Planet Of The Vampires has been on my watch list a long time. Too long. lol.FadeInto1 wrote: ↑02 Nov 2024, 11:04One thing which has delighted me about this interview is something I'd previously suspected from Eldritch's comments about John Carpenter: he and I have a very similar taste in film.
To that end, as a total Bava fiend and professional pedant, I feel duty-bound to point out that the lightshow is far more Blood And Black Lace than Planet Of The Vampires.
Von on films in Creem Mag
"Different colours, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame"
~ Ian Curtis
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame"
~ Ian Curtis
It's sort of become this mythical film on the basis of its supposed resemblance to Alien, but it's far from Bava's best, by a long shot. I never really considered at a good film, let alone a good Bava film.
It's vaguely interesting as evidence of Bava's genius, but that comes down to how willing you are to marvel at his famous low-budget stagecraft (the same stagecraft that made a tiny patch of foreshore look like a big swampland in Bay Of Blood, and the same stagecraft that led to some truly surprising and shocking moments in the "haunted kid" movie he did towards the end called Shock), which is on full display as he nobly tries to make a flimsy studio set look like a spaceship and a distant planet. He doesn't succeed at either, but his attempts are still ingenious.
It's vaguely interesting as evidence of Bava's genius, but that comes down to how willing you are to marvel at his famous low-budget stagecraft (the same stagecraft that made a tiny patch of foreshore look like a big swampland in Bay Of Blood, and the same stagecraft that led to some truly surprising and shocking moments in the "haunted kid" movie he did towards the end called Shock), which is on full display as he nobly tries to make a flimsy studio set look like a spaceship and a distant planet. He doesn't succeed at either, but his attempts are still ingenious.