Product Details

• Actors: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Stelio Candelli
• Directors: Mario Bava
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005K3OF
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,600 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Planet of the Vampires" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome italian sci fi/horror flick -- reminds me of Alien, November 2, 2001

By 

David Koski "b-movie fan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Planet of the Vampires (DVD)

This is a great old sci fi/horror flick by that master Mario Bava. This movie starts out with two ships in orbit around a planet. You are treated to some really cool electronic sound effects/music and the best technobabble I have ever heard -- Star Trek has nothing on these guys. The ships are sucked in to the planet at 60 G's -- only the heroic captain is able to withstand that kind of force. The movie goes on to deal with what they encounter on the surface as they search for the other ship.

The special effects are a bit cheesy by today's standard, but not bad for a film of its time. They are not overused to ill effect either. The overall atmosphere of the film is properly chilling.

Some of the visuals, plot elements, and even music remind so much of Alien. I have to suspect that Ridley Scott has seen this movie at least once.

I rate this film excellent and highly recommend it!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Juicy and scary planet -- great Sci-Fi entertainment!, February 12, 2002

By 

Jim K. (Scottsdale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Planet of the Vampires (DVD)

Well, I believe it now. When I was in film school, one of my instructors told me that all the stories that could possibly be told were done prior to the 70's; anything else is just a re-make. Ridley Scott ripped off Mario Bava, John Carpenter ripped off Mario Bava, and I'm sure there are plenty more! I have 7-8 Bava films now in my collection, and it's so obvious that modern filmmakers have stolen ideas and scenes directly from Bava's films.

"Alien", no doubt in my mind, was conceived using "Planet of the Vampires" as a basis. All they had to do was create a frightening, living alien for that film series -- everthing else was written for them here!

But on to reviewing the DVD: You won't notice them right away, but as the film progresses you'll enjoy the beautiful women featured. They are Evi Marandi and Norma Bengell. As they change costumes or remove parts of their opening wardrobe, they will become more visible. They are your typically juicy, delicious women in a Bava film but in this movie there's no reason for them to be sensual. They're still fine to look at, and it was great that Bava used more than one woman in the crew back then.

The DVD picture is rather nice -- beautiful and strange colors and the film is rather sharp for its' date. All colors, mist, bubbling, etc. are rendered nicely from this old film.

The soundtrack is the real treat. This is a mono soundtrack, but it again has the enveloping sound like "Blood and Black Lace", so if you have multiple speakers different sounds will come from different places. The unusual spaceship, planet, and space sounds are quite effective. The only problem with sound here is that during obvious loud parts the sound fades away.

I'd say this film will appeal to science fiction fans more than the horror/gore fans. But if you insist on building your Mario Bava collection like I have, then you will want to own this remarkable DVD that holds up today as a very nice space epic. Surprise ending -- something that "Alien" did not have.

There is no DVD insert booklet nor chapter list.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrore Nello Spazio!!!!, January 15, 2005

By 

TBlack "Monster Movie Matinee review" (Blossburg USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planet of the Vampires (DVD)

I like this film alot. Planet of the Vampires has some cool sci-fi(for it's time)futuristic dialog and gadgets. In one scene a female character actually SCANS a document with a scanner next to a computer monitor, and THIS IS IN 1965!!!! Also this was a year before Star Trek came out, so you can't accuse of copycat. It's similar to Star Trek but much darker and sinister. The colors are really cool but when I seen it in black and white when I was a kid on "Monster Movie Matinee" I thought it was more eerie. They have neat weapons and cool black leather suits. At one point the captain and a hot chick Italian actress find a derelict ship with some ancient giant skeletons in it. By the way this movie has tons o titles but I think the original Italian one is Terrore Nello Spazio, which means Terror in Space. Even though this is always accredited as totally Italian, Barry Sullivan the star is American, I believe and the film company is American International. I would recommend this to anyone who likes older sci-fi.