Planet of the Vampires

On a sliding scale of Mario Bava masterpieces, 1965’s Planet of the Vampires lands somewhere in the middle. That’s not a knock on the film itself, which is a gloriously atmospheric piece of pulp sci-fi imagination. More a result of the incredible body of work the Italian director managed to produce during his career. Although set in the far reaches of space, Bava’s film fit comfortably in the same gothic oeuvre as his previous work, substituting spaceships and foggy alien landscapes for castles and crypts.

Investigating a distress signal on a seemingly abandoned planet, two ships are dispatched to the surface and immediately run afoul of a mysterious force that compels the crews to turn on one another. Those with enough will power to resist proceed to bury their dead and search for an explanation. But the dead don’t stay buried long!

While the original Italian title – Terrore nello spazio (“Terror in Space”) – is generic in the extreme, Planet of the Vampires is just as misleading. Bava does incorporate an eerie resurrection sequence, but the alien menace here is more biological than supernatural. That certainly doesn’t detract from the film’s incredible production design, enhanced by clever use of miniatures, mattes and forced perspective. While his American contemporaries were shooting in bland office spaces full of blinking lights, Bava created entire worlds on a shoestring.

In fact, watching Planet of the Vampires is like crawling through the innards of a pinball machine, full of intense colors and flashing lights, just waiting for an unexpected jump scare. Critics have pointed out the seeds of Ridley Scott’s Alien for decades and they’re nearly impossible to miss (distress signal, alien skeleton, etc.). But Bava’s film is full of pop-art iconography worth treasuring all on its own.

When Radiance’s early Blu-ray set premiered overseas, many jealous Region A fans were left in the cold. But the 4K restoration is finally here, taken from the original negative and presented in Dolby Vision, bringing Bava’s saturated colors and atmospheric shadows to vivid life. Both the 90-minute Italian version and the shorter 88-minute English version are included, giving fans a chance to compare the two cuts along with an alternate music score.

And Radiance has put together a terrific collection of supplements that treats Planet of the Vampires as more than just an Alien footnote. Tim Lucas’s commentary digs into Bava’s career and the film’s ingenious low-budget craft, while a thoughtful documentary explores the film’s place at the crossroads of gothic horror and science fiction. An archival interview with Lamberto Bava adds a personal connection, and the reconstructed 17-minute Super 8 cut offers a fascinating look at how the film was condensed for home viewing. Joe Dante and Josh Olsen bring their own quick takes to the trailers. The limited edition rounds things out with an 80-page book of new and archival writing, plus a new translation of Renato Pestriniero’s original story and a stunning set of lobby cards.

It's a generous package that gives Bava’s strange little space epic room to breathe. Seriously, you can’t comprehend how beautiful it all looks until you hold this set in your hands. It’s something special.