Before you decide whether or not you want to watch this movie, consider the following questions: Do I want to see lots of freaky aliens and spectacular special effects? Do I want to see lots of half-naked women? If your answer to either of these questions is, yes, then you may be disappointed. The weird aliens and gory scenes we see during the opening credits aren't included in the story and, overall, the special effects are mediocre compared to what you would see in a good sci-fi blockbuster. The story's main appeal is suspense and intrigue. For a bonus, we get a generous look at voluptuous Traci Lords in a swimsuit.
The movie begins when an alien arrives on Earth and kills two young lovers in a secluded place. After this brief introduction to the story, we then see the credits. Set to eerie music, we get glimpses of horrible looking aliens and young terrorized women running, being raped, and giving unnatural birth to hideous creatures. Exactly the kind of thing I DID NOT WANT TO SEE! Perhaps Roger Corman found this montage to be artistic, but all he did was tell me that I was watching another low-budget science fiction-horror flick with a thoughtless plot, bad acting, bogus special effects, and disgusting gore. Fortunately, these scenes seem to have been lifted from earlier works and have no connection whatsoever with the actual story.
The more credible story that Corman tells is one of a very human looking alien with a strange disease, who relies on blood transfusions to remain alive. His intriguing problem is the main reason why I watched the film to the end. Unfortunately, Corman tried too hard to provide us with gratuitous glimpses of young women in various states of undress.
It works well when the model is Traci Lords, who plays the role of a young nurse, Nadine Story, and is quite stunning in a swimsuit. Her natural looking breasts were a welcome contrast to the "plastic" enhancements that have become a staple of modern B-movies. I'm relieved that the movie was made 20 years ago, a time before breast jobs had become "over inflated".
Even though sexy women are an important attraction, I still don't want them presented in a clumsy fashion. Corman's "excuse" for revealing Traci's curvaceous body is the simple fact that in the context of the story they are in the middle of a heat wave, and Nadine had a swimming pool in the house that she was staying in. Fair enough, given that Traci acts well enough to play a leading role in a B movie, but Corman doesn't stop there. He shows us more and more half-dressed women, often for entirely pointless reasons, who aren't nearly as good looking as Traci.
If you like Traci, and I expect you will, you have plenty of her earlier porn movies to choose from, which are doubtless more revealing. If, on the other hand, you want to see some skin, but you find endless scenes of orgies to be boring at best and at worst disgusting, like myself you're stuck trying to find a B-movie with good looking young models who act reasonably well and are cast in story that is at the very least plausible. In which case this movie is OK, but could have been better.
