KnotMissPriceless
Why so much hype?
Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Mehdi Hoffman
There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
kevin olzak
"Horror of the Blood Monsters," or as it was on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, "Vampire Men of the Lost Planet" (paired on July 16 1977 with second feature "Doctor Blood's Coffin"), is a cherished member of the Al Adamson school of atrocious titles that nevertheless did excellent business through his Independent-International Pictures Corp. While his co-producer Samuel M. Sherman unerringly acknowledges that this is Adamson's worst, it still has its share of fans who truly appreciate 'good bad films,' and I myself believe that it's a step up from Jerry Warren's usual cut-and-paste work ("Face of the Screaming Werewolf," "Attack of the Mayan Mummy," "Invasion of the Animal People," "Curse of the Stone Hand"). Nearly all of Adamson's late 60s work consisted of movies shot in bits and pieces over a period of years, after losing the rights to "Blood of Dracula's Castle" to Crown International, forcing he and Sherman to form their own company to maintain control of future product, of which quite a few had been gathering dust- "Five Bloody Graves," "Blood of Ghastly Horror," "Hell's Bloody Devils," "Dracula vs. Frankenstein," "The Female Bunch," and this one. Adamson had purchased a 1965 black and white Filipino cheapie called "Tagani," and decided to incorporate its footage of prehistoric cave people (the Tubatan, which literally translates from Tagalog as 'vampire'), snake people (you can tell by their shoulders), claw people (hiding underwater), and winged bat people (played by furry midgets), into a smörgåsbord of odd science fiction clichés centering around a space flight using special effects culled from David L. Hewitt's ultra low budget 1965 release "The Wizard of Mars." The 'Wizard' himself, John Carradine, again takes the top spot, this time playing the 'infamous' Dr. Rynning, leading said expedition to that long distant planet, following a ludicrous introduction of dark alley vampires led by Adamson himself, wearing the same kind of plastic fangs you used to find in any five-and-dime. More than half the 85 minute film is in black and white, so to match with the new color footage Samuel Sherman decided to simply use red and blue tinting, the stock footage including shots from 1953's "Robot Monster," 1948's "Unknown Island" (2 tiny dinosaurs in a long shot), plus the usual battling lizards from 1940's "One Million B.C." The folks at the film processing lab could not believe that Sherman had promised to release such an abomination, so the resulting success must be chalked up to salesmanship and advertising. TV viewings under one title were interspersed with theatrical showings under the original, and after the phenomenal "Star Wars," a third release as "Space Mission to the Lost Planet." What it amounts to is truly the last gasp in 1950s-era spaceship clichés, mostly filmed before 1967's "Mission Mars," all of which disappeared from screens after "2001: A Space Odyssey" in 1968. While many believe that Al Adamson was a master of such reckless paste jobs, he only repeated this formula once more with 1977's "Doctor Dracula," again starring John Carradine, this one a barely released Paul Aratow feature called "Lucifer's Women," adding Dracula to its Svengali. The movies of Al Adamson certainly have their entertainment value, yet will never be mistaken for good cinema.
dbborroughs
What do you get if you take a black and white Filipino caveman film and add new color scenes explaining that the caveman stuff is actually on a far off planet? You get this movie a wild and weird scifi film about vampires from space. Another patchwork job by Al Adamson for Sam Sherman, this film kind of works in its own twisted sort of a way. To be certain the new earth bound material of vampires here on earth doesn't really work, but the cavemen stuff which explains the source of the infection (okay I'm going out on a limb here) is interesting in a "so bad its good" meets "so weird its compelling" sort of way. I've actually gone back to see this film willingly several times over the years because its just so damn odd. I have no idea if thats a recommendation, hell I don't know if I even really like the film, but it is sort of a one of a kind movie. Worth a look for the truly adventurous.
capn_crusty
This was, as others have pointed out, a pretty disjointed effort; thus, so will my comments be. Spoilers? I dunno; how do you spoil something like this?Let's see: out of the twelve dollar budget, how much was spent to keep John Carradine in Wild Turkey? I mean, LOOK AT HIM. If he hadn't been sitting down, he'd have had to have been propped up.Did anybody else see fingers holding on to the tip of the toy rocket, as it "landed"? When I saw it with my own MST3K buddies about 20 years ago, we were all pretty, uh, "Carradined", but I seem to remember THAT.Also seems to me that, at one point, there would be a phony control panel of sorts behind John C, then in the next shot, it would just be a blue screen. Seems that way...but then again, see above.And weren't there some guys who threw snakes as sort of "poisonous boomerang" weapons? I vaguely remember thinking, that was at least a somewhat original idea.Recommend it? Yeah...kinda. Just don't do it without someone to bounce sarcastic comments off of. And you might want to keep a full cooler handy, too.
Ron-137
I saw this film in the early 1980's as part of a triple feature at the local drive-in (so please if I error on the details, my apologies). At that time it was titled "Night of the Wolf" or "Cry of the Wolf" or some such non-related drivel. It starts with vampire attacks on women in the night (in poor lighting). Then it goes to launching a rocket into space (internal shots only). We wade through long dialogues over what the plot is about (while walking around in a cardboard set). The Ship lands on a planet inhabited by vampire cave-men (all shot in black & white through a red filter). They find, rescue, and flee with the only non-vampire cave-gal (which is never really explained). The crew escape back to Earth without a solution to the problem (luckily the red cloud dissipates freeing Earth till the next time.) The nightmares still linger in my head about this, truly the worst film that I ever saw.