Horror/Sci-Fi
1 hour and 28 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Written by: Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Román, Rafael J. Salvia, Ib Melchior, and Louis M. Heyward
Directed by: Mario Bava
Produced by: Fulvio Lucisano
Cast:
Barry Sullivan
Norma Bengell
This was the day the universe trembled before demon forces of the killer planet!
Normally when the list of writing credits for a single motion-picture reads off like an endless list of nobodies (save for perhaps the director who - let's face it - if you're going to have that many writers you might as well throw in the director of the film for good measure too) it is usually safe to assume that the movie is going to be riddled with problems and pocketed with an unearthly number of plot holes. While nine times out of ten this is the case, every so often there comes a movie that challenges this cinematic stereotype that more writers equals more problems. Such is the case with Mario Bava's 1965 horror/science-fiction hybrid: Planet of the Vampires.
Like most of Bava's films, Planet of the Vampires focused largely on the relationships between the characters and how those particular relationships ebbed and flowed once the characters were placed within a horrible situation where they either inevitably panicked and lost all control of themselves, thus putting everyone in terrible danger, or rose to the challenge and faced the darkness head on. In no way was this setup any different from Bava's more famous gialli films like The Girl Who Knew Too Much and Blood and Black Lace, nor was it different from his gothic horror films Black Sunday, The Whip and the Body, and Black Sabbath. Bava's talent as an auteur filmmaker was largely in his ability to understand and explore human nature enough to know how it would work, or fail to work, and comprehend horrific situations.
Within Planet of the Vampires, the astronaut heroes must comprehend forces that are much beyond their comprehension. How do they achieve such a feat? Well, it is a horror film, after all, so obviously some do not and perish. But others quickly learn that the fastest way to stay alive in an alien and hostile situation is to accept the facts that their eyes have placed before them, no matter how incomprehensible that task may seem. It is this exploration of human character and interaction during moments of peril that makes Planet of the Vampires really a much more triumphant and intelligent film than its no-budget or B movie title suggests it to be.
Equally as impressive as the story's character interactions are the film's sets. Bava, yet again, manages to create a great deal of something out of nothing, making a few cardboard and fiberglass rocks look like an entire, desolate alien planet simply through smoke and mirror tactics and his now famously disorienting kaleidoscopic light schemes. The interiors of the spacecrafts, while at times feeling a bit too 1960s Star Trek-y in nature, do in the end come across as also being impressive mainly for the same reasons. Bava, the special effects genius that he was, managed to make the interiors of the spacecrafts feel cavernous and enormous in size, when perhaps really they were only a series of one or more rooms with interchangeable walls and parts. Cinematographer Antonio Rinaldi (although it is also stated that Bava did much of the filming himself) captures these landscapes under dark and ominous lighting that is both eerie and, as stated before, kaleidoscopic in quality. No director (with the exception of Bava's predecessor Dario Argento) has ever been able to create so much dread within situations lighted under vibrant lights of reds, greens, purples, blues, and yellows. It was a skill that enormously added to the nightmarish quality of his overall visions.
The film's pacing should also be commended. The film moves from one sequence to the next, perhaps only feeling sluggish within the first five minutes of exposition. Every sequence that follows serves a critical point in developing the story at hand. Editors Romana Fortini and Antonio Gimeno utilize longer cuts during important moments of dialogue, but understand the need for quicker more exciting movements for the eyes to follow during moments of action. The action sequences are framed in an excellent manner as well, often through pulled back long shots, giving the audience much to marvel at from the intense fights themselves to the gorgeous, seemingly alien landscapes they are set against.
The film is not without its issues, however. The script does spoon-feed its audience a great deal. Much of the dialogue delivered is often characters thinking out loud, proposing plot points to themselves and the audience. By the time the film's villains make their presence known to the heroes, they too lay it all out in one great big monologue that takes away much of the film's mystery. Luckily enough, the film does include a twist conclusion that evokes so much in the way of Lovecraftian dread that it is almost enough to make up for the spoon-fed dialogue entirely ... almost. Many of the actors seem stiff, although this could be blatant direction on Bava's part in an attempt to make them seem devoid of emotion and much more logic-driven in nature. But it does feel a bit uncomfortable, especially considering the film's overall purpose of exploring human nature and how it bends and shapes in moments of peril. Many of the actors are dubbed into English (depending on what version of the film that one sees, of course) and the voice actors do little in the way of conveying any emotions over the foreign performers. Barry Sullivan and Norma Engell, however, do emote the most, which is perhaps good considering that they become the film's main focus despite its large cast.
Despite its shortcomings of both wooden performances and poorly written dialogue, Planet of the Vampires is a surprisingly intelligent B sci-fi/horror movie, one that has gone on to influence many more famous hybrids of these genres, including most notably Ridley Scott's Alien. Its exploration of human nature during moments of peril is signature Mario Bava, and overall, in this sense, the movie does not disappoint, speaking volumes for Bava's talent as an auteur. Beautiful set pieces and incredible special effects work - both churned out on a nothing-budget - further showcase Bava's talent as an auteur and add to the existing merit that Planet of the Vampires had off of its premise alone.
6.5/10
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