DVD Review: Planet of the Vampires (D)

Planet of the Vampires (1965)
Directed by Mario Bava
Starring Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel
Aranda, Evi Marandi, Stelio Candelli
MPAA: PG
Grade: D

Review by Ellyn Elm

One might imagine that a cast clad entirely in black leather spacesuits would make for at least a mildly entertaining movie. Let me assure you this assumption is terribly, terribly wrong.

Planet of the Vampires is so unrelentingly boring I actually fell into a coma while attempting to watch it. An Italian production originally titled Terrore Nello Spazio, Planet of the Vampires has not a single vampire in it let alone a whole planet of them.

Many Horror and Sci-fi geeks rave about this movie. They blather on and on about the “…dark, eerie fog” creating a “…masterful mood of suspense”. These same people probably find a trip in an elevator suspenseful. From what I could gather, the plot consists of a group of people wandering around. “Now, in this shot, I want you to walk really slow across the room and go stand in the corner. Ok! Good!”.

The sets are ill conceived and hokey as apparently most of that budget was invested in fog machines. Forget about dialog and story because no one involved in this production bothered. The only reason to rent this DVD is because many of the voices used in the English dubbed version also lent their talents to Speed Racer cartoons.

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