‘The Science-Fiction Chiller!’
Not of This Earth is a 1988 American science fiction-horror film directed by Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall; Piranhaconda; Gila!) from a screenplay co-written with R.J. Robertson, based on a story by Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna.
The Concorde production stars Traci Lords, Arthur Roberts, Lenny Juliano and Rebecca Perle.
The movie was allegedly made as a result of a wager in which Wynorski bet he could remake the film in the same (inflation-adjusted) budget and schedule as Roger Corman’s 1956 original.
This film starred Traci Lords (in her first mainstream film role after a brief yet prolific career in naughty movies) as a nurse, Arthur Roberts as Mr Johnson the alien, Lenny Juliano as Jeremy, Roger Lodge as Harry the patrolman, Ace Mask as Dr Rochelle and Kelli Maroney as Nurse Oxford.
Plot:
An alien (Arthur Roberts) travels to Earth seeking a new supply of blood for his dying world. Initially, he seeks a supply through the medical establishment, using special mental powers and money to accomplish his aim…
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“Not of this Earth has its tongue firmly in cheek, with the filmmaker mounting a sci-fi tale that relies heavily on finger-snap banter between Lords and Juliano, crafty little special effects and props, and a heaping helping of nudity to keep viewers interested in the story. A B-movie warlord, Wynorski knows what he’s serving up here, which makes the film consistently amusing, playing up its influences and temptations with a swift pace and spirited performances…” DVD Talk
“Not of This Earth is more than happy to get very silly very quickly. Indeed, the opening sequence is rife with evidence of Wynorski’s genre affections. An alien craft comes to Earth swiftly followed by an ill-fated outdoor sex scene involving two teens, clear nods to Carpenter’s The Thing and Phantasm, respectively. Being a product of the less-accepting late 80′s, though, the film doesn’t suffer from the over-enthusiastic “knowingly nerdy” tone films like Severance and countless other post-Shaun fanboy movies do.’ CHUD.com
“NOTE is suitably trashy, but it’s a little too fluffy to really qualify as sleazy. There sure are a lot of tits though. It only holds back when it comes to the gore, which is disappointingly scant… The movie could really have been a classic if they’d pushed the boat out there. The end is a little lame too, and really left me thinking “is that seriously it?”, but Corman probably just ran out of money so I won’t hold it against him.” Trash Flavoured Trash
