Investigating strange frequencies from Earth's core, scientists unearth a living rock beneath a volcano. It craves hormones produced by human fear, leading them to abduct girls, sacrificing them to sustain the rock.
A scientist notices strange frequencies coming from within Earth. He and his assistants discover a living rock underneath a volcano. They bring the living rock to their laboratory and discover that in order to survive, it needs the hormones that are produced by humans when they are afraid. They then abduct and sacrifice young girls to the living rock in order to keep it alive.—[email protected]
Prologue: Dr. Carl Mandel [Boris Karloff], an aging scientist, has spent his lifelooking for answers to the secrets of the universe. When his radiotelescopes pick up patterned transmissions coming from underneath a volcano,he sends his assistants - Mark [Carlos East] and his daughter Corinne [Julissa] - tofind them while he communicates with them from his laboratory, where his faithfulcolleague and psychologist companion Helga [Isela Vega] makes sure that he takeshis medicine and gets his sleep.
Months later. Mark and Corinne have found the source of thetransmissions and brought it back to the laboratory. It is a rock, fashioned fromwhat Mandel thinks might be "primordial plasma," that is able tocommunicate through an interface with Mandel's computer. It promises greatinformation about the universe, such as the location of diamonds, butfirst it must be fed. It feeds on hormones that are released into theblood when a human is experiencing great fear, so Mandel and Helga havebuilt a "fear chamber" in order to procure the hormones that are needed bythe rock.
Under the guise of being an employment agency where young women aresolicited for potential foreign jobs and given lodging during the testingperiod, Helga chooses suitable donors to be awakened during the night andmade to run through the fear chamber (a maze filled with skeletons,spiders, and scenes of torture) until they faint from fear. Then Mandel,aided by Helga, Corinne, Mark, and three other assistants - a dwarf [Santanón], a beardedman wearing a turban, and a retarded strongman named Roland [Yerye Beirute] - extractjust enough blood to feed the rock, but not harm the donor. In fact, most of the donorsawake the next morning thinking that they have merely had a bad dream. None ofthe donors are ever harmed...well, except for one girl which Helga has kept herself fromtelling about to Mandel, who is extremely adamant about not taking any human lives.
As the experiments continue, however, the rock seems to be becomingmore and more hungry. It has also evolved a tentacle which allows it toreach out and grab things. When it uses that tentacle to grab avictim, draw her in, and feed on her blood, Mandel realizes the potentialof the rock to become murderous and cuts off the heat source that it needs tosurvive. The rock responds by interfacing with the computer as though it isfinally willing to tell its secrets, but Mandel begins to pull out the power cordsanyway. The strain of pulling out all of the cords causes Mandel to collapse.
With Mandel confined to his bed, Helga refuses to let the rock die.She arranges some time away for Corinne and Mark and enlists Roland's helpin killing the dwarf and the turbaned man. Between just the two of them,Helga and Roland revive the rock and provide it with all the blood that itwants. It thanks them for their help by spitting out some garbled dataabout diamonds.
[Roland likes diamonds. Roland wants diamonds. Lots of diamonds.Roland is friends with the rock. The rock talks to Roland, and Rolandtalks to the rock. The rock tells Roland that he will be king of theworld. Roland wants to be king of world and have all the diamonds!]
After reanalyzing the data, Helga has come to a chilling conclusion.The rock's purpose has been not to educate scientists about the secrets ofthe universe, but to learn how to live on the surface of Earth. It isnow ready to relay its findings to others like itself who live near theEarth's core. Their plan is to take over Earth and feed on both the bloodand the fear of humans.
Helga wants to kill the rock, but Roland will not let this happen to hisfriend, so he chases Helga through the fear chamber and allows the rock tofeed on her. Roland then drives off in his car yelling, "I'm going to beking of the world!" just as Corinne and Mark return home. Corinne runsstraight down to the laboratory, where she finds Helga with the life suckedout of her and her father feverishly typing a new program into thecomputer. The rock grabs Corinne with its tentacle. Mandel reminds herthat the rock feeds on fear and tells her not to be afraid. As Corinnerepeats over and over again to herself "I am not afraid," Mark takes over forMandel on the computer, fighting to run the program before the rock candevelop its own internal circuits, which will render it capable of living.Mark is successful. As the computer wiring around them goes up inflames, Mandel explains that the program required accessing every step ofthe rock's growth process and then reversing it. The now-dead rock beginsto crumble into pieces as Mandel expresses the hope that they were able tostop it before it relayed its information to others like itself. Meanwhile, Rolandcan be seen running around under the volcano, shouting "Diamonds! King ofthe world! Diamonds!" The volcano then erupts. [original synopsis by bj_kuehl]
