Queen of Blood (1966)

A distress signal is received from an alien race that has been attempting to communicate with the Earth, after which a team of astronauts ships out to answer the call. They recover an empty spacecraft save for a single being, a female humanoid that they save from the brink of death. Once revived, the crew of four slowly fall prey to their parasitic guest, who requires blood in order to survive. Two things make this film standout above all else: A stellar cast including John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, and Dennis Hopper, and the incredible backgrounds that combine otherworldly matte paintings, scale miniatures, and practical sets. These exteriors are really quite impressive, although they were originally shot for two separate Russian films before being integrated into several American releases. The film also employs a saturated color palette with deep reds, greens, and blues not unlike Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (made the same year and sharing a near-identical plot). While the plot touches on a few moral issues, the pacing and otherwise average SciFi scripting make for a very slow build and uninteresting watch. The interior sets and costuming from the American production crew also fall short of the Russian designs, with a distracting body suit taking away from the otherwise creepy femme fatale. Without the borrowed footage, this would have been a pretty lackluster effort, however this film along with the Bava entry noted above clearly impacted future SciFi successes like ALIEN. As it stands, hardcore SciFi fans will find enough to like here, though it might not appeal to the average Horror fan.

Rating: 6/10.
Number of views: 1.



Special thanks to James at Behind the Couch for this recommendation! Be sure to visit Behind the Couch for an excellent review of the film and additional behind-the-scenes information.