Planet of the Vampires (1965) - worth watching?

[electroaddict]

i saw Planet of the Vampires in the store yesterday and said to myself, "this HAS to be a bad movie!" has anyone here seen it?

--e

[Flangepart]

Lets see....Italian...black leather space suits....giant alien skeleton....possession of crew by weird glowing alien lights. Yep, sounds like it to me. Prome Provalone,indeed.

[peter johnson]

Now, I did see this when I was renting a series of giant bug movies, and wanted just oooonnne more something to watch.  After the cheese of "Mantis!", this thing was positively Ingmar Bergman.
Seriously, I found I liked it a lot.   Very dark photography.  Could really be scary if watched alone at 1am.  It sort of plays like an old "Outer Limits" TV episode.  Some people on this site don't care for it, but I look at it as a definite B picture -- as in low-budget/not top-of-the-bill -- but not a BAD picture.
Put it this way:  It ain't no "They Saved Hitler's Brain"!
peter johnson

[Chris K.]

Well, Bava has made some not-so-good features. But PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES is not a bad Bava picture. In fact, it's really quite good considering it's low budget value. But the sets are great, the photography (always a Bava highlight as he was an experienced cameraman for Italian director Riccardo Freda) is damn impressive with the usual colorful lighting, and the idea does have promise. However, the title is somewhat misleading as the planet contains no vampires but invisble alien beings that have the ability to take over dead human bodies (but, I guess that could be a form of alien vampireism). Also, the English dubbing by Titra Sound is really good as well so it's not too cheesy.

Also, the recent MGM release on DVD is complete and uncut. It's original American distributor American International Pictures did not edit out one scene and kept the original music score rather than replacing it with the ususal cartoonish Les Baxter score like they did with Bava's BLACK SUNDAY for instance.

[Ken Begg]

My write-ups here, for what it's worth.

http://www.jabootu.com/vcsepohone.htm#p

My verdict:  Fun and interesting in spots, but no classic.  The DVD is gorgeous.

[Cullen]

Prome Provalone?  BWAHAHAHA!

That's so wrong.

[Gerry]

It's a great movie.  The sets are fantastic.  The acting is good.  There is a LOT of atmosphere.  I would highly recommend it.

You'll recognize more than a little of ALIEN in it too.

[Cullen]

It's been LONG YEARS since I watch the film, but I remember hating the ending.  Beyond that...Can't say.

[Flangepart]

D'oh! I ment PRIME Provalone. And i likely spelled the cheese wrong, too. Dang this senility! Great movie for anyone at this site, though.