Director: Mario Bava
Year: 1965
Country: Italy/Spain
Alternate Titles: Terrore nello spazio; Planet of Blood; Space Mutants; Terror in Space; The Haunted Planet; The Haunted World; The Outlawed Planet; The Planet of Terror; The Planet of the Damned; The Demon Planet
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
While traveling through space, a group of astronauts hear a distress call from a passing ship and crashland on a strange planet to investigate, where they discover a gigantic ship filled with skeletons of long-dead aliens, forcing them to try to survive from the alien menace.
Review:
There was quite a lot about this one that works. Among the better features here is that the film contains an extraordinary amount of tension and atmosphere, much more so than many would expect. The concept itself works incredibly well, from the ship going out and meeting with the strange signal that affects the ship, causing some to go on unexplained violent outbursts before returning to a conscious state. It starts with an impressive starting point that puts the group in an unusual situation from the beginning. As they’re looking into the strange conditions that brought this about and the bizarre call for help that started everything, the arrival on the planet allows for this to drop in some incredibly effective material involving the isolation of the group deep in space while trying to manage this unknown threat that has emerged.
That comes about rather nicely with the antics on the ship as well as the planet’s surface, which helps to get everything sorted out. The sequences inside the ship are just claustrophobic involving who to trust or whether they’re going to freak out again in a space that doesn’t accommodate that, not really giving any room outside of what is going on inside and draws suspense from the fact that nothing is known about who or what is there, and the characters doing what they aren't supposed to. While on the planet itself, the shots of the group wandering around the rocky planet outcroppings create a foreboding atmosphere and strikingly impressive effects, considering what was available at the time. The shot of the corpses as they rise from the tombs sequence is another highlight, establishing the atmosphere present, and looks quite spectacular, creating a fantastic mix of atmospheric tension and space opera theatricality to give this a lot overall.
There are a few factors with this one that hold it down. One big issue here is that, because the film substitutes atmosphere for story, a lot of key elements in here are quite hard to figure out on first viewing or go unexplained altogether. The motive for the invasion is quite flimsily explained at the end, and might be missed if not really looked for, while the twist about their identities is hard to look back upon retroactively, as it’s hard to figure things out the way the narrative unfolds. The film’s worst crime, though, is that the designs of the ships, interior sets, and costumes are hopelessly dated. The main spaceship is an unwieldy plastic model that doesn’t try to create the illusion of being a real spaceship, while the costumes are these leather suits with huge collars and a chintzy little skull cap. These all manage to hold it back just slightly.
Overview: ****.5/5
It isn’t that well-known but has a lot of branches coming from it. One of the best mixes of Gothic horror and science fiction, this is well worth a look for hardcore Bava fans, cheesy 50s/60s Sci-Fi fans, or those who like to discover the roots of the genre, while those who have little interest in the subject matter will want to heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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