Format: Streaming video from Mometu on Fire!
Say what you will about Roger Corman, there were a few things that he did really well. He had an eye for talent (check out the number of directors he discovered), and he could tell a story efficiently, if not always well. Not of This Earth is one of those mid-‘50s sci-fi potboilers that always appeared on a double bill. The goal of the movie is to give the audience a weird tale, a scare or two, and a shock, even if it doesn’t make a great deal of sense, and it does that pretty well.
One of the things I love about science fiction and horror from this era is exactly that sense of nuttiness. Writers and directors could make the science as bizarre and nonsensical as they wanted if it allowed them to give the audience a fright. And let’s be honest here—the audience for pictures like Not of This Earth were not Mom and Dad, but teens who probably spent more time making out than watching what was on the screen. And so, Not of This Earth will give us a few Roger Corman regulars, some bad science, and aliens with inexplicable powers and anatomy. What more could you want?
