Planet of the Vampires

Two spaceships, the Argos and the Galliot, find themselves inexplicably drawn towards the mysterious planet Aura and lose contact with one another.

As the crew of the Galliot awaken they find themselves battling one another, some alien force flitting between their bodies. Regaining control, Captain Mark Markary (Barry Sullivan) and his crew asses the situation. Their ship needs urgent repair if they are to escape the planet before its orbit sweeps them off course for home.

Going to explore, Markary and his away team soon discover the Argos. It's crew are, however, either dead or missing, apparently having also fallen prey to alien possession.

The crew of the Galliot bury their fallen comrades, failing to realise that the alien force can take control of dead bodies as easily as living ones…

As many commentators have noted, the above scenario, co-scripted by Ib "Reptilicus" Melchior and Louis M 'too many AIP films to mention' Heyward from Rentao Pestriniero's short story "One Night of 21 Hours", bears more than a passing resemblance to Alien. The resemblance is even more striking when one further considers that Markary and his men also investigate a strange spacecraft complete with giant alien skeleton.

But if Dan O'Bannon's script for Ridley Scott's film could fairly be described as a reworking of Dark Star – itself borrowing heavily from It, The Terror from Beyond Space – combined with Planet of the Vampires, the two films are very different visually. Where Alien favours low key lighting and a down and dirty (sur)realism, Planet of the Vampires is all about expressive near-psychedelic colours – reds, blues, greens, purples – rolling clouds of fog and kitschy 60s designs. The spaceships are full of bizarre technology replete with loads of blinkenlights, while the crews wear some of the coolest uniforms this side of Triumph of the Will in high-collared black leather one-pieces with contrast yellow piping, leather skullcap helmets and insignia that look dubiously like inverted SS runes.

[Spoiler:] One weak point for me was the film's surprise ending, where it is revealed that the spaceship crews are not, as we believed, humans, the survivors escaping the planet – albeit while possessed by the non-corporeal vampires – and heading for the nearest inhabitable planet, a small out of the way backwater called Earth. The problem is that everything the crewmembers have said to that point is so earthbound, the scriptwriters having neither the imagination nor inclination to invent an entire alien culture from scratch. But, then again, I'm perhaps too literal minded, having a similar complaint about The Hobbit in wondering why the number 13 should be considered unlucky in Middle Earth where there's presumably ought not to be a Christian mythology of Jesus and 12 Disciples to undergird it…

But, overall, Planet of the Vampires remains a textbook example of how imagination and enthusiasm can overcome the most limited of resources. One can only wonder what Bava would have made of Alien with more than mere smoke and mirrors at his disposal…

It only remains to note in passing that, while one of the female crew members is very much in the Veronica Cartwright helpless screamer mode, the other, as played by Norma Bengell, is a competent fully fledged member of the team, a proto-Ripley if you will. Bava scholars, meanwhile, might note the similarity between the unmasking of an undead crewmember here – his costume opens to reveal a corrupting mass of innards – and of the vampire-witch Asa in Black Sunday.

This Region One DVD from MGM is released as part of their "Midnite Movies" collection. It's a budget, no-frills disc, with the only extra being the film's theatrical trailer. The 1.85:1 widescreen picture and mono English sound are fine, though obviously nothing to write home about.

But, for the $10 asking price, Planet of the Vampires is a solid piece of entertainment that delivers good value for money.