PLANET
OF THE VAMPIRES (1965)Director: Mario Bava
MGM
PLANET
OF THE VAMPIRES (1965)The Argos and the Galliot spaceships investigate a strange, barren planet that is believed to maintain intelligent life because of radio voice transmissions. Led by the Argos' commander Captain Mark Markary (Barry Sullivan) and his red-haired assistant Sanya (Norma Bengell), the ships attempt to land but upon descending, the Argos goes out of control and several of the crew seem to go temporarily berserk and attack each other. They have no recollection of their behavior and the ship lands with little damage. On the other hand, the Galliot has crashed and the entire crew perishes. The mutilated corpses indicate that most had died in violent struggles.
No signs of life have been found, and the crew members continue to mysteriously and unwillingly attack each other. The remaining members of the expedition now start to die or vanish one by one until Captain Mark discovers that one supposedly dead crew member is lurking about and not quite himself. The captain determines that the planet is inhabited by advanced minds who have been seeking bodies to take over and escape to another world--turning most of his crew into homicidal zombies.
PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is a chilling, atmospheric blend of space opera and horror elements that's an unusual addition to the Mario Bava repertoire. Filled with inventive futuristic sets and chic black leather spacemen suits, the film is also particularly gruesome in its depictions of the undead, and its gloomy style most likely influenced ALIEN some 15 years later. They're not really vampires as the U.S. title implies, but rather maimed and repulsive zombies who crawl out of their fresh graves and break out of the clear plastic that they're wrapped in. The badly-synched voices and primitive special effects (more conspicuous than ever in this sparkling DVD) hamper the film a bit, but Bava's crimson-dashed approach and stunning color schemes make it all the more enticing.
The new, remastered transfer on PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is a triumph, and the film now looks incredibly radiant with striking colors and its 1:85.1 (non-anamorphic) aspect ratio exhibits highly improved picture composition. The source print is in pristine condition, giving the film an incredibly fresh appearance, and the mono sound is as clear as can be. AIP tampered with all of the Bava films that they distributed here, and this is no exception. Several minutes were removed when originally released, but they have been restored and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is now available at its full 88-minute running time on DVD. The original Italian score has also been reinstated for the first time on home video.
Unlike the other Bava DVDs available from Image and VCI, MGM's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES has no extras except for a shabby U.S. theatrical trailer (a Tim Lucas commentary would've been nice), but their transfer deserves highest marks and the studio obviously went through a lot of painstaking effort to get the job done right! An article by Glenn Erickson about the film's DVD restoration is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Video Watchdog. (George R. Reis)