Mario Bava
Terrore nello spazio

Every now and then Armand calls me and on Saturday, July 20th, he called me.

A: Oh hi, how are you?

PJ: Yes, yes, and you?

A: I'm in Rome!

PJ: Really? Well then if you want, we can meet... tomorrow I'll go to Effetto Notte, a sort of horror showcase they have at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme... Tomorrow they're showing Planet of the Vampires from '65... by Lucio Fulci! No, wait, it's Mario Bava I think!

A: Ah, interesting! Then maybe I'll join you, I'll bring my son and we'll see each other there tomorrow.

And that's how it went.

Everyone knows cinema is technique, it's craftsmanship, it's a real job, you can't wing it, and if you have the money, it turns out even better. But what happens when an American production offers you to shoot a sci-fi horror with a budget of only $200,000? Well, you let it go, with $200,000 I can shoot you a little Italian film, with dinners, interiors, and chats. Yeah, but what happens if your name is Mario Bava? It turns out you're not just a film director, you're also a sculptor, son of a sculptor, you're passionate about photography, you're a craftsman, you're an eclectic artist with a lot of skills, and then I'll show you who I am. Initially, he is also reluctant, Mario Bava doesn't love sci-fi, it takes him ages to draft the screenplay with his collaborators, based on a science fiction novel written by an Italian in 1960: "One Night of 21 Hours" by Renato Pestriniero.

He builds and creates the spaceships himself, they are models, simple and awesome. Yeah but how do you make them land? I make them land inside an aquarium and then I handle it. For the suits, we use diver suits and for the helmets, we use motorcycle helmets. Oh, but you need to reproduce an alien planet! No problem, I build it inside a soundstage, rocks, cardboard, I sculpt and carve, I've got it. And the river of lava? We use polenta! And there's the alien planet. A dark, desolate, disturbing place, with smoke curling just above the ground and a mix of changing lights from blue to purple, yellow to green, and may the devil take it. And for the astronauts' wounds? I brought this guy along, promising, his name is Carlo Rambaldi...

The two spaceships have received a signal, maybe an S.O.S., from another planet and they head towards this planet. They could discover an alien race! The film starts with the spaceships already close to this planet but then somehow, the planet pulls them with an immense gravitational force, yet it's so small, how is it possible? Meanwhile, some of the crew start to go mad...

Yes, there are presences on that planet, no doubt, but you don't see them, they live and perceive in another dimension, they want to possess your body, they are true PARASITIC ASTRAL ENTITIES!!! It's war! And so the film begins, this and that happens until the magnificent finale (he had three different endings in mind but he chose this one) that makes you say a big ANVEDI! like a house...

With $200,000 you have to save somewhere, they saved on the actors, real hacks, they must have given them $100 each (there are about fifteen actors) a sandwich and a coffee. And so the film has this aura of ridiculousness, it's a B-MOVIE as they used to make back then but it grossed $90,000 in Italy alone and $251,000 in America (so they more than recouped, not to mention the rest of the world, the home video market, etc.). It became a cult film and inspired Alien which would arrive 14 years later, even if Ridley Scott says no. It undoubtedly inspired Star Trek, for the type of dialogue and the crew's attitude. Sure, watching it today, 60 years later, seeing a female crew member filling out a "card" for her deceased companion, making a photocopy and sticking a piece of tape... and the plutonium bombs? They are glass balls, they remind you of those that you shake and snow falls... and the laser beam? Oh well, let's move on, too easy to giggle now, with 3D and artificial intelligence, but try making a film like this in '65. And indeed, at the cinema yesterday, there were those who chuckled (damned fools) and those who got angry and scolded them (respectful passionate cinema-goers).

I believe in chance more than fate, but damn, I invite Armand to the cinema, without knowing anything about the movie and what do we find? PARASITIC ASTRAL ENTITIES! Hetzer: not talking much now, are you?