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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: 11/2/2010
Director: Jim Wynorski
Cast: Traci Lords, Arthur Roberts, Lenny Juliano
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Cashing in on the star power that a young and controversial Traci Lords brought to the table in 1983, Jim Wynorski's remake of Roger Corman's own fifties space vampire film is a pretty solid movie in its own right. Taking a more comedic approach to the story, Wynorski's film begins when the mysterious Mr. Johnson (Arthur Roberts) arrives from the planet Davanna to find out whether or not human blood will be able to provide enough sustenance for his race, a population that is very quickly running out of things to eat on their home planet. After a visit to a doctor's office he winds up hiring Nadine (Traci Lords), a sexy but dimwitted nurse, to help him out. Soon enough she's moved into the mansion that he now calls home and is helping him with his daily blood work, much to the chagrin of Johnson's driver, an ex-con named Jeremy (Lenny Juliano).
As Johnson cruises around town making shot work of prostitutes, criminals and sexy strippers, Nadine and her police officer boyfriend start to wonder what this Mr. Johnson guy is really all about and with some help from a local doctor soon set out to uncover his true identity.
Legend has it that a conversation between Wynorski and Corman turned into a bet wherein Wynorski claimed he could make a movie faster and on the same scale of budget as Corman did when he originally made Not Of This Earth in 1957. Corman agreed and Wynorski's film basically speaks for itself. Cheap, tacky and trashy it was the perfect starring vehicle for a just-out-of-porn Traci Lords, looking to legitimize herself after her controversial time spent performing (supposedly underage) in the adult film industry. The last film that Traci would ever appear nude in, the eighties version of Not Of This Earth lets the former adult film star spend only a bit of time in her birthday suit to appease her audience of the day without resorting to anything more than innocent nudity - mostly she's covered up here, but usually not by much (think bikinis and slinky lingerie). As far as her acting skills are concerned, well, she's playing an airhead here so it's hard to say that she appears to be really challenged by any of the material, but she does show some decent comedic timing and delivers enough of her dialogue properly and in character that she makes for a fine lead.
Just as interesting is Roberts as the mysterious Mr. Johnson. Basically playing a 'man in black' type, we know from the minute we see him with those black sunglasses always in place that he's hiding something - we just don't necessarily expect Nadine to be the one to figure it all out. Roberts does a fine job here, playing his part with an appropriate amount of otherworldly arrogance. His work and Lords' warmth overshadow the rest of the cast, most of whom are expectedly wooden and not all that memorable.
Effects wise there isn't much to write home about here. The movie looks decent considering its low budget roots and Wynorski at least took the time to come up with some good shot set ups. There are spots where it's obvious that this picture was made fast and cheap but just as many spots where those same qualities add to the enjoyment of it all. The movie goes along at a very good pace, rarely feeling padded and never overstaying its eighty plus minute running time. There's a good sense of humor to it all and while the ending is a bit bleaker than you might expect or want it to be, but all in all, this is, for lack of a better term, a good time at the movies.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shout! Factory presents Not Of This Earth in a 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks very good. Some shots look cleaner than others, which is understandable given the effects work and all (check out the screen caps of the legs to the right to see what I mean), but generally things are quite impressive. Colors look very good, nice and bright without appearing over saturated, and skin tones appear nice and natural never once taking on a waxy tone or looking too pink. Detail is good for a standard definition presentation and black levels are generally pretty strong as well. Shadow detail isn't always perfect in the darker scenes but there's really nothing worth complaining about here, and Shout!'s transfer is a very impressive one despite some minor print damage here and there.
The only audio option is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix. No alternate language dubs or subtitles of any kind are provided. The audio here sounds okay, but there are some spots where the levels spike a bit. Some background hiss is also present. It's not enough to really ruin anything, but it isn't on par with the transfer in terms of quality.
Director and co-writer Jim Wynorski joins star Traci Lords for a full length commentary track that talks about the hurried twelve day shoot that the film was made on and explains that part of the reason it was made this way was because Wynorski was trying to outdo his producer, Roger Corman, who shot the original very quickly. Corman actually gets a lot of attention here, with Wynorski sharing a lot of fun stories about working for the notoriously cheap producer, while Lords talks about her character and some of her costars quite affectionately.
Lords also pops up in a featurette entitled Nadine's Story, a twelve minute video interview in which she elaborates a bit more on her work on this picture and how this was the last film she would ever film a nude scene for. Traci comes off as pretty down to Earth here and is amiable enough and seemingly fairly proud of her work on the picture, which is nice to see.
Rounding out the extras is a trailer for the film, a still gallery trailers for a few other Shout! Factory/Roger Corman properties, animated menus and chapter stops. No liner notes this time around but an insert includes a brief introductory paragraph from Corman as well as DVD credits and an advertisement for other Corman DVDs, while the flip side of the cover art features some foxy glamour shots of Traci looking fine.
The Final Word:
Proof once again that not all remakes suck, Jim Wynorski's take on Not Of This Earth is a great mix of sci-fi, horror and comedy with enough sex appeal and wacky effects work to keep things interesting. Despite an unusually bleak ending given the film's humorous starts, it's got plenty of entertainment value and Shout! Factory has done the film justice here. Even if the audio could have been a bit better, the transfer is rock solid and the extras are quite enjoyable.