Planet of the Vampires Movie Review

Atmospheric, low-budget, sci-fi horror at its best. Dan O'Bannon has admitted that this Mario Bava gem was one of his main influences while writing Alien. Responding to a SOS from the planet Aura, the spaceship Argos crash-lands on a set previously used for a Italian sword-and-sandal not-quite epic. The landscape is loaded with other wrecked space hulks including the SOSer. The bodies inside make it clear that the crew have violently offed each other and to confirm that, a hologram of the ship's commander appears and tells the story of madness and killing. Faced with new murders and disappearances, the captain of the Argos (Barry Sullivan) finds he is dealing with dastardly mind-possessing space vampires who manifest themselves as dots that can only be seen peripherally. To make matters worse, the minds of all the dead astronauts can also be controlled, leading to an outer space Zombie revival with the newly resurrected shedding their cellophane shrouds in Bavaesque style and flair. AKA: Terror in Space; Terreur dans l'Espace; Space Mutants; The Demon Planet; Terrore nello Spazio.

1965 86m/C IT SP Barry Sullivan, Norman Bengell, Angel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Fernando Villena; D: Mario Bava; W: Mario Bava, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Roman; C: Antonio Rinaldi. VHS, Beta ORI