Review of Not of This Earth (1988) by Filmgrinder S — 27 Jul 2012

Director/co-writer Jim Wynorski once again delivers undemanding low-budget '80s sci-fi fun with Traci Lords in her first and most popular mainstream film, perhaps because she appears in the nude for the final time. Plus she gives a good performance as nurse Nadine Story, trading snappy banter with small-time crook Jeremy after both gain employment from a mysterious man who always wears sunglasses, night and day. Turns out he's an alien testing Earth's blood supply and communicating with an emissary from his war-torn home planet Davanna who looks like he could be guitarist for a Swedish death metal band (and considering the actor's name is Zoran Hochstatter that may not be far off!) You might recognize Roger Lodge as policeman Harry from his time as sleazy host of the sleazy syndicated TV show Blind Date, and an unrecognizable Monique Gabrielle has a funny cameo as a loony bus stop lady. Awful effects and music and limp stalking sequences aside, Not Of This Earth provides an evening's worth of pleasingly shlocky entertainment.

Fun With Credits: First we're subjected to a demented opening title sequence featuring clips from other '80s Roger Corman-produced movies which have absolutely nothing to do with this one, then at the very end of the closing credits comes the warning "Any unauthorized distribution of this film is an infringement of the copyright and will subject the infringer to severe civil and criminal prosecution -- not to mention a one-way ticket to Davanna.".