Planet of the Vampires

 

Kino Lorber released this cult classic on blu ray last year and I thought is was finally time to check it out.  This was a American/ Italian co-production that came out in 1965 and is directed by horror icon Mario Bava.  Astronauts on two ships receive a distress signal and crash land on a mysterious planet to investigate.  After their landing some of the astronauts become possessed and start killing each other so the remaining group has to stick together as the bodies start to pile up and they are also trying to fix their ship so they can leave. 

While checking on their mates in the other ship they find them all dead and also find ruins of anther spaceship that appears to have been there awhile.  Inside the ship they find large skeletons of a different species.  Watch to find out if the remaining crew is able to escape this planet.  Is a lot of this sounding familiar?  Yeah, I would say Alien and a whole slew of sci-fi movies borrowed a bit from this classic.  Also, why Planet of the Vampires?  There is not any fanged, caped creatures running around  here, Planet of the ___ insert new name here would be a more fitting title.

Also, look at the astronaut uniforms:

Looks like another group might have borrowed that idea too:

Anyway this was a really good classic sci-fi flick.  Give it a spin some time.