV vision was a bit cheesy. Of course he kills a couple of people (not just randomly, I might add), but the kills themselves aren't much to write home about. On the other hand, the murderous mummy encounters a topless female student on one of his escapades and most of his kills are filmed in shocking slow-motion. The movie builds up towards a nice twist-conclusion too, but sadly when you know the tagline to this movie, or just take a glimpse at the front or back cover art, you already know what's going to happen. Also, the story severely lacks a climax at the end.TIME WALKER tries really hard, remains an offbeat, weird gem, but in the end doesn't succeed in what it sets out to do. There's plenty of interesting elements, but they are rigged together in a below average sci-fi/horror flick with a conclusion that leaves a lot to be desired. Given the nostalgia feelings I treasure for this one, it is with grief I have to flunk this baby. But don't let that discourage you to check it out if you should ever stumble upon it. And then come around some day and blame me for having watched a bad movie.

I saw this over 20 years ago and still remember. It was the only movie I walked out of before the end. Horrific acting combined with a pathetic "King Tut as the mummy" plot and dialog from a poorly stocked vending machine, this stunk to high heaven.The only actor that I recognized at the time was a TV actor from a rip-off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His performance seemed forced, like somebody was pointing a shotgun off-camera with a sign that said "act or else." I strongly recommend this to anyone constructing a "worst movie" list.In all fairness to the crew who put this together, I hold no ill will. It takes a lot to make a movie and get it into the theater. For that they deserve some credit. However, it still was a terrible movie.

This movie sucks!! I can boldly state that because I had actually seen it in the movie theaters when it came out, and on MST. (yes it was actually in movie theaters for a BRIEF time) It sucked then and it sucks now. It's only redeeming value is that MST got it and riffed the hell out of it which it needed. Ben Murphy steals a mummy from Egypt which turns out to be an alien which one of his students accidentally brings back to life. This movie was filmed at Cal State University Northridge, where I studied anthropology myself, and I doubt that any of my professors would have any of these idiots as students. But for what it's worth it is a funny MST episode and a lame horror movie. Maybe there was supposed to be a sequel, thank god there wasn't. Though it probably would have made a great MST episode.