Review of Planet of the Vampires (1965) by Jim M — 21 Jun 2009
Quite a cast and crew that produced this one. It's an American International picture, written by the same writer who wrote Angry Red Planet and whose outlines inspired Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: Ib Melchior. And the director, Mario Bava is best known as a horror director, whose work Twitch of the Death Nerve, considered one of the first slasher films, was imitated in American theaters with Friday the 13th. The actor Barry Sullivan I found, was a character actor all through the sixties and seventies, with parts in shows like Kung Fu, Hawaii Five-O and The Streets of San Francisco.
Blue planets whiz by as we sail into the velvet blackness, with the usual violins and weird musical accompaniment.
What strikes me is the roominess of the ship. This was made in 1965, so I expected the effects to be better than a fifties sci-fi flick, but the lack of budget is fairly apparent. The leather outfits with high collars, biker helmets and gray instrumentation was interesting if allowable.
The techie talk is really awesome, the jargon a bit much but fun to listen to. Kinda like the techno-speak on Star Trek. "In sixty fractions of megon, we'll start the landing maneuver." Cool!
They're about to make a routine landing on the planet Aura with their sister ship. Suddenly radio communications are blocked from the sister ship. They are gripped in some kind of gravitational force and land quite hard on the planet below. Good stuff so far. The actual ship model that lands and the lighting a bit cheesy for 1965.
As soon as they land, they start beating each other up! And then don't remember doing it! Are they being taken over by some kind of invisible beings or (shall I say it?) VAMPIRES???? ..
They find their sister ship across a marsh, but unfortunately they beat each other to death -- dead bodies, blunt instruments and not a little bit of blood stains the deck of their sister ship. Gruesome. The entire crew wiped out, they bury their dead.
But the dead rise, to make more dead bodies for their invisible bretheren.
The movie does its best to build suspense but it goes a little long for me. Not a bad chiller on a midnight view.
Definitely worth the rent, though not as thought-provoking as The Angry Red Planet, the undead do have a great time!
Recommended.
This review of Planet of the Vampires (1965) was written by Jim M on 21 Jun 2009.
Planet of the Vampires has generally received mixed reviews.
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