Planet of the Vampires
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Movie Reviews of Planet of the Vampires
Movie Review: Strange,but interesting
Summary: 3 Stars
This film was made by Italian director Mario Bava who made a number of good horror films in the sities and early 1970's. This film was made on a slim budget, but they did the bet they could. They utilized left over sets from a sword and sandal epic, then they pumped in the fog and covered the landscape with lots of vibrant blues and reds to really give it an alien feel. The story starts with a spaceship responding to a distress call from another ship in their fleet. They discover the crew has murdered each other, but then the bodies disappear. The crew is performing repairs and then some of their members disappear one by one. They are forced to kill each other and then invisible alien invaders take over their bodies. The plot is fair, but the odd camera angles and the look of the planet help to make this one worth seeing. This film is sometimes very strange, but sometimes near brilliant considering what little they had to work with.Movie Review: Passable science fiction thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
Half-decent science fiction thriller is worth checking out mainly for its eerie atmosphere and good production design. The story, centering around a group of astronauts investigating weird happenings on a remote planet, is basically okay, but a bit dry and choppy at times. Not many extras, but the print is bright and colorful, and looks great on DVD. However, you might want to rent this one first. And is it me, or does the excellent artwork on the DVD box (a strong suit of the MGM "Midnite Movies" series) look like it was drawn by the great Steve Ditko, in his 1960s heyday?Movie Review: Influential science fiction/horror/suspense film
Summary: 2 Stars
The dialog borders on the absurd; the optical effects aren't up to par even for a 60's science fiction film; the actors frequently give zombies a good name. Yet, despite its major drawbacks, Planet of the Vampires stands as an influential film. When making Alien Ridley Scott took his cue from this imaginative but low budget film. The alien planet, spacecraft and many of the more atmospheric sequences clearly were an influence on Scott's highly praised horror film (it's stretching it to call Alien a science fiction film). It's also clear that POTV had impact on director Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce.So will you enjoy this movie? That depends on how forgiving you are. Mario Bava's direction and the cinematography are quite imaginative and the atmospheric production design make this a triumph of style over substance. Because this was shot in Rome (with a mixture of American and Italian actors), the acting and dubbing adds an odd quality to the film. Barry Sullivan's frequently detached performance isn't one of his best but given that his director and almost all the crew didn't speak English, It's understandable.
Bava's direction and the inspired production design make this a very influential minor film classic. It's clear seeing the film again after some years, that Bava was trying to create an atmospheric Forbidden Planet and he suceeds for the most part. While Planet of the Vampires lacks the intelligent script and lively performances from that classic film, its imaginative cinematography engage the viewer in a way that FP couldn't. Again, if you can forgive the movie's shortcomings and the minimalist screenplay, you'll enjoy this film.
A couple bits of trivia about the film: the story is basically an atmospheric variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Planet of the Vampires had at least three or four different titles (some of them within the United States itself); Star Trek: The Next Generation borrowed (or it was just one of those ideas in the air)the concept of POTV for an episode entitled Power Play from season 5.
The transfer is crisp and the colors vivid. I haven't seen a print this good since College. The widescreen presentation doesn't provide a huge advantage over the pan & scan version that's floated around for quite some time. This film wasn't shot in an anamorphic format and the aspect ratio is only slightly different than the traditional t.v. aspect ratio.
The mono soundtrack sounds fine although a bit flat (even for a mono soundtrack). It wouldn't have hurt to offer a track that reprocessed it for surround sound or, at least, to have tried to open up the sound a little bit. You won't be listening to the frequently clunky dialog but the soundtrack is interesting. It's clearly inspired by the atonal "effects" music track used for Forbidden Planet.
This Midnite Classic includes the original over-the-top American International Pictures trailer. Curiously, the dialog is only available in English and the subtitles in Spanish and French. Given that it's an Italian production, it would have been interesting to hear the film in its native tongue. There is a problem worth noting--the default setting for subtitles causes the film to automatically show the Spanish subtitles for the film everytime you start the flick. This problem has cropped up with one or two other Midnite releases from MGM. It's not a major problem just annoying.
It's a pity that this bare bones presentation doesn't include an overview by a film historian. It's important to understand the influence that Bava's film had on the 70's and early 80's. Perhaps someone else will license the film (doubtful) and do the job. Planet of the Vampires has a lot of positives and a few negatives as well. While it's not quite as good as it was to an 11 year old 20 plus years later, it's still an inspired bit of film making.
Movie Review: For Mario Bava completists only!
Summary: 2 Stars
An amateurish low-budget movie, complete with shoddy special effects, weak sets, stilted acting, and an unbelievably corny script. Perhaps if this film had been made in the '50s, its many shortcomings could be more easily forgiven. As it is, there is not much to recommend here unless you are a fan of Mario Bava and just want to see all his films. As for Bava as a filmmaker, I'm struggling to find the appeal. "Black Sunday" and "Black Sabbath" are certainly worthy films, but the rest of his films I've watched ("Planet of the Vampires," "Hatchet for the Honeymoon," and "Bay of Blood") are miserable, lousy movies that are downright painful to watch.Movie Review: highly regarded director, hope this isn't his best
Summary: 2 Stars
a major dissappointment, boring, vapid, turgid, etc etc... planet is all mist and people keep dissappearing in and out of it, but unfortunately this isn't 'atmospheric' as the other reviews say, just as gripping as watching paint dry.And as for that ending... silly is not the word.
many people admire this director, that was the biggest dissappointment for me, i hope that the next mario bava film i see is a damn sight better than this one... reptilicus is still worst of this batch of midnight movies though.