Rating: 
Summary: Strange,but interesting
Review: This film was made by Italian director Mario Bava who made a number of good horror films in the sities and early 1970's. This film was made on a slim budget, but they did the bet they could. They utilized left over sets from a sword and sandal epic, then they pumped in the fog and covered the landscape with lots of vibrant blues and reds to really give it an alien feel. The story starts with a spaceship responding to a distress call from another ship in their fleet. They discover the crew has murdered each other, but then the bodies disappear. The crew is performing repairs and then some of their members disappear one by one. They are forced to kill each other and then invisible alien invaders take over their bodies. The plot is fair, but the odd camera angles and the look of the planet help to make this one worth seeing. This film is sometimes very strange, but sometimes near brilliant considering what little they had to work with.
Rating: 
Summary: PLANET OF THE LOSERS...
Review: This is a cheesy, made in Italy, sci-fi flick, starring Barry Sullivan as commander of a space ship. While in flight, his ship gets signals coming from an unknown, dying planet. Another space ship responds to those signals and lands on the planet. While communicating with that spaceship, communication is cut off. Attempts to revive communication fail.Barry Sullivan decides to land his ship on that dying planet and check out why they were unable to communicate with the other crew. When they land on this bleak and desolate planet, they discover that the crew from the other ship is dead. So, they bury them. Unfortunately, they will not stay buried, as the planet is inhabited by another, superior race who takes over the bodies of the dead, as well as the living. Barry Sullivan leads the battle against them, as they fight their way off the planet. Once in the air, however, the viewer, as well as Barry Sullivan, gets somewhat of a surprise. Not even the surprise ending, however, makes up for the flaccid dialogue, the cheesy sets, and the bad acting. Even the title is bad. This film has nothing to do with vampires, as here the undead do not resort to blood sucking. Do yourself a favor. Do not bother to rent this turkey, much less buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: awesome italian sci fi/horror flick -- reminds me of Alien
Review: This is a great old sci fi/horror flick by that master Mario Bava. This movie starts out with two ships in orbit around a planet. You are treated to some really cool electronic sound effects/music and the best technobabble I have ever heard -- Star Trek has nothing on these guys. The ships are sucked in to the planet at 60 G's -- only the heroic captain is able to withstand that kind of force. The movie goes on to deal with what they encounter on the surface as they search for the other ship. The special effects are a bit cheesy by today's standard, but not bad for a film of its time. They are not overused to ill effect either. The overall atmosphere of the film is properly chilling. Some of the visuals, plot elements, and even music remind so much of Alien. I have to suspect that Ridley Scott has seen this movie at least once. I rate this film excellent and highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Seminal... must see
Review: This little known film introduced themes and images that would be copied from Star Trek and 2001 to Alien. It is a masterwork of imagination. It may be hard for our eyes to look past some weak effects but it is worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Seminal... must see
Review: This little known film introduced themes and images that would be copied from Star Trek and 2001 to Alien. It is a masterwork of imagination. It may be hard for our eyes to look past some weak effects but it is worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Juicy and scary planet -- great Sci-Fi entertainment!
Review: Well, I believe it now. When I was in film school, one of my instructors told me that all the stories that could possibly be told were done prior to the 70's; anything else is just a re-make. Ridley Scott ripped off Mario Bava, John Carpenter ripped off Mario Bava, and I'm sure there are plenty more! I have 7-8 Bava films now in my collection, and it's so obvious that modern filmmakers have stolen ideas and scenes directly from Bava's films. "Alien", no doubt in my mind, was conceived using "Planet of the Vampires" as a basis. All they had to do was create a frightening, living alien for that film series -- everthing else was written for them here! But on to reviewing the DVD: You won't notice them right away, but as the film progresses you'll enjoy the beautiful women featured. They are Evi Marandi and Norma Bengell. As they change costumes or remove parts of their opening wardrobe, they will become more visible. They are your typically juicy, delicious women in a Bava film but in this movie there's no reason for them to be sensual. They're still fine to look at, and it was great that Bava used more than one woman in the crew back then. The DVD picture is rather nice -- beautiful and strange colors and the film is rather sharp for its' date. All colors, mist, bubbling, etc. are rendered nicely from this old film. The soundtrack is the real treat. This is a mono soundtrack, but it again has the enveloping sound like "Blood and Black Lace", so if you have multiple speakers different sounds will come from different places. The unusual spaceship, planet, and space sounds are quite effective. The only problem with sound here is that during obvious loud parts the sound fades away. I'd say this film will appeal to science fiction fans more than the horror/gore fans. But if you insist on building your Mario Bava collection like I have, then you will want to own this remarkable DVD that holds up today as a very nice space epic. Surprise ending -- something that "Alien" did not have. There is no DVD insert booklet nor chapter list.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpectedly Effective
Review: With a title like PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES and a largely Italian cast dubbed to English, I expected this film to be little more than grade B sci-fi schlock--and indeed the first few minutes of the film gave me no reason to revise that expectation. The producers of note (in this case really more importers than producers) are none other than Samuel Zarkoff and James (aka Jack) Nicholson, a partnership that produced a stream of tacky 1960s horror flicks; the opening special effects were dated as only 1965 special effects can be; and yes, the dubbing was evident. So I was greatly surprised when, about fifteen minutes into the film, I realized that it was holding my attention in a way I never imagined it would. One of the most astonishing aspects of the film is how much the opening scenes of 1979's ALIEN resemble the pace, style, look, and plot of PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES--so much so that a claim of co-incidence would be difficult to believe. Like the later film, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES finds a spacecraft investigating a beacon that may indicate intelligent life, only to find themselves on a misty, dark, and yet strangely fascinating planet that harbors a very hostile life form--and where they find an ancient, derelict spacecraft complete with calcified alien remains. But whereas ALIEN doesn't really get underway until the explorers leave the planet, VAMPIRES finds the explorers trapped on the planet--and possibly forever. The script is rather prefunctory, but the cast (which includes Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Angel Aranda, Evi Marandi and Stelio Candelli) plays it in a tight-lipped and business-like manner that actually lends it a certain degree of credibility. But the real star of the film is the tone director Mario Bava brings to the piece: a combination of languid tempo and hypnotic visuals that keep you glued to the screen--not so much via suspense as by style alone. PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES isn't a film that will have you on the edge of your seat. Indeed, in many respects the story is remarkably predictable--and any one taken aback by the "surprise" ending obviously doesn't get out too much. But it is a fascinating thing to watch, and sci-fi/horror fans who like their films heavy on atmosphere, interesting cinematography, and truly remarkable designs will want this one their shelf. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: 60's SPACED OUT ITALIAN SCI FI
Review: With little fanfare, MGM has quietly transferred a handful of great B films to DVD that they not too arbitrarily categorize as "Midnight Movies." The nice looking digital prints are in their original theatrical format and appear as if they were taken from original material. The discs come with no substantial extras but care has been lavished on the box art, often reflecting the lurid lobby cards and posters of their initial release. Even acknowledging the B category, these are for the most part fairly well-crafted and, well, almost adequately acted. Italian shockmesiter Mario Bava's "PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES" was released under at least a half dozen other titles, including "Planet of Blood," "Space Mutants," and "Demon Plant." And, perhaps to further enlighten, the screenplay was adapted from the Italian sci-fi short story that translates in English as "One Night of 21 Hours." Wonder what that means, if anything? Missing time, apparently. In any event, these various titles say it all. If you get my drift. Barry Sullivan stars and gives the dark material everything he's got. Which, frankly, is not a whole lot. The show biz rag Variety actually said of this off beat title: "A psychological thriller that should keep the young on the edge of their seats." On the edge trying to figure out what's going on. Or maybe, on the edge after dozing off. It's open to interpretation as is the movie. Warning: Don't dare see this one in an altered state -- there may be no return. The disc is widescreen and unrated. Oh, did I say 5 stars? Yes, it's minus 5 stars. This one's so bad it's, well, awful.
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