Planet of the Vampires (1965) (Terrore nello spazio)

A stylish, innovative, well-paced and entertaining mid-1960s sci-fi film with strong tone and atmosphere along with earnest performances.

Directed by Mario Bava
Screenplay by Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Mario Bava, Antonio Román, Rafael J. Salvia
English version: Ib Melchior, Louis M. Heyward
Based on "One Night of 21 Hours" by Renato Pestriniero
Produced by,Fulvio Lucisano
Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi
Edited by Antonio Gimeno, Romana Fortini
Music by Gino Marinuzzi Jr.
Production companies: Italian International Film, Castilla Cooperativa Cinematográfica, American International Pictures
Distributed by Società Italiana di Distribuzione (SIDIS) (Italy), C.B. Films (Spain)
Running time: 88 minutes
Budget: $200,000
Box office: £90 million (Italy), 38.2 million ESP (Spain), $251,000 (United States)

Cast

Barry Sullivan as Captain Mark Markary
Norma Bengell as Sanya
Ángel Aranda as Wess Wescant
Evi Marandi as Tiona
Franco Andrei as Bert
Federico Boido as Harry Gash
Stelio Candelli as Brad )
Alberto Cevenini as Toby Markary
Mario Morales as Eldon
Ivan Rassimov as Carter
Massimo Righi as Captain Sallis
Fernando Villeña as Dr. Karan

A strange transmission of a distress signal is received.

The spaceships Argos and Galliot travel to the mysterious planet Aura to investigate.

Automatic controls malfunction and the Galliot crashes on the surface of Aura.

Upon landing, crew-members in Argos briefly lose control and attack each other.

Why?

Casualties are soon found but the Argos’ Captain and his surviving crew discover that the dead do not stay dead.

How can this be?

Did they respond to a distress signal or have they fallen into a trap?

If the latter, then who set the trap and for what purpose?

Trailer

Read on for more....

Spoilers follow below....

“This planet seems to be made of fog”

Aboard the spaceship Argos, our view of the spacious bridge, its equipment and its personnel is measured and unhurried affording us enough time to take in its impressive dimensions and functional efficiency. This huge interplanetary ship along with its sister ship, the Galliot have embarked on an expedition into the far reaches of deep uncharted space. On their sixth orbit around Aura, an unexplored planet, the crew has detected a signal that “always comes from the same point” emanating from a “man-made transmitter.” The transmission has been known about for the last two years. In response to what appears to be this distress signal, both ships are about to attempt to land on the surface of the fog-shrouded world.

While preparing to land on the planet, the communication link between the two vessels appears to be blocked. This is followed by a massive increase in gravitational forces as the Argos begins to enter Aura’s atmosphere, almost crushing and immobilizing the crew.

“He doesn't remember anything either”

“What's happened? What's going on?”

“I wish I knew”

During the course of the landing, the crew of the Argos suddenly become possessed by a mysterious force that impels them to attempt to violently kill each other. It appears that Captain Markary is able to resist this unknown power and manages to force all of the other crew members out of their homicidal hypnotic trance-like state.

All that can be determined so far is that only some of the crew “have been behaving strangely with no memory of it afterwards.” Just prior to this “the automatic controls went completely haywire” and then “without warning the force of gravity increased…..up to 40G, a force which only a planet with a mass a thousand times superior to ours could have put out.” After unexpectedly setting down gently on the planet’s surface, the crew seemed to go crazy.

None of this is coincidence.

This was planned- by whom by what?”

Soon after the Argos lands on the surface, the crew unsuccessfully attempts to lift off and head to the Galliott’s landing site. They then decide instead to disembark and explore the eerily coloured and swirling mist-infused terrain as they make their way toward the Galliott. Upon their arrival at the other ship, they discover to their horror that the crew members have killed each other, including Markary's younger brother, Toby. The bodies outside the ship are buried but several bodies remain sealed inside the ship's control room, the entrance to which will need to be cut through in order to gain access. While Markary goes back to get tools for opening the sealed room, the corpses within have mysteriously disappeared.

Markary returns to find the bodies missing, the control room doors open and all evidence of violence erased with the exception of blood discovered by Wess. After the baffled crew leave to return to the Argos, the grave markers at the Galliott burial site start to shift before toppling over. One by one the buried corpses emerge from their graves and slowly tear off their clear plastic shrouds before moving off to……

“Maybe we're not alone. Somebody or something could be watching us here right now”

A mystery has presented itself: First of all, despite being guided to the planet by a signal, no sign of life is evident. Second, Tiona is convinced that she saw some of the ‘dead’ men from the Galliott moving around nearby which caused her to scream in terror. Finally, there is the question of whether there is some inexplicable force at work here or if there’s any form of life responsible for what has happened, then it should be considered as their enemy.

“A captain should not be afraid and I confess now to whoever may hear this that today now I am experiencing fear. I must not let my crew know this. I must keep them busy. I must not let them know that the situation appears more hopeless with each passing day. Dictated by captain Mark Markary of the spaceship Argos on the planet Aura in the year…..”

Although it is decided that the surviving crew must escape from Aura. the vessel has sustained serious damage during the landing, and the necessary repairs will delay any departure for at least two days. The pressure is on as in another three days the planet's orbit will have swept the crew so far away they may not get back home at all.

A short time later, Markary observes Wess attempting to disconnect the meteor rejector. After being intercepted, Wes recalls that he was fully aware all the time that he was doing so but couldn't help himself. He tells the others, “I fought it with all my power but it was no use, I had to disconnect the meteor rejector…..it was like like another will fighting my own in my mind trying to take  over control.”

It is concluded that “whatever unseen beings are out there, they apparently have the power to influence our minds when we're unconscious.” As a precaution, the captain orders that a guard be placed on anyone who's sleeping.

The crew members patrolling and standing guard outside the ship report having heard and seen something. When Markary joins them, the ‘something’ is described as being “like luminous globes” seen out of the corner of the eye but seem to just disappear when looked at directly.

Tragedy strikes when the outside party hears a scream and discover a hideously mutilated Bert lying on the ground. Before he dies, he tells the others that it was “captain,” but is unable to finish his identification of the culprit.

After Bert’s body is brought back into the ship, the assessment of the crew’s predicament is outlined as follows:

• One entire crew lost
• Two of their own crewmen gone
• Bert dead
• Elden disappeared
• The unknown enemy keeps getting closer

The Enemy

The enemy becomes visible and identifiable when viewed out of the corner of one’s eye but seems to disappear when looked at directly. Being perhaps composed of little globes of light, this alien life-form could, it is conjectured, be “based on a different plane of vibrations” to humans and that the “strange sonic waves” the crew heard could be their voices.

As Tiona finishes the records for Sanya, she is terrified by the sight of the apparently deceased Bert standing behind the record cabinet door, seemingly poised to do her harm. Tiona faints from shock and the others return to find her lying on the floor. There may be some scepticism concerning Tiona’s account of what happened especially with Bert’s seemingly lifeless body lying atop the table.

Bert’s burial service is quickly dispatched with a perfunctory, “rest well... sorry we weren't around to help you…. we'll try to see that you didn't die in vain.” This is followed by “let's not stand around, we've got work to do!” If his ghost is watching he’ll be shaking his fist and muttering, “Is that all you’ve got to say, you bastards!”

“Looks like it's been here for a long time”

While conducting a land survey of Aura, Wess spotted something “shining” which turns out to be the ruins of an alien spaceship a few miles from the Argos.

Markary, Sanya and Carter proceed to the site of the alien ship to investigate. An examination of the vessel’s exterior indicates that “it's been here for a long time” and doesn’t look like any ship the crew has ever seen.

Suddenly they spot a giant skeleton on the ground “three times the size of us and judging by the deterioration of the calcium must have been here a long time, probably belonging to an ancient civilization.”

While Carter stands guard outside, Markary and Sanya venture inside the derelict craft. As they cautiously making their way, lit by subdued lighting, through the immense interior, their presence seems to have triggered a series of strange eerie melodic sounds.

Another giant skeleton is discovered slumped over some kind of control station. Both Markary and Sanya receive a shock when they touch what appears to be an electric torch used by the aliens whose size may have enabled them to hold the device without being shocked.

While they have been exploring the chamber, Markary has managed to activate a recording device which fills the area with a deep almost melodic baritone voice. The voice belonged to the giant alien and what Markary and Sanya’s ears are being subject to is the alien’s language…..saying what exactly? It’s a moot point, however as Markary smashes the console which silences the message and brings the giant skeleton crashing down onto the floor of the vessel.

A somewhat symbolic act! But what is pretty obvious by now is that the crew of Argos and Galliott are not the first ships to be lured into a trap on Aura by the distress beacon.

Markary soon locates a large tuning fork on the console and conjectures that the locking device “could be a sonic one - a lock designed to open only to a certain sound to a certain frequency.”

All of a sudden, in what appears to be a fail-safe device, the air is being drawn out the chamber which is now sealed tight. The tuning fork however is of no use, so Markary throws it away causing it to accidentally strike the electric torch tool. The results produced as a consequence leads Markary to resort to enduring the shocks from the ‘electric torch’ to generate the tone and frequency necessary to open the door lock.

After exiting the alien vessel, Markary and Sanya discover that Carter is nowhere to be seen. They believe that he has probably gone back to the Argos for help. But has he????

Back at the Argos, it is evident that Carter has not yet returned. Rather disturbingly it seems that Tiona has been dramatically affected by what she witnessed when standing guard: “they were there in the fog all mutilated and bloody….I looked right at them…. they didn't go away…..empty faces – dead faces.”

Two apparent surviving crew members of the Galliott, Kier and Sallis, arrive at the Argos where they relate that they “remember descending for landing with all conditions perfect then nothing until we found ourselves fighting our way out of unconsciousness somewhere out there.” They go on to explain that they walked around looking for the Galliott but didn't find her. Their peculiar behavior, however is noticed along with their inability to adequately explain where they have been since the landing. Their presence seems to indicate that they are indeed alive, but as Tiona observes, nothing is what it seems on Aura. She then insists that she saw the three they buried the previous day along with another one – Bert! One way to find out is to open the graves which Markary orders to be done. A short time later, from one of the graves, only a transparent plastic funeral shroud shoots out revealing the absence of any body.

“It's imperative that our race continue to exist”

Later that same night, Kier and Sallas are caught stealing the Argos’ meteor rejecter from the control room. Kier is able to escape with the rejecter, but Sallas is captured. When the top part of his uniform is accidentally torn open, the other crew members catch a glimpse of putrid flesh and exposed bone. Sailas’ real identity is revealed. He tells the others that he is an Auran entity who has taken possession of and is making use of the dead man's body. He goes on to explain that due to their sun burning out and the planet becoming uninhabitable, his species are desperate to escape before they become extinct.

The Imperative

“On this planet are many beings who  desperate. We've been in trouble many years now and we're fighting to survive. We arranged for several of you to kill each other so that we could take over your bodies. You are our last chance, it's imperative that our race continue to exist….If you were in our place you would understand ….we cannot build anything - spaceships like this, we need ships to get away. Perhaps our survival is possible somewhere else. Our sun's been dying….and that means the end of our species….You heard our message, we never expected you to actually respond”

The Auran has revealed that the two ships were lured to the planet in order for its species to escape from their dying world and that they have to take possession of the crew members in order to exist in a different atmosphere. In answer to the accusation that such a bodily possession would be parasitical, the Auran states that the hosts must “be willing only to submit, lose their bodies as well as lose their will” and that the relationship would be “symbiotic.” In usual evil alien fashion, the Sallas / Auran entity then declares that resistance is useless and issues an ultimatum stating that either all of them go back to the crews’ home planet, or none will. To underscore this, the Auran adds that “a certain rejector” vital to the crew has been taken away and therefore they can't leave without it. The rejector will be returned only on condition that they agree to take the Auran’s back with them. Markary resolutely replies that he and his crew are willing to die in order to save their world. In response, the Auran entity vacates Sallas’ dead body which promptly falls to the floor.

“Time's running out”

Markary, in a race against time, quickly activates a plan to stop the Aurans achieving their own nefarious plan of reaching the home planet. First of all, the captain intends to use atomic detonators to blow up the Galliott and its entire cargo of “living dead.” Before doing so, the meteor rejector will need to be retrieved.  As soon as Wess sees the team returning with the rejector, he is to turn on the ignition while the rejector is to be replaced after they are in space which will be risky.

To the accompaniment of the ominous mournful wail of the Auran wind, Markary along with Sanya, Dr. Karan and Tiona make their way to the Galliott to retrieve the meteor rejecter, while Wess stays behind on the Argos. At the site of the Galliott Markary orders Tiona and Dr Karen to hold position while he and Sanya proceed into the ship.

It isn’t long before the captain discovers that his own brother has turned into one of the living dead. While the explosive is being placed within the ship and the meteor rejector retrieved, Markary and Sanya are caught in the act by Toby and a struggle ensues during which Markary shoots Toby in the leg. The rest of the Aurans are alerted by the sound of the struggle and its on for young and old.

Markary and Sanya eventually make it back to where Dr. Karan and Tiona are before a gun battle erupts between the four Argon crew and the pursuing Auran possessed astronauts. Karen and Tiona are killed in the battle while Markary and Sanya make it back to the Argos. The ship manages to take off with the three survivors just as the Galliott explodes. One would think that would be the end of the story….right? Wrong!

“Can you imagine our world invaded by those horrible creatures?

Just thinking about it seems a nightmare”

After declaring that it was “luck” that brought them here, Markary insists that Wess go and get some sleep. While he tries to do just that, he is disturbed by Markary's strange behaviour when he catches a reflection of the captain holding a field ray gun while hovering outside his quarters and seeming to be undecided as to whether or not to enter. 

When Wess informs Sanya about what he saw, she asks him, “what are your conclusions?” and he replies, “unfortunately there's only one conclusion: even Mark is controlled by one of them!” Samya and Wess then go to confront the captain where Wess is to discover the horrible truth that…….

“Just let one of us join you. It'll give you this wonderful new complexity”

….both Markary and Sanaya are possessed by the Auran entities! Wess rejects their offer to let him join them and echoing his captain’s earlier declaration, he assures them that he would rather die than submit to them. Before he can be eliminated, Wess dashes off and destroys the meteor rejecter which releases an energy discharge that kills him.

“I was right, it is a puny civilization”

Without the meteor rejecter, there is no way for the Argos to make it back to the home planet. Instead, Markary decides that they’ll have to land on a closer planet less then a light year away. It is such a small planet it’s “not even marked on the navigation charts” but has an atmosphere in which they and those who follow them can exist. It is the third planet of the star they call T, “most likely a young primitive world” which we of course know as…... Earth!

The crews of the Argos and Galliott were not human at all, but from another distant planet. 'Sanya' asks 'Markary' how he thinks the people of Earth will accept them. "I hope well... for them," he menacingly replies.

Points Of Interest

Planet of the Vampires was based on an Itaian-language science fiction short story, One Night of 21 Hours by Renato Pestriniero. The film was co-produced by AIP and Italian International Film, with some financing provided by Spain's Castilla Cooperativa Cinematográfica. American International Pictures released the film as the supporting film on a double feature with Daniel Haller's Die, Monster, Die! (1965).

Bava's film seems to have been a major influence on Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) both of which have similar narrative and visual design elements. Just consider for instance, the continuous shots & panning inside the Argon vessel, the discovery of a giant alien skeleton outside and inside the derelict alien ship, the horseshoe shape vessel design, the landing on the alien planetoid scene, the response to an alien signal an so on.

Ib Melchior who wrote the screenplay for the English-language version of the film had been involved with other sci-fi films featured in this blog such as;

 The Angry Red Planet (1959),

Reptilicus (1961) 

and

Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964).

On set it must have been a regular Tower of Babel as each cast member used their own native language, often not understanding what the other actors were saying. The languages used ranged from English, Portuguese, Italian through to Spanish. The actors’ voices were then dubbed into Italian or English in post-production.

Opticals, miniatures and forced perspective visuals were used throughout the film, along with colored fog to add atmosphere while obscuring the cheapness of the sets. In some of the shots two plastic rocks were multiplied by mirrors and multiple exposures. The planet's exterior sequences were filmed on an empty stage obscured by mists, table top miniatures and Schüfftan process effects involving the use of mirrors to reflect a portion of the action being filmed onto a separate piece of glass, which is then incorporated into the final image. This process allows the creation of the illusion of complex and realistic environments.

Planet of the Vampires is a beautifully photographed film with effective special effects and use of color to the accompaniment of eerie atmospheric music. Often the tone and mood is simply set by the sound of humming electronics and the menacing moan of the planet’s wind. The viewer is taken along as a participant by the ever-roving camera as it pans, tracks and zooms in and out and leads us through a scene by means of continuous shots.

The horror and science fiction elements of the film are very well combined giving it an unsettling and creepy feel without going over the top. We are given time to take in everything at the visual level without nausea-inducing shaky camera work and continuous rapid cutting of shots. We also (shock-horror!) have a story with a structure that audiences can actually follow. If I have any criticism, it is with those damn collars of the characters’ uniforms. They must have annoyed the heck out of the actors. Speaking of the vinyl uniforms, Norma Bengell and Evi Marandi did them full justice!

Notice too that, unusual for the time the film was made, the female characters were depicted as being fully integrated members of the crew who even participated in the nitty gritty of missions and dangerous conflicts.

Finally, there’s the matter of the existence of life and especially intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Our notions of the possible presence of life beyond the confines of earth are governed by what we know of Darwinian evolution and terrestrial analogues. Any certainty or definitive statements we may try to bring to the discussion without evidence is plain foolishness. We just don’t know if life or indeed intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and what we’re left with is either wishful thinking or unreasoning denial. However, it intelligent life is present on other worlds in our own and other galaxies…… then;

Would they be motivated by a similar kind curiosity to ours to seek out and communicate with other intelligence species? Or would they shun such communication and opt instead for an insular existence due to fear of consequences or their own belief systems?

Are such intelligent life forms already aware of our existence and knowing something about us, are understandably reluctant to have anything to with such an irresponsible, rapacious and violent species?

Would an extra-terrestrial intelligent life form possess similar codes of ethics and morality (such as we selectively and occasionally apply) as our own? Or would they perhaps be motivated by the imperatives of survival of their species and view our presence as a potential threat (or even as an abomination)to their own survival?

How would they view human beings and the planet Earth? Altruistically as fellow beings from whom they can learn and can in turn teach and guide us in a spirit of cooperation? Or perhaps as resources to be ruthlessly exploited for whatever purposes that suit them?

What form would an extra-terrestrial life-form take? Humanoid? Carbon or silicon-based? Aquatic? Energy-based?

Might an extra-terrestrial civilization operative on different laws of physics (which we believe are the same everywhere) which we have yet to made aware of?

How would communication be established? Radio / micro waves? Language based involving verbal communication using similar notions of syntax and grammar? Mathematical and physics concepts or laws which we consider as universal? Telepathy? Metaphorical, symbolic, analogous forms? Sign language?

As can be seen from the above, any consideration of the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, amounts to little more than endless speculation. We should not assume anything as to its likely existence and its possible nature but should instead be prepared to expect anything. It may transpire that it will be we human beings who will be viewed as being the aliens!

Planet of the Vampires deserves to be more widely known and not simply forgotten. It is a wonderful gem of cinematic history that still stands up surprisingly well.

Full Film

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