That’s right, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES contains no vampires. Not a one. That’s because the original title is TERROR IN SPACE which makes it sound more like ALIEN which it closely resembles or vice versa as this Italian-Spanish co-production was made in 1965, 14 years before Ridley Scott’s epic. He and writer Dan O’Bannon swear they never saw this film but you watch it and decide for yourself. It’s available as an Instant Video or you can purchase the DVD. If you do, make sure it’s the MIDNITE MOVIES / American International version as it contains the best print out there. It was AIP who decided to rename it POTV as they thought it would sell more tickets.
The movie was Italian horrormeister Mario Bava’s second foray into science-fiction after CALTIKI: THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959) where he was the director of photography. Having explored the possibilities of color in HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD (1961), Bava let his imagination for visual composition and background lighting run riot in POTV. The film is saturated with primary colors and lots of fog combined with ultra modern set interiors that remain with you long after the film has finished. It’s also obvious that Gene Roddenberry was familiar with it too as there many parallels particularly in spaceship and set design between this movie and STAR TREK which premiered 2 years later.
The plot is very familiar to us now. 2 spaceships answer a distress call on an uncharted planet. Right before landing the astronauts attack each other and one crew survives. Headed up by Barry Sullivan (the only American in the cast) they land and explore the surface discovering no signs of life only the wreck of a ship of long dead giant aliens. They bury their crew from the other ship and try to make repairs only to have the dead crew members return to life possessed by the planet’s actual life forms who exist as points of light. What they want and what happens make up the rest of the film which results in a twist ending that you may or may not see coming (NO SPOILERS HERE).
The dubbing is above average for a movie of this type while the performances by an international cast are about average. However it’s not the story or the performances that make PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES great, it’s the hallucinatory visuals combined with the (then) modern spaceship design and the cool black leather spacesuits. The bottom line is that it’s an enjoyable way to spend an hour and half no matter what it’s called and it has more alternate titles than just about any film I can think of. THE DEMON PLANET, PLANET OF TERROR, PLANET OF BLOOD, THE HAUNTED WORLD, and SPACE MUTANTS are among the best known ones.
The Capsule Critic 