Few films wear their budget as boldly—and as stylishly—as Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires . Released in 1965, this eerie Italian science fiction-horror hybrid is a moody, hypnotic blend of gothic dread and space-age paranoia. Despite its modest financial constraints, Planet of the Vampires casts a long, influential shadow over the genre, inspiring everything from Ridley Scott’s Alien to early episodes of Star Trek . It is a B-movie in budget only—its imagination, atmosphere, and visual ambition elevate it into something far more memorable. The plot follows two spacecraft that respond to a mysterious distress signal on a remote, fog-enshrouded planet. After crash-landing, the surviving crew encounters strange phenomena, including the reanimation of their own dead comrades. What begins as a routine exploration turns into a nightmarish fight for survival, as the crew discovers they’re not alone—and that something ancient and malevolent is lurking just beneath the surface. Bava, be...
Reviews of classic films from all eras and all genres of cinema.