Mario Bava is a master of style, the grandfather of Italian horror, and a genius when it comes to dressing up an extra low-budget picture. Black Sunday and Danger: Diabolik both proved him capable of directing fun genre pictures, even if not all of his films are as brilliant as the former. Unfortunately, Planet of the Vampires is not good enough to be engaging, and not bad enough to be funny (like Starcrash). It hits that middle ground where a film has a few positives and a few negatives that balance out to an all-round boring experience. The color, lighting, and fog are great as usual, but sadly the film is lacking something--a compelling human element or maybe, simply, charm. Two ships crash land on an unknown planet. A mysterious entity causes the crew members to become possessed and kill one another. It's a bit like The Thing meets Alien, but not nearly as interesting. There was some potential energy in the story department, but none of it was tapped. The characters are stupid like only bad sci-fi characters can be, leaving one person behind at every step of the way so that they can meet their inevitable demise. Another problem is that because no one character is developed and no one has any distinctive visual markings, it's difficult to follow the action. By the end of the first third, I just didn't care anymore and hoped the film could string me along for the ride. It couldn't. It's a shame that the Italians couldn't seem to grasp sci-fi in the 60s and 70s amidst their great horror films and westerns. Planet of the Vampires is no exception.
4/10
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