Monster of the Day #276

Hmm, this reminds me of “something*….

  • Ericb

    I was hoping you’d do this one. This is the only Baba movie I’ve seen. I love the sound effect they used for this guy’s captain’s log. Wonderfully creepy.

  • Ericb

    *Bava* of course.

  • This reminds me that I have to go grocery shopping soon. The cupboard is getting bare.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I really liked some of the throw-away ideas in this one, for example the keys they find in this very scene. And yeah, it does seem to foreshadow my ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIE.

  • When as a kid I saw this one in the theater, the recorded captain’s voice in this scene sent me into paroxysms of fear. I had nightmares about booming unintelligible voices for years afterwards.

  • John Campbell

    Once again I bow before the masters.

    What movie is this?

    I think Ken and Sandy are secretly immortal.(For two reasons)

    1. They’ve seen SOOOO many movies

    And 2. NO ONE could survive this much crap cinema and live!

  • Ericb

    Planet of the Vampires

  • alex

    Another winner from Bava. What a beautiful film! And made with pratically nothing. Bava really took all his technical brillance to achieve something that looked and felt like no other space movie. The best Science-fiction and Horror hybrid made before Alien in 1979.

  • Rock Baker

    Planet of the Vampires I liked, but more for Ib Melchior than Mario Bava. That meant there’d actually be a story one could follow to go with the impressive visuals (not a fantastic story, but an imaginative one).

    If I’m not mistaken, played double bill with Die, Monster Die! in 1966. Also sold (possibly to television) as The Demon Planet.

    And why, again, is Alien considered such hot stuff? I saw the film again recently and found it to be a rather empty affair, to say nothing of being waaaayyyyyyyyy too long for the compact story they were telling. At least Planet of the Vampires packs easily thrity times as much stuff into a plot that can be told in under 90 minutes.

  • zombiewhacker

    I thought Alien was terrific except for the first half hour, which I thought a rambling, mumbling waste.

    Always wanted to see Planet of Vampires. Another one for the Netflix queue this October!

  • Planet of the Vampires is a good intorduction to Bava’s style for westerners. It has a coherent plot and everything. Certainly throwing a n00b straight into “Twitch of the Death Nerve” would be simply cruel.

    A Hollywood director would probably make 8 movies out of the concepts of Planet of the Vampires. But every one would be suckier.

  • Rock Baker

    I don’t know about that. Edward L. Cahn could have pulled it off, I think.

  • I had nightmares about booming unintelligible voices for years afterwards.

    Wait, you told me that was after you’d seen A Charlie Brown Christmas.

  • Rock Baker

    It was a shot of this thing that always ran in Famous Monsters. The angle of the photo suggested the movie had a big skeletal spider or something that went chasing after the girl. Then there’s the poster art which features big monsters based on this sketelton, which implies the movie will feature a group of giant monsters chasing the crew. In a way, the movie is kind of a let down after imagining all that stuff.