Star Portal

Roger Corman's 1957 cult classic NOT OF THIS EARTH already had two direct copies (in 1988 and 1995), but here it is again. This one has a few differences though, namely a female cast as the alien. The body of Sarah (Athena Massey) is taken over by an alien ("Quad Rena") who forces her to kill with death ray eyes. Victims are hung upside down and have their throats slit so blood can be collected and sent back through a portal to save a dying planet. Unlike other versions, the alien retains the memory of her host, gets drunk, explores sex, raids a blood bank, goes clubbing and falls in love with a doctor (Steven Bauer). Massey has lots of nude scenes and like the three previous versions this is watchable, but it's also full of badly incorporated, reused space and strip club Corman footage. Scripted by the director, based on the original screenplay by Mark Hanna and Charles B. Griffith. Corman was executive producer.

Score: 4 out of 10

I can't believe I actually watched the whole thing. There is almost nothing to recommend about this movie. It has Roger Corman's fingerprints all over it from the tasteless scenes of blood dripping into bowls to the bargain basement special effects to the confused plotting. If you do watch it, one exercise that you could take to make the whole thing interesting is to try to figure out how in the world anyone ever thought that it would be a good idea to turn a blood sucking alien into a sympathetic love interest. Other than that, enjoy the nude scenes.

Adding its name to the roster of films who have lifted their cheesy space scenes from the ancient BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, this film need not have bothered with the plagiarism. The STAR PORTAL core plot has no need of any space scenes whatsoever. It is basically a vampire/alien-on-earth movie, where the only original device is that the vampire is not only a protagonist but also an ingenue love interest. As for the latter, while the sex scenes are tame, there is plenty of mammary exposure by Athena Massey, who, while quite comely, does not need any special makeup effects to demonstrate that she is portraying a silicon-based lifeform, if you know what I mean.

Stephen Bauer performs competently as a goodhearted physician, but he irritatingly drifts into the commonly-observed sci fi film character who cannot believe that aliens are among us, even after repeated and exhaustive observations of behaviors that are supernatural or technologically impossible. Can someone that dumb get into medical school? As a physician myself, I find the implication rather off-putting.

I just finished watching Star Portal less than five minutes ago, and as Athena Massey says, "I needed to contact my people". This is not a great film, but as a film that keeps you interested in what will happen next, it is a good film. It's from one of Roger Corman's companies (footage from Battle Beyond the Stars is once again "borrowed" to pad one of his sci-fi movies out), and has some plot elements in common with Not of This Earth. Athena Massey is very enjoyable in the role of the alien that comes to Earth accidently and must live on the blood of humans in order to survive. Steven Bauer plays the doctor who falls in love with her. Some of the dialogue is pretty stupid, but the fact that Massey talks like someone who doesn't have the best grip on the English language makes for a lot of the movie's humor. Worth a watch.