Directed by the late, great Mario Bava in 1965 and released domestically by American International Pictures, Terrore nello spazio (retitled as Planet Of The Vampires for North American audiences) when two spaceships, The Argos and The Galliot, land on a distant planet. They've been sent there to investigate a strange distress beacon that has been emitting from this uncharted world. As the two ships approach the planet, they encounter some sort of strange turbulence that knocks over the crewmembers and draws the ships in closer to the surface. Shortly after this happens, Captain Markary (Barry Sullivan), the man in charge of The Argos, has to contend with a mutiny of sorts when some of his men attack one another for reasons he cannot ascertain. When calm once again returns, the men return to their senses and start to discuss their situation. Though they can breathe on this planet, the terrain is less than hospitable.

When the crew of The Argos get a distress call from the crew of The Galliott, Markary splits up his crew sending some to find the missing ship and leaving others at their own to ensure its safety. Sure enough the crew of The Galliott is found, but unfortunately they are all dead and would seem to have killed one another in a bout of inexplicable insanity similar to that experienced by The Argos' crew. When some of the bodies of the dead disappear, Markary starts to realize that there's something far more sinister at work here than anyone could have ever expected…

Director Mario Bava's background as a special effects technician really shows here as does his experience working behind the camera as a cinematographer. Everything about this film is coated in these lush, beautiful colors that really do a great job of masking a low budget and creating an alternate world that the audience finds they are eager to explore. Obviously we know going in based solely on the title alone that our intrepid explorers are in for some serious trouble and here too Bava shows very good skill in building some palpable tension and working these moments of suspense into the already fantastic visual groundwork. Without going overboard, Planet Of The Vampires is an absolute treat for the eyes, a painterly and wholly bizarre genre mashup that is almost perfect (yes, almost… the miniature spaceships don't get off so easy but they are easily forgiven) in its look and in the way that it has been dressed (you'd never guess that some of them were recycled from a sword and sandal movie).

The performances are decent enough, if likely a bit hampered by the dubbing. Barry Sullivan would seem to be the only one speaking English in front of the camera here so the lip movements on some of the other actors don't always jive with what's being said but that's simply something that needs to be accepted ‘as is' when evaluating a lot of foreign films made in this era. Even when it is at its most obvious it doesn't particularly hurt the film, it winds up just being part of its quirky charm.

Thematically the film is a fairly dark one. It'd be easy to dismiss this as camp but there are some interesting and somewhat twisted ideas at play here. Without going into spoiler territory as our crew members start to realize what's happening things do close in around them and as it all heads south, things get surprisingly gruesome. The influence of Bava's film on Ridley Scott's Alien made for 20th Century Fox more than a decade later becomes obvious not just in the initial concept but also in how the more horrific side of the movie builds the way it does. It's definitely a quirky entry in Bava's filmography and while maybe not his best film, Planet Of The Vampires is absolutely one of his more creative and delightfully bizarre.

Kino presents Planet Of The Vampires on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85.1 widescreen and it does indeed look very nice in HD. The first thing you're going to notice, and this won't surprise those familiar with Bava's work, is just how much the colors really pop here. The reliance on primary hues throughout the film creates an otherworldly atmosphere that looks great with the added depth and dimensionality offered by the high resolution and it easily smokes the past DVD release through MGM's Midnight Movies line. Skin tones look very good and detail is very much improved here too, as is texture. The image is pretty clean, just a few white specks now and again, and black levels are quite good too. There are no problems with any compression artifacts or edge enhancement and the nice, natural looking amount of film grain present would seem to indicate no overzealous noise reduction has been applied. Fans should be quite pleased with it. The picture may not compete with the latest and greatest Hollywood blockbuster in the picture quality department but for a film made decades ago on a modest budget, this is quite solid indeed.