The Silver Screen Oasis

Planet of the Vampires (1965), directed by Mario Bava.

That should be "zombies" rather than "vampires", but American International picked the English title.

When responding to a distress beacon, two spacecraft make forced landings on an unknown planet. The crews become psychotically murderous until punched around a bit. They discover a derelict alien spacecraft with large calcified Space Jockey remains. The worst thing? Dead crew members won't stay dead, and come back changed.

Let's get the bad out of the way first:

• Pointless and incoherent techno-declamations waste the first 10 minutes.
• Lots of running around and screaming to no purpose.
• We only get to know a few of the crew members; the others are kind of anonymous. (They swap one actor midway through; I didn't notice).
• As I mentioned for Barbarella (1968), there's something painful about Italian science fiction.
• I don't know whether to complain about the costumes or not. Maybe spacemen will want strangely detailed motorcycle leathers. (Actually neoprene wetsuits, I think).
• The limited budget and rudimentary effects might take us out of the story, but I would argue for accepting those restrictions in this type of film.

I recommend it for:

• Mario Bava completists.
• Those interested in the history of the SF/Horror genre.
• Anyone with a fondness for old pulp magazine rocketship adventures.
• Fans of Alien (1979) who want to see the remarkable parallels for themselves.

Ridley Scott and Dan O'Bannon say they never saw this film, so I can't explain the apparent influences. Take this and It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) and you have a big box of Alien (1979) construction parts. Carlo Rambaldi worked on special effects for both films.

It has other good features as well:

• A persistently ominous and creepy tone. No humor or cute mugging at all.
• Lovely color and better than expected composition and camera work.
• The pulp magazine cover vibe is strong in this one. We see more retro-SF these days and it fits into that revival.

Available on Blu-ray from Kino. No subtitles. Commentary track by a Bava scholar with a wealth of technical detail. He says Bava had a passion for SF, although most of his films were horror.

Scott and O'Bannon had to have seen Planet and It! For professional reasons, no film writers and directors admit to "borrowing" scenes and plot points. Planet is an extremely atmospheric movie that showcased Bava's 'creativity on a budget' process.

I like PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES! BARRY SULLIVAN!