Planet of the Vampires (1965)

That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This intriguing science fiction tale from the master of atmospheric horror, Mario Bava, is a lot different from the norm. Instead of having an alien planet packed with drooling nasties, instead we get the tale of an invisible race of alien 'vampires' who can take over dead bodies and are hell-bent on continuing their race by moving to another planet via the visitors' spaceships.As with most of Bava's films this is dripping with atmosphere, in the eerie fog-bound and wind-swept location of the alien planet. The landscape is full of bubbling lava and dark, brooding shadows cast by ugly rock formations. It's easy to believe that anything could be lurking out there in the shadows and this fear of the unknown is what Bava plays on and exploits to the maximum. It's definitely creepy if not downright scary. Any fan of the film ALIEN and the first sequel to it will notice the resemblance between the bleak, lonely planets as PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES was very influential on that particular saga. The acting is fine, especially Barry Sullivan who excels as the charismatic and commanding leader of the group, a fine leader if ever I saw one.The supporting cast is varied although a few of the faces lower down in the cast are not particularly distinctive and blend into one, serving the same purpose as the 'red suits' in STAR TREK, i.e. cannon fodder, or in this case vampire fodder. Lower down in the list you may just spot a young Ivan Rassimov before he got caught up in the cannibal films of the '70s. The outlandish costumes in this film are inevitably truly '60s in design, leather bodysuits with winged collars. The film is most frightening when dealing with our fear of the unknown, with crew members disappearing into the night, taken by a presence we do not know. When the vampires do appear as glowing balls of light, the special effects inevitably disappoint due to dating. While this might ruin the carefully set-up atmospherics, these effects are still passable and enjoyably old-fashioned, with flashing lasers and such. Bava obviously created the film on a low budget and frankly did wonders with it.The violence content is kept low, although there are some bloodied bodies which return from the dead to provide visceral impact. Actually, scenes with the bodies rising from their graves and ripping plastic sheeting from their torsos is extremely unnerving, reminding me of similar scenes in THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES where the zombified dead claw their way from the earth. There are also some great bits where three crew members discover the giant skeletons of long-dead beings, very spooky indeed. The twist ending is expected yet still hits home, and there's even a cheesy yet effective closing scene. Be warned, it is downbeat though. PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES has something for everyone, and thus excels as an example of borderline science fiction/horror.

Mario Bava is one of the more prolific Italian horror filmmakers that ever graced the big screen. His work is well known throughout film buff's circles and critics alike. Even though most of Bava's projects were done a smaller budget than we might be used to today, they were always a perfect specimen of what every movie should strive to be like, visually. No matter the budget, Bava always added great detail to his sets and was a master cameraman, who framed each shot perfectly and beautifully.It's no wonder than nearly 35 years after his death, Bava is still talked about and his movies celebrated. One of those films is 'Planet of the Vampires' from 1965. This is not one of his best films by any means, but it might be his most interesting. Don't let the title fool you. There are no vampires in this film. In fact, if I were given the option to name this film, I would call it 'Alien'. And yes, I'm speaking of Ridley Scott's 'Alien' from 1979. If you think about Scott's 'Alien' film, going into 'Planet of the Vampires', your head might explode or your chest burst open by the numerous similarities in both films.'Planet of the Vampires' was first though. Nearly fifteen years before. But where 'Planet of the Vampires' left off, 'Alien' picked up and added all of the strong characters, the debilitating fear and scares, and one hell of a monster. Yes, 'Alien' is by far a better film, but it's great to see where Ridley Scott and his writers were influenced by their genre bending film 'Alien', whether they admit it or not.The story starts out with two large ships traveling through space on a mission to explore the vastness outer space. The two ships traveling together receive a distress signal from a strange planet in the distance. The ships travel to the planet to investigate, but as they are landing on this strange planet, the crews become possessed and start to kill each other off. Only Captain Markary (Barry Sullivan) has not been possessed and is able to get his crew back to normal. Both ships crash land on the planet, where Markary and his crew set out to find the other ship. Once they find it, the soon see that the other crew have all killed themselves on the way down.When the Markary and his crew start to bury the deceased, the dead in fact start to get it and cause trouble. This leaves Markary and a few of his surviving crew to try and repair their ship and get off the planet before they too become consumed by this mysterious evil. There is actually a scene here where Markary and his crew discover another ship on this alien planet where they see large skeletal remains of some big alien life form. All of this was done in 'Alien', but only better.The film mostly consists of Markary and his remaining crew, searching and figuring out a way to survive, with almost no real action up until the end. And even then, it isn't all that spectacular. But really drives this movie home is the intricate and amazing sets, practical effects, makeup, and costumes. Every little detail is paid attention to by Bava, and shows up nicely in each frame. But the story line isn't all that thrilling and the pacing is quite slow. 'Planet of the Vampires' is visually stunning from start to finish, but it's story execution is lacking. Luckily a great mind in Ridley Scott was influenced enough to make this movie into something more.

A lot of other reviewers praise director Mario Bava for the good special effects and atmospherics of this movie, while others damn him for the disjointed plot and silly science gaffs. Both of these seem to me to be regular features of Italian science fiction from that period. In fact, these characteristics are typical of Japanese, Spanish, and Latin American film making of that time as well. The fact that all these places produced perfectly well plotted, edited, and acted movies of other genres (DeSica's movies in Italia, Kurosawa's movies in Japan, Bunuel's work in Espana, etc.) shows that the problem was not lack of technical skill or professionalism in those countries. The explanation for the large group of very poorly produced movies of this type at this time probably has to do with the baby boom and the American movie industry's desire to import cheap product to satisfy it rather than facing the high costs of domestic investment in the industry.In any case, M. Bava should neither be praised nor blamed for this. Presumably, his output of lurid and cheap movies is a testament to the huge youth market of his time and the reluctance of studios to trust him with anything better rather than to his own choices. What strikes me most is the attention to costumes, models, and props in this movie. All are quite stylish. Italian design has always been very stylish, if not particularly functional. Whoever designed the models and props is the guarantor of this movie's fame.As others have pointed out, this movie is a clear source for Alien, despite R. Scott's denials. Even the use of dark sets for science fiction was pioneered here, although it wouldn't come back into vogue until R. Scott's movie. What others haven't pointed out is that this movie is also a source for Star Trek. Check out those two spaceships again. They are clearly streamlined versions of the Enterprise. Every important feature of the Enterprise's exterior is there.But that's not all. Compare the plot of this movie with that of the Star Trek pilot, "The Managerie". A dying planet, a fake distress signal, mind controlling aliens desperately requiring human bodies, and an earlier crashed spaceship are all common features of the two. I'd say a lot of Hollywood's future sci-fi wonder boys watched this movie, stole heavily from it, and then, like successful middle aged men denying their relationships with the town whore when they were young, just 'forgot' what they'd done.So, this is worth seeing for the origins of much of today's sci-fi horror tropes. Besides, it does have eerie moments and a bit of style to it.

Mario Bava directed this eerie and effective Sci-Fi film as two spaceship crews(the Argos & Dalliot) investigate the mysterious planet Aura, only to have fights break out among both crews, resulting in one crash landing, and the other successfully landing. The surviving crew discover their comrades dead, all having murdered each other. They then explore the fog-shrouded planet, to find the remains of another spaceship and the huge skeletal remains of its crew. They then learn that the planet is inhabited by disembodied aliens who can reanimate the newly dead, and use them as temporary hosts, until they can take over the living...Despite having forgettable and sketchily written characters, this surprisingly good film has a palpable atmosphere about it, directed and designed with skill and a good eye for detail. Skeletal alien remains may have influenced Ridley Scott in "Alien", and is in some ways just as memorable. Good score and chilling surprise end make this film a cult classic, much better than expected.