Planet of the Vampires
I recently obtained a dvd of this visually striking 60’s film by Mario Bava (Black Sabbath, Black Sunday) , Planet of the Vampires. In many way’s it’s typical sixties sci fi, including some horrendous b-movie technobabble ("We land in 60 fractions of a megon.") which puts post next generation trek and 70's Battlestar Galactica to shame. The film does illuminate the Bava touch in it’s striking visuals, much of which came about to compensate for it’s tiny budget. With a color scheme rivaling his work on “Hercules and the Haunted World”, and a genuinely creepy storyline, this is a must see picture for fans of sixties sci and Italian cinema.
There is plenty out there on the net about the similarities to Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979), particularly the scene where the crew discovers the alien vessel. In addition, it also takes it’s time to get there, slowly building up a sense of hard-to define threat much like Scott’s film. Atmospheric doesn’t even begin to describe the swirling, foggy visuals of the alien planet, designed to conceal the low budget, but creating a constant sense of uncertainty which serves to build the tension. It’s much more truly a “haunted house in space” film than Scott’s film, creating a genre all it’s own, where the gothic meets the alien in an out-of focus kaleidoscope of terror. As much as has been written about the influences on films like Alien, 2001, and Lifeforce, so I haven’t much to add to that. I did however recall a scene from another classic scifi ephemera, the Star Trek: The Animated Series, which is fitting, since the whole movie plays like a darker, more baroque version of classic trek.
The episode in question is the first of the early seventies animated Star Trek, the first incarnation after the original series unfortunate demise, often overlooked, and until recently quite hard to find (they are all now available on DVD- try amazon). “Beyond the Farthest Star”, the maiden voyage of TAS (as it is often referred to by fans) find the intrepid crew of the Enterprise coming upon a derelict vessel of a unique and completely unfamiliar design. The scenes where they come upon the alien captain’s log are strikingly similar in feel, the exploration of the ship (which is truly alien- the animated format really opened up the possibilities for alien design) recall the exploration of the alien derelict in POV.
And the theme of the episode is much closer in spirit (bad pun) to the storyline of POV than Alien.
The Alien Captain's ...
The Italian title, Terror From Space is really a lot more fitting as there are no vampires in the movie, but the plot, although now familiar (see any number of Trek plots from all of the series, especially the latter seasons of DS9), and a variety of other films an tv series (Outer Limits, et al) was rather unique in 1965. Definitely worth a look, and maybe due for a good remake, if the right people got a hold of it.
More on the filming of the effects…
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