Take the Blob, sprinkle in a dash of The Crazies and add a twisted pinch of classic Eastwood and you’d get Not Human, a low-budget alien invasion flick from Adam R. Steigert (A Grim Becoming.)
The fictional town of Metzburgh, N.Y. is an idyllic village that despite having seen better days since the local grain concern collapsed is still the sort of Mayberryesque place where everyone knows everyone and the waitress at the local diner knows how you like your eggs and how you take your coffee. There’s even a local Sheriff born and raised who’s concerned enough to stop and give a young tyke a ride when he spies her scootering too far from home and not wearing a helmet.
Unfortunately, the peaceful milieu of Metzburgh is about to be shattered when a meteor hurtles toward Earth and crashes in the village. Glen, the local drunk, discovers the crash and is immediately consumed by something sinister. Enter Mark and his sweetheart Lucy. Mark is an ex-high school sports superstar hanging on to past glories and Lucy is the daughter of the town’s resident abusive redneck. They discover the oozing and much-worse-for-wear Glen and take him to the house of the local doctor who a) Is conveniently still wearing her scrubs, and b) Greets them with a shotgun.
Despite the less than hospitable welcome, Doctor D. agrees to examine Glen and determines that he has no pulse. Soon the doctor herself is infected and disappears into a giant pile of blood and pulsating green goo.
Before you can say lime Jell-O, the sheriff and his deputies arrive on scene to investigate the strange occurrence. Turns out the gooey substance is a parasitic alien bacteria that immediately infects anyone it touches and turns them into wonderfully hostile, oozing, drippy, neon-slime covered mutants.
If that’s not bad enough, another alien has arrived in town. This one is a Cowboy hatted, duster wearing green-faced man – sort of a chlorophyll-filled Wyatt Earp. The extra-terrestrial man with no name actually does have one – He’s the Nemesis. While the Nemesis’ motives are not immediately clear, what is certain is that he does not come in peace.
Soon a Men In Black type operation descends upon the village to contain the outbreak. During a town hall meeting, Nemesis turns up and all hell breaks loose. The infection spreads quickly and all civility breaks down as the gooey mutants come a shambling and a spitting. It’s up to the few remaining uninfected, including Mark, Lucy and the Sheriff, to help rescue the village’s few remaining non-mutated residents, deal with the alien-pistol packing Nemesis and find a way out of the mess.
Not Human is good fun. We at RAM love contagions and we love slime and Not Human has both in abundance. It also has some nifty scenes such as when the mayor’s hand becomes infected and the Sheriff has to remove it in a decidedly low-tech and unhygienic way. The makeup effects are top-notch for a low-budget indie effort and the cast is enjoyably game.
Make sure to stay through the closing credits.
*** (out of five)
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