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Released in 1965 and first seen by me sometime in the early 70’s on the late-night horror movie show Creature Feature the Italian SF/horror movie Planet of the Vampires has zero vampires but a clear influence on the film Alien. (Though it must be said that Ridley Scott reports that he has never seen this movie.)

The twin starships Argos and Valiant arrive at an unknown planet investigating mysterious signals. While attempting to land, they lose control of their craft and lose consciousness. Upon awakening the crew launch into murderous attacks on each other, save for the manly heroic captain, who manages to snap everyone out of their violent delirium. Now with their ship damaged and repairs expected to be long and difficult the crews must unravel the mystery at the heart of the planet if they are to survive.

Direct with style and flair by Mario Bava Planet of the Vampires though hampered by a quite small budget is a visual treat. Bava’s use of color is fantastic, and he was a filmmaker who understood the camera and how to wrest every bit of production value from every last lira.

Little can be said for the performances in this movie. The international cast each performed their lines in their own native language regardless if any other in the cast understood with the final product dubbed for whatever market it sold to. This gives you the double handicap of actor not being able to effectively play off each other and the usual limitation of the budget voice actors often used in genre imports.

Still, despite its many failings the movie works, the eerie set for the planet’s landscape, the giant skeletons of long dead space travelers, and the twilight zone ending all combine for a cheap but entertaining bit of cinema.