Planet of the Vampires (1965)

The original "In space, no one can hear you scream" horror flick. When a ship receives a distress signal coming from a mysterious, fog-covered planet, they land only to find themselves at the mercy of mysterious, yet invisible entities. As always with Bava, this one is all in the lush visuals, deliberate pacing, and rich atmosphere. The color photography and exotic sets, the leather space outfits all scream retro. Planet of the Vampires is very much of its era in terms of aesthetics, but it is hard not to love, and Bava subverts all of the conventional sci-fi tropes into something quite sinister. This is a scary movie, genuinely terrifying. Watching this in the dark I began to hear things, and honestly, I was constantly on the verge of running through the house and turning on all the lights, but I was just so hypnotized by the proceedings on-screen that I just could not budge, even just a little. Bava's work is a textbook example of how to make a great horror film. The visuals alone are just a complete punch to the gut; there is an expressionistic bravura and deliberate artificiality to them that sci-fi films today just do not have. Love, love, love this one.