Not of This Earth

Plot synopsis:
As Cheryl is on her way home after making out with her boyfriend, she is accosted by a strange man who mentally immobilizes her, burns
out her eyes with his stare, and drains her blood with a transfusion
device that he keeps in a briefcase. The next morning, a strange man
dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses, walks into the Durkee
Testing Laboratory and asks to see Dr Rochelle. Paul Johnson [Michael York] seems very weak and claims "my blood is ill." Nurse Amanda Sayles [Elizabeth Barondes] attempts to draw
some of his blood for lab tests, but Johnson refuses on the grounds that
he requires "input of blood, not depletion." When Dr Rochelle [Mason Adams] explains
that he can't treat him without a blood test, Mr Johnson cuts his own arm
with a scalpel, dabs up what little blood emerges with a cotton ball, and
hands it to Dr Rochelle. Johnson then directs the doctor mentally to
immediately do the tests himself and then to prescribe a transfusion.After receiving a quart of blood, Mr Johnson is feeling and looking
better. Deciding to employ Amanda as a live-in nurse who can give him
daily transfusions, he mentally orders Dr Rochelle to support Amanda's job
change. Rochelle obligingly diagnoses Johnson with a rare form of
hemophilia and advises Amanda to take the job. Amanda escorts Johnson to
his car, only to find her officer friend Jack Sherbourne [Parker Stevenson] in the process of
writing Johnson a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot. Amanda talks
Jack out of it on the chance that she will someday accept a date with him.Later that afternoon, Amanda moves into Mr Johnson's home, an
impressive and expensively-decorated mansion that he shares with only one
other person -- ex-con chauffeur/butler/gardener/nutritionist/cook, Jeremy
Pallin [Richard Belzer], whom Amanda immediately puts in his place. Johnson shows Amanda
around the house, the only place being off-limits is the basement where,
Jeremy explains, Johnson has a workshop or something. Actually, the
basement consists of a refrigerator where he stores his collected blood
samples and a blast furnace where he disposes of the occasional
doorbell-ringing evangelist after exsanguinating him. In Johnson's "rest
room" (bedroom) is where Amanda will "feed" him blood. It also contains a
hidden communicator that Johnson uses to contact his home planet of
Davanna. Johnson, or Sidal-2 as he is known on Davanna, has been sent to
Earth to seek human blood as a cure for a disease that is killing his
people. His mission is to find a cure and transmit human blood for
transfusions and research. If human blood proves to be suitable, the
ultimate goal is, of course, to take over the Earth.One day, as he is on his way to the library, Mr Johnson notices a
number of homeless people lined up along a fence. He instructs Jeremy to
invite three of them home for dinner that evening. As Johnson is leaving
the library, he notices a Davannan female from E-13 Brood crossing the
street. Surprised because he thought he was the only Davannan sent to
Earth, Johnson communicates telepathically and discovers that his
superiors have been lying to him. Back at the mansion, Amanda has been
sunning herself beside the pool. After returning to the house and feeling
hot and sweaty, she notices that the thermostat is set over 90 degrees F
and goes into the basement to check the furnace, which is blasting away.
Just as she makes note of the vast array of specimen jars on the shelves,
she hears a car in the driveway and goes back upstairs. Unfortunately, she
leaves her sunglasses on one of the shelves.Dr Rochelle and off-duty Officer Jack drive up, quickly followed by
Johnson and Jeremy. While Amanda and Jack share an iced drink and Amanda
finally consents to a date with Jack, Rochelle gives Johnson the results
of his lab tests. Johnson's blood contains an airborne virus that exists
on an extremely rare element found only in Johnson's blood. Rochelle
concludes that Johnson is one in a trillion or he is not of this earth. Mr
Johnson mentally instructs Rochelle to research the virus and find a cure,
even if it means not sleeping.That evening, while Amanda is away on her date with Jack, Jeremy
brings home three homeless people. Mr Johnson takes them in the basement
to see his "cellar for wine." He kills them with his glance, exsanguinates
them, and tosses their bodies into the furnace. He sends back their blood
during his next communique with Davanna. During this transmission, Johnson
is asked to send a human female for further investigation and analysis. He
is also warned of Davannan defectors and ordered to immediately terminate
them should he see one on Earth. When Johnson asks about his own brood on
Davanna, he is told that they have all perished.The next day, while walking down the street, Johnson is accosted by
four gang members demanding that he hand over his briefcase. Johnson
refuses and fights them off. One of the members is a girl, so he mentally
demands that she accompany him. That evening, he sends her through the
transporter to Davanna. The next morning after breakfast, Amanda asks
Jeremy about the food being eaten by Mr Johnson. Oddly enough, he eats
nothing and leaves only a glass filled with a dark, nasty-smelling liquid.
Amanda suggests that they have the liquid analyzed by Dr Rochelle. Jeremy
also tells her about seeing the three homeless people and a street girl
enter the house last night and swears that he never saw them leave. Where
did they go? she wonders. "I think he eats them," Jeremy concludes.Firm in his duty to serve the hive, Mr Johnson contacts E-13 mentally
and they meet in an antique store. E-13 [Athena Stensland] tells Johnson that the people on
Davanna are eating each other and that the leaders are consuming the blood
and specimens that Johnson has been sending them. When he sees that E-13
is weak and in need of blood, he takes her to the Durkee Lab for a secret
transfusion. Unfortunately, the unit of blood he selects is infected with
rabies. After the transfusion, Johnson gives E-13 a pile of money and then
goes off in search of another female specimen. He finds a woman and
mentally orders her into his car just as someone drives up and honks his
horn. The noise from the horn causes excruciating pain to Johnson's ears,
and he loses control of the woman, who tries to run away. Johnson follows
her and, using his eyes, causes her to burst into flames.Dr Rochelle joins Amanda and Jack at the restaurant where they are
having dinner. He brings along the analysis from the liquid that Amanda
gave him. Amino acids, proteins, hemoglobin, bile, and a bunch of
components he can't identify, a "crazy gastric bouillabaisse", he calls
it. Meanwhile, E-13 is getting sicker, throwing up black goop. She heads
back into the Durkee Lab and collapses on the floor. Dr Rochelle is
summoned, and he and Jack hurry to the Lab. In front of their eyes, they
watch E-13 turn black, convulse, and expire. Under her dark sunglasses,
which are the exact same type as Mr Johnson's, they see only white eyes.
Jack calls Amanda, who has just returned to Johnson's house, and tells her
about E-13. He orders her to get out of the house.Jeremy catches Amanda packing her bags and suggests that they first
take a look around the house, since Johnson is not there. They search his
bedroom, finding a strange, pulsing, spidery thing which Jeremy squashes
with his foot. Poking at some buttons on the wall, Amanda opens the
transporter or, as Jeremy calls it, the "intergalactic cable." Jeremy has
had enough and leaves the room, but Amanda continues to poke around. When
the phone rings, Amanda answers it. It is Dr Rochelle calling to tell her
about E-13. He also informs her that his work on the virus has shown that
it can be wiped out by exposing it to radiation. Unbeknown to both Amanda
and Rochelle, Mr Johnson has returned and is listening in on their
conversation. After Rochelle hangs up, Johnson tells Amanda that he's
coming for her.Amanda panics and tries to get out, but Johnson is already coming up
the stairs to his rest room. Jeremy appears with a gun and orders Johnson
to stop, but Johnson turns him into a fireball. Amanda races back into
Johnson's room and tries to hide in the closet but finds herself next to a
nasty blob that starts waving its tentacles at her. She runs out on the
terrace and down the steps into the yard. Johnson pursues, mentally
telling her to stop, turn around, and look at his eyes. Amanda keeps
running.Mr Johnson returns to his briefcase and summons a flying
stingray/jellyfish to destroy Dr Rochelle and all evidence of Johnson's
presence. Then he goes after Amanda, intending to return to Davanna with
her as his breeder. Together, they will use the cure and start a new hive.
Although she can hear Johnson in her mind calling to her, Amanda continues
to flee. She gets as far as Griffith Park and finds a telephone booth. She
calls Jack and asks for his help, but Johnson is bearing down on her in
his car. Amanda continues to run, and Johnson continues to follow. When he
catches up with her, he forces her to stop. He commands her to return to
the house and wait by the transportation device.Amanda begins to walk back to the house. Jack drives up on his
motorcycle and, seeing that she is okay, he goes after Johnson. Jack pulls
up alongside Johnson's car and fires a shot at him, causing Johnson to
drive off a cliff and the car to burst into flames. Amanda does as she is
told -- returns to the house, opens the transporter, and stands in front
of it. As Mr Johnson lies dying, he calls out Amanda's name and uses his
eyes to shut down the transporter.Epilogue: Amanda and Jack stand before Mr Johnson's grave. It reads:
Here lies a being who was not of this earth. As they walk away from the
grave, another man wearing sunglasses and carrying a briefcase gets out of
a car and approaches the grave. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: cult

Review:
Intentionally cheezy is fun but it isn't that fun. I think the makers of this movie want you to heckle it.  It's definitely obvious that the cheese was intentional but more importantly it's real MSTable material With some hilariously bad scenes.  Roger Corman is the king of Cheese flicks and this is proof.  Just make sure you have a friend to heckle this with when you watch it.. Excellent flick! Roger Corman rules.. Excellent flick! Roger Corman rules. This movie would be one of those "Read between the lines". Michael York plays the perfect alien. He does such a good job, he sort of makes you think he's an alien in real life, for those who believe in that sorta thing. What's odd is I was captivated by this movie the minute it came on. I wasn't expecting much, which made it even better watching. Without spoiling it for folks, there are several scenes to pay attention to that I would say compare to real life, for those who believe in the world of alien phenomena. Michael York makes this whole movie for me, special effects may be a little cheesy, but the actual story line is pretty good.. Not of This Earth. In this second remake of Roger Corman's '57 sci-fi classic, Michael York inhabits the role of Mr. Johnson, an alien sent to earth to send blood extracted from humans in the hopes of finding a cure for a dying race back home dying because of a virus sweeping their people. Johnson has hypnotic powers that force humans to do his will. He commands Dr. Rochelle(Mason Adams) to work on finding a cure while he hire nurse Amanda(Liz Barondes)to provide blood transfusions to keep him alive. He daily communicates with his leader, through the form of a blob monster whose tentacles work as a message link between Johnson and the boss. There's a method of travel, a type of wormhole which opens when Johnson needs to send "specimens" to his planet for "proper study" in his bedroom. He also has little creatures his digests inside this giant monstrous mouth in his stomach, for food. He wears sunglasses because his eyes always glow bright. He's a lousy driver so he pays a wise-cracking crook(..the always entertainingly witty Richard Belzer)as a chauffeur and butler. Parker Stevenson is the cop whose nose sniffs something fishy regarding Johnson and doggedly pursues Amanda..can't blame him for that, because Amanda is quite a tasty dish worth pursuing. Johnson's method of selecting human victims, burning their eyes before taking their blood leaving a shrivelled corpse, leaves a trail of bodies making him one of the worst serial killers. Johnson wishes to select the "waste"/dregs of society to supply his planet and Rochelle, but soon his ways will lead to his obvious downfall. There's also a sub-plot regarding an alien woman(Julia McNeal)who has departed from Johnson's planet with news as to what their government is actually doing with what is sent to them. Her tragic demise will yield a domino effect that Johnson will have trouble evading as he develops specific plans for Amanda hoping to renew life on his dying world.There are quite a many similirarities to the 1988 film, although this one is a bit wittier with a more polished screenplay, even often containing some thought-provoking dialogue(..such as when Johnson questions whether or not the virus, like AIDS, is a way of nature returning to humans what we ourselves have done to our own planet). There are more monsters in this one and the cast is more colorful with the humor more witty eliciting more chuckles. York plays the alien as straight as Arthur Roberts does in the 1988 film, but thanks to a bit more budget is given more of a chance to play off the "fish out of water" theme of an alien encountering us interesting humans. The way York apologizes before murdering the first female victim. There's no emotion attached to him(..well as far as extracting blood from us, obviously there's a deep care for his own "brood", as the tear that trickles down his cheek at the misfortunate of such devastation would suggest)in doing away with any earthling that comes between him and the collection for his people. While I found Lords incredibly sexy in the 1988 film, Barondes is so full of vibrant life, not to mention, she's incredibly charming, engaging, and just plain lovable(..not to mention she has a pair of legs to die for)that she succeeds in certain ways the former fails. The 1995 film, however, has a rather weak finale, which pretty much duplicates the '88 film..there's not much to differentiate the two. I think fans of the '88 film will enjoy this one, for the extra effort injected into it. Probably many's favorite scene will be the fate of a door-to-door Christian spreading the word, who happens to enter the wrong home when intruding on Johnson. I think one difference between this and the '88 film is Wynorski's low-brow sleaziness, which has it's own charm which fans come to expect(..and, perhaps even admire).. If you want to see a movie real bad.......... This lame remake does not compare to the atmospheric original. Never thought I would say this, but Michael York is no Paul Birch. His silly attempt to imitate Jeff Bridges effort in Starman is ludicrous. The inconsistency of his mental powers and the truly silly projection of fire balls from his eyes: Really!! The entire sequence with the "woman" from his home planet is really dumb. Why does he keep telling people/things to meet him at his house, expecting them to get there on their own, when he is going there and could take them along with him? Did they hold an audition for actresses with really skinny legs to play the nurse? Poor Mason Adams just seems at a loss as to how to act or maybe he just is not interested in this material. It also looks like they ran out of money one-third of the way through this, especially the doctor's office and "lab". This movie does not have a terrible idea behind it but it is worked out very badly and I cannot believe anyone thinks it is better than the 1957 original.