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Planet of the Vampires (1965) is the only outright SF film directed by Italyâs maestro of horror, Mario Bava. The original Italian version was entitled Terrore Nello Spazio (Terror in Outer Space), adapted from Renato Pestrinieroâs âOne Night of Twenty-One Hoursâ by Bava and a quartet of credited scenarists: Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Román, and Rafael J. Salvia.
Bevilacqua had worked with Bava on his memorable anthology horror film I Tre Volti della Paura (The Three Faces of Fear, aka Black Sabbath; 1963). Like much of Bavaâs work, both were released by American International Pictures in the United States, where Ib Melchior and AIP producer Louis M. Heyward were credited on Planet of the Vampires, possibly for the English-language version only.
As is often the case, a B-level American star was cast in the lead to help sell the film in the U.S. market. Veteran character actor Barry Sullivanâs solid but unspectacular track record included an Emmy nomination for playing the defense attorney in âThe Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,â a 1955 episode of the series Ford Star Jubilee; he had previously taken over the role from Henry Fonda on Broadway.
Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.
Answering a distress signal, the spaceships Argos and Galliott land on an uncharted planet, where some strange force compels the crew of the Galliott to massacre one another. Captain Mark Markary (Sullivan) somehow manages to prevent the same fate from overtaking his crew, and they bury some of the bodies, but those sealed in the control room of the Galliott mysteriously disappear.
Chillingly, the buried astronauts later topple the futuristic grave markers and claw their way out of the ground, wrapped in transparent plastic shrouds. Another scene echoes the moment from Bavaâs directorial debut, La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of the Demon, aka Black Sunday; 1960), where the chest of Barbara Steeleâs 200-year-old vampire witch is exposed as rotting flesh.
Bavaâs SF effort differs notably in style from those of Antonio Margheriti (aka Anthony M. Dawson). Margheriti had also used Steele to great effect in his Gothic horror films, I Lunghi Capelli della Morte (The Long Hair of Death) and Danza Macabra (aka Castle of Terror; both 1964), but his SF entries are pure space opera, full of runaway planets and dueling space fleets.
As the complex plot unfolds, the crew of the Argos dwindles as its members disappear or are killed by their counterparts from the Galliott, until only Mark, Sanya (Norma Bengell), and Wes (Ãngel Ãranda) remain. It is eventually revealed that formless alien beings can control the bodies of humans, living or dead, and require them as hosts to return safely to their own world.
In the scene that had the most apparent influence on Alien, Mark and Sanya investigate a derelict ship and find the oversized skeletons of its crew, who apparently fell into the same trap. The survivors take off, but Mark and Sanya turn out to be possessed, and after Wes sabotages the ship to prevent them from returning home, they kill him and head for a closer destination: Earth.
Saddled with his usual low budget, Bava beefed up the visuals with atmosphere aplenty, bathing the barren, rocky sets with fog and his trademark multicolored lighting. He also covered his cast in stylish skin-tight black leather and designed the special effects himself; in long shots, the spaceships are all-too-obviously models, but the alien exteriors seem suitably otherworldly.
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