MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Michael_Elliott Planet of the Vampires (1965) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A group of astronauts land on a mysterious planet that has all sorts of strange secrets. As soon as they land the astronauts quickly lose their mind and violently attack each other. After regaining order, the group begins to wonder around when they learn that they're not alone.PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is considered by many to be one of director Mario Bava's greatest films. I'm not going to go that far but there's no question that it's visually very impressive and shows that the Italian director could work wonders with very little to no money. The budget of this film was extremely small yet this no-budget movie went on to influence some much bigger pictures including ALIEN. I think the greatest thing that can be said about this movie is that it looks like a much bigger budget than what the director actually had to work with.The visual look of the picture is certainly the highlight. Every single frame of this film looks terrific and I especially loved the look of the actual planet. The fog machines are on overdrive but that just adds to the atmosphere and I'm sure covers up some fake looking things. The colors really jump off the screen and while they're not as impressive as what was seen in BLOOD AND BLACK LACE it's easy to compare the two films. Another major plus is that the director does build up an impressive atmosphere and you certainly get the feeling that these people are stranded and in danger.The performances are another strong suit with both Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell standing out in the acting department. As technically impressive as PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is, at the same time I can't help but say that the story itself was rather boring and the film drags really badly throughout the running time. I know some people appreciate the dialogue driven action but I found the picture to be way too slow for its own good.

MisterWhiplash Planet of the Vampires takes up a rather curious moment in Bava's career. He had a reputation for the most part for making creepy and atmospheric horror movies that dealt with old-school themes (one of which, Black Sabbath, has Boris Karloff featured prominently), and of the two 'Black' movies I've seen, Sabbath and Sunday, both provide the kind of eerie chills via Bava's exemplary sense of cinematography and how to frame spooky space that makes up for some lacking acting or creaky sets. But in this case, it's a science fiction movie first, and then a horror. At least that's what the title would make us believe it's a hybrid.Ultimately, if one had to classify it on the surface it is science fiction, and of the ilk that American International Pictures would swipe in a second for distribution. Unfortunately, the title (albeit one of several alternate titles) is misleading, as there aren't really vampires in the sense of what we know them as (though I'd prefer to think of these as vampires as opposed to, say, Twilight ::shrug::). So what of the story? Astronaut-scientists in black leather suits with collars up to their necks and dubbed into English are headed to some planet, and get a big ZAP at their ship or something that makes them all go kind of bonkers on the way down; violence erupts and some members of the crew attack others. Then they're on a mysterious, fog-filled planet, where graves have been marked that have metal coverings... and inside bodies wrapped in plastic, ready to come up on the signs of life that are on the ship.At least that's what I could gather from it. And actually there are two ships, and one of which that crashed on the planet none of the astronauts survived. So what of the vampires again? Nope, not really a-one in sight. It's more like an infectious plague of an alien race that takes over the bodies one by one - one can tell which is which by the way Bava does a QUICK zoom-in on the faces of the astronauts, their faces becoming torn apart by the virus - and it's up to a few on-the-defensive astronauts to fend off the others and make sure they don't fulfill their plan, which is to leave the planet and take over another.The opening minutes of when they get on the planet seem to precede Alien in means of a very creepy, densely fogged (must emphasize the fog here as it's one of the film's main attributes in its style) and well-designed planet. Perhaps it's the Italian side of things; I could see an American director taking similar material and characters in their costumes and with some ridiculous dialog as the silly stuff that it is. But what Bava brings to the table is the horror element, what we don't see is much more terrifying than what may come what may, and in a way what leads up to seeing the deformed and "vampiric" astronauts is more frightening than actually seeing them in the rotting flesh.I was impressed by that aspect, how in terms of production design and mood the film was ahead of its time. On other counts it doesn't fare better or less than other movies of its ilk (or even Star Trek) in terms of a group of people in ships come to a planet and s**t happens. But I do think that there is that added ingredient of Bava that makes the difference. And considering also how low the budget for this movie is (I have to think they used some previous sets), there is a lot done with a little. If one can look past most of the acting, which is admittedly stiff (even if the actresses are nice to look at in a shallow way), then the atmosphere of a somewhat unique horror-space environment makes up for it. It's a solid B-movie that properly has the release of an MGM "Midnight Movie" release on DVD.

utgard14 A spaceship lands on a mysterious planet to investigate what happened to another ship. The crew find themselves controlled by strange forces and having to fend off the reanimated corpses of their comrades. Visually-striking exercise in style from director Mario Bava. It's an incredibly atmospheric sci-fi horror blend with some of the best visuals of any movie from the '60s. The sets, the costumes, the props are all imaginative and inspired creations. It's not for all tastes, however. There is dubbing, there is a thin story, and there are absolutely no vampires anywhere. If you are the type of person who nitpicks movies to death, stop right there and put the DVD back in its case unwatched. This is a fun, escapist movie meant to be enjoyed as such. Just relax and give it a fair shot.

chaos-rampant Bava had two talents. He could build in an interesting way, and talent number two, he was a lush painter with a camera. Seldom is this put to powerful cinematic effect. But he really was a magician in that old-timey sense, someone who has a fondness for illusory things.And this is perhaps his most pure, in the sense that you get to see the man perfecting spells in his laboratory, trying out a few new ones. The subject is manufactured vision. Okay, the story of two spaceships landing on a planet to investigate a strange radio signal is memorable but goofy, the acting is awful, the costumes cheesy, the sci-fi concoction harks back to Forbidden Planet and other films. But here's the laboratory.The spaceship is Bava's workspace. The interior is always obviously a Cinecitta soundstage, simply dressed on one side with blinks and machinery - it never convinces that this is what you see from the outside as the ship. No one really puzzled about the science of it, because there isn't any. This is the studio, the constructed space where the story of discovery of something menacing is going to be engineered.Bava was never one to think in terms of fluid composition like Tarkovsky (Solyaris) or Scott (Alien), the camera is unexciting. But there are screens inside the ship, and now and then the actors intently peer through them to the alien environment outside.This is Bava's turf. Here the camera can be static because the landscape is vast, timeless - a painter's vision of landscape. The colors and atmosphere can be gauzy because it's a new world, half-glimpsed for the first time. The story muted because it's all strange, the wandering ethereal, the focus on visual discovery. This new planet is aptly called 'Aura', it's an aural effect he's after.Here is where Bava in his capacity as engineer can try out a few cool experiments.a haunted house movie in space, in the trapdoor scene.the alien skeleton and ship, last remnants of ancient visitors.space zombies rising from tombs (someone at AIP decided these were vampires but that's not said anywhere in the film).the planet is inhabited by unseen - spectral - entities with the power to control gravity and the mind, who 'take over' their human hosts in the vein of the Body Snatchers film.all of this anchored in two spots, the device that makes 'space travel' possible as a binocular thingamajig, a cinematic device for seeing; and the shift to 'auran' consciousness happens during sleep.All this elucidates the way Bava works - story as separate from visual imagination, the latter clean, static, painterly; and the notion that for any of this to work, it has to be a dream that you slip into whose aura overwhelms the conscious mind. This is precisely what Solyaris was all about, the dream in context of memory.The difference is Italian sensibility, the belief that nature should be framed, opera instead of meditation.