Planet of the Vampires

 

 

Planet of the Vampires

1965

Director- Mario Bava

Cast- Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Franco Andrei, Federico Boido,

From Italy

            A pair of spaceships, the Galliott and the Argos, have traveled from Earth to investigate a signal coming from a planet that defies exploration via traditional long range methods. Upon nearing the planet, both ships are pulled down with such astounding G force that both crews black out.

            After landing, the crew of the Argos begins to regain consciousness and they all seem to have gone insane, fighting and trying to kill each other. Only the Captain, Mark, (Barry Sullivan) seems to have retained his sanity. He subdues the crew members one at a time and they come to their senses with no clue as to the origin of their recent murderous behavior.

            After gathering themselves, Mark and the members of his crew set out to explore the strange world on which they’ve landed. The landscape is alien and foreboding; strange rocks, fog, a dim glowing horizon. Eventually they find the crew of the Galliott. They’re all dead, apparently having murdered each other in a fit of madness.

            After burying their dead, the crew of the Argos come upon the wreckage of an ancient spaceship and the skeletons of its previous crew; humanoids three times the size of a human. Before they can solve this mystery they are confronted with an even bigger one: the crew of the Galliott are rising from the grave!

            They discover that they are on a planet of vampires, though these vampires exist as energy beings. Their planet is dying and they have lured the Earthlings in order to secure a way off of their world. They drove the crews to murder so that they could inhabit the lifeless husks. Their goal is to steal the spaceships and find a new world with lots of bodies that they can take over. Of course, Mark and the crew of the Argos must do everything in their power to stop them.

            On its surface, the film appears very different from Mario Bava’s better known gothic works like Black Sunday or Black Sabbath. However, the aesthetic differences aside, this is very much a macabre movie and Bava’s influence can be felt.

            The film is often cited as having been very influential on better known films like Ridley Scott’s Alien. I don’t think there is anything plot wise that the two films share, but the scene with the giant alien corpse in the derelict from Alien was definitely taken from the same scene in Planet of the Vampires. Supposedly, the movie was also very influential to the upcoming Aquaman sequel, but that is still at least 10 months away, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Even if the film had nothing else to offer, being an influence on Alien should make it mandatory viewing for any true science fiction fan. The film does have something else, however, that makes it worth watching and that is a truly unique aesthetic. Rather than going for realism ( after all astronauts had already gone into space by 1965) the movie opts for style. But it eschews the orderly military look of Forbidden Planet or the brightly colored attire of Lost in Space (which came out at the same time as Planet of the Vampires). The crew here is decked out in head to toe leather. They look more like members of the MFP in Mad Max than space explorers. It’s a truly unique look designed for visual effect rather than believability.

As for visual effects, well the movie has a low budget and it shows. In this case though, I think that the low budget helps rather than hurts. With an extravagant budget, Bava might have been tempted to go down the rabbit hole of FX like so many other directors. I imagine, if you are a creative person, it must be tempting to see what you can do with vast resources at your disposal. In Planet of the Vampires, however, Bava has to get by on production values that seem to be just below an episode of Star Trek. I think this forced Bava to focus more on mood and it shows in the eerie alien landscape. It should also be pointed out that even low budget movies, in those days, still had to build actual sets. Today the whole thing would be green screened and could be shot in someone’s bathroom.

If you want a scare or a clever script with lots of twists and turns, this is not the film for you. However, if you are a fan of classic sci-fi, Italian cinema, or Italian horror, then you should view the film at least once to see a great example of genre film making from that period. Beyond that, I recommend the film to anyone who wants to see a really creative, slightly bizarre, take on an old theme.