Terrore Nello Spazio (1965)

a.k.a Planet of the Vampires (USA)
 
Mario Bava excels with this unique and well filmed Sci-Fi Horror film starring Barry Sullivan. 01 Distribution Italian R2 DVD.

The Film

Deep in space two space ships are orbiting an unknown planet from which a mysterious signal has been emitting. Suddenly one of the ships disappears from radar and the other is dragged down onto the planet's surface. The Captain (Barry Sullivan) is shocked when he comes under attack from some of the members of the crew and finds everyone on board fighting. Soon he manages to stop them, only to find that they have no memory of that has happened. They set out to explore the planet and finally find the wreck of the other ship, only to find that the entire crew has killed each other. They bury the victims but they don't long stay dead...
 

 
Bava's first and only sci-fi production, written by Bava himself, along with his Black Sabbath (1963) co-writer Alberto Bevilacqua, Terror nello Spazio is a hark back to the classic sci-fi films of the 1950s, in particular the classic Forbidden Planet (1956) with which this film shares some similarities. The story starts off without any exposition or real introduction, which does make the first few scenes a little confusing, but as soon as the crew land on the planet we immediately know that something is very wrong. 

The crews of both ships are rather small and although there is little in the way of characterisation, there are at least familiar faces and not just the usual mix of "red shirts" who get killed off in many similar films. Ultimately we never find out much about the background of the characters but it is clear that they are not of Earth origin - unusual in US films but quite common in European (particularly Russian) sci-fis of the era. A noticable difference in comparison to the Hollywood productions is the complete lack of romantic interest between any of the characters, despite plenty of opportunity to add it. The pacing is good and the film builds to a thrilling climax - the epilogue is rather more debatable, although adding some extra tension and a fitting conclusion, it does seem to be overly dragged out and the very ending borders on comedy - destroying a lot of the effective atmosphere built up before.

The direction is unmistakably Bava - making the most of an incredibly limited budget he creates some wonderful locations that manage to surpass his other out-of-worldly fantasy films (cf. Hercules and the Haunted World (1961)) and give the film a uniquely alien feel - a real contrast to the desert locations that are used to pass as alien planets in many other films. The low budget certainly stretched to the models and optical effects which do look admittedly ropey, but Bava keeps these shots to an absolute minimum and they never become too noticable and the few gory effects actually look quite effective. Bava's talent for directing horror can clearly be seen throughout, building up some genuinely scary atmosphere, in particular the grave rising ranks as one of the most effective ever filmed.
 


Many Italian films used an imported American actor in the lead role, helping to sell the films overseas, and this production is no different, although top-cast Barry Sullivan is hardly a regular marquee name - still, he manages to give a strong performance and seems completely at home despite the multi-national cast (all apparently speaking different languages on set). The rest of the cast too provide solid performances and the character actors Ángel Aranda (Il Colosso di Rodi (1961)) and Ivan Rassimov (Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976)) should be instantly recognisable to Euro-cult fans.

Working as usual with an obscenely low budget and a mismash international cast would be a tough call for most directors, but Bava seems to thrive, producing an incredibly unique visual experience that ranks Terrore Nello Spazio (1965) as one of the very best horror/sci-fi combinations. It certainly comes highly recommended to fans, both of Mario Bava and of the darker sci-fi films and is generally recommended to all.

In Brief

Anyone famous in it? No-one particularly well known.
Directed by anyone interesting? Mario Bava - Often considered to be one of the best European cinema directors he directed a wide range of films, but is best known for his horror films, including his debut, the classic Black Sunday (1960).
Is it scary?There are several atmospheric scenes that might prove scary.
Any violence/gore? Some blood and some brief but quite vivid gory effects for the time.
Any sex? None.
Who is it for?
 Certainly one to see for all Bava fans and Sci-fi/horror fans, generally recommended to all.


The DVD

Visuals Original Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colour.
The print is good with strong colours and good detail, a medium level of grain.
Audio Italian mono - sounds fine.
Subtitles Italian and English (based on the Italian track and mostly error free)
Run-timeFeature: 1hr 23m 45s (PAL)
Extras The disc includes:
Region Region 2 (UK, Europe) - PAL
Other regions? The MGM US DVD featured the US print of the film with some extra scenes added in from the Italian print and was non-anamorphic - now OOP. The German Universum DVD uses this same print with an anamorphic transfer as well as the Super-8 version, with German and English audio.
Cuts? The film is believed to be uncut. The film was slighty re-edited when shown in the USA, and was occasionally shown with a different soundtrack - the version shown here is the original European theatrical cut.

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All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 23rd February 2008
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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