Queen of Blood (1966) User Reviews

A Bad Hair Day Come True

[Boris_Day · 5/10 · 2 January 2016]

Queen of Blood was a 60s Corman produced quickie which recycled elaborate special effects sequences from a Russian scifi epic about heroic space exploration and matched them with cheaply shot footage of a plot about a bloodsucking, green skinned female alien who was clearly the inspiration for the big haired Martian girl from Mars Attacks.

The plot is strikingly similar to Alien. The creature gets on board after the crew pick up an SOS signal from a faraway planet. She bumps off the crew one by one but they are reluctant to kill her at first because they have been ordered to bring an alien life form back to earth. She even has an elongated head and lays eggs.

I caught the original Russian film called "A Dream Come True" at London's BFI a few years ago and it looked gorgeous, but its conflict free high-mindedness and lack of drama made it a bit of a snooze. I was hoping to get the beauty of the Russian film with something more trashily entertaining, but the Russian sequences (shot in 4:3) have been heavily cropped at top and bottom and reprinted on grainy stock, which pretty much ruins them.

The main thing to commend about the US film is Florence Marly, the actress who plays the alien. She does a good job at being strange and otherworldly, aided by some clever lighting. Otherwise this lacks the visual ingenuity of Mario Bava's similar "Planet of the Vampires", which also has close similarities to Alien and which creates a ravishingly beautiful alien planet with limited resources and the ingenious use of special effects (literally smoke and mirrors).

The film features Dennis Hopper in an early career high as an alien snack.

"Is there a difference between blood and a rare beef steak?"

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 13 June 2022]

To be commended for casting a middle-aged woman as a seductive lady vampire; I would have love to have been a fly on the wall when Curtis Harrington told Florence Marly she was perfect for the part. With even less screen time than Max Schreck in 'Nosferatu' she's as memorably evil but infinitely more alluring.

Sensational special effects

[julianbristow · 5 July 2002]

"Queen of Blood" is also known as "Planet of Blood". It was released by American International around 1966.Reguardless of it's low budget,it is a combination of science fiction and horror, with more attention being paid to it's sci-fi side.Cult movie fans should notice that it is actually a foreign movie bought by American International and reworked for american audiences.Curtis Harrington(writer and director)did a fine job on the film. John Saxon would later star in "Planet Earth", a film that closely resembles this movie.I wouldn't be surprized if Gene Roddenberry saw this thriller and hired John Saxon to star in "Planet Earth".If you get the chance, watch this movie, it's pretty good.

Low-budget space opera about an alien ship crash lands on Mars, and a rescue team is sent from Earth.

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 15 September 2020]

It's the year 1990 and scientific receive a distress call , a SOS , from an alien spaceship . As a ball contains a videolog of the events that caused their ship to crashland on Mars . After the crash-landed on Mars , Dr Farraday (Basil Rathbone) decides to send out a team of astronauts , including Allan Brenner (John Saxon) , Paul Grant (Dennis Hopper), Laura James (Judi Meredith) , among others, on a rescue mission. On the planet, they discover just one survivor , this is a green-skinned alien woman that is brought aboard, a peculiar vampire whom they call 'the Queen' and they decide to keep her under observation . The spaceship is ordered to bring back the alien creature . As the crew takes special care of her on the trip back to Earth but she is brought back with disastrous results , as at the end an astronaut is holding some alien eggs . New highs in blood chilling horror ! Hideous beyond belief...with an inhuman craving ¡

It's a formula terror space film with tension , thrills , chills, including some elaborate scares , twists , and results to be entertaining enough . This nifty sci-fi/horror has a thrilling plot , if simple and ordinary , similar to subsequent Sci-Fi- movies , as alien species makes contact with Earth through radio transmission, notifying of an imminent visit , a rescue team goes Mars and discover a strange extraterrestrial , but when one man is attacked and drained of his blood, the survivors are soon racing home , before they too become victim to the bloodsucker . At the beginning shows up some colorful paintings belonging to the artistry of John Douglas Cline, a popular artist in the 1960, forerunner of the Phoenix Art Group, and he founded the John Douglas Cline Gallery in Los Angeles. If you've ever seen the soviet film Niebo Zowiet don't be surprised if some scenes look familiar , the script was written around segments cut from that film . This was an ultra low budget production with decent special effects taken from two big budget Soviet productions , Encounter in space (1963), and Battle Beyond the Sun (1959), though Harrington estimated that most of the film was his. Producers Roger Corman and his brother Gene Corman made a similar operation, as economic as rip-off from a Russian film , with ¨Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet¨also starred by Basil Rathbone . And being released on a double-bill by AIP along with other B-Science Fiction pictures . Acceptable main and support cast , such as : the recently deceased John Saxon , the beautiful Judi Meredith , the great Sherlock's Basil Rathbone and the Czech actress Florence Marly as the beguiling green-skinned woman who was a personal friend of filmmaker Harrington. In the final shot, a cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman, at the time, Ackerman was the editor of the magazine "Famous Monsters¨. Queen of Blood has most often been compared to ¨Lifeforce¨ (1985) by Tobe Hooper and many films have received some inspiration from his feature ¨Queen of Blood¨, as the expensive ¨Alien¨ (1979) by Ridley Scott . Other movies that have been likened to Queen of Blood include ¨The Thing from Another World¨ (1951) by Christian Niby , ¨It! The Terror from Beyond Space¨(1958) by Edward L. Cahn , ¨Terrore nello spazio or Planet of vampires¨ (1965) by Mario Bava and other quickies or sequels as ¨Forbidden world¨(1981) by Allan Holzman or ¨Galaxy of Terror¨(1985) by Bruce Clark . The picture was regular but professionally directed by Curtis Harrington , and it was shot in seven to eight days . Harrington was a good craftsman in B-territory . In 1961 he made a strong and impressive feature-film debut with the nicely moody and quirky Night tide (1961) with Dennis Hooper. His follow-up features were a pleasingly diverse , idiosyncratic and often entertaining bunch , and included the delightfully campy Shelley Winters vehicles as Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) , What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) ,the perverse The Killing Kind (1973) and the immensely fun Ruby (1977). Moreover , Harrington directed a handful of solid and satisfying made-for-TV offerings: The cat (1973), Killer bees (1974), The Dead Don't Die (1975) and the terror animal Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) , as well as TV episodes from The Twilight Zone, The Colby , Dynasty , Wonder woman , Hotel , among others .

Saxon vs an alien

[Bezenby · 6/10 · 30 January 2013]

Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper and John Saxon star in this piecemeal sci-fi horror using a ton of great special effects from some Russian film, as far as I've read somewhere anyway. That doesn't detract from the fact that the special effects are great for their time, and really groovy to boot. In fact, things only slow down a bit when we get to the actual story line.

Some aliens announce that they'll be dropping by Earth for a visit and perhaps a pint or too, but their ship crashes on Mars. Rathbone, being the head honcho, dispatches Hopper and a crew to go and find any survivors. They don't find any, but a follow up ship containing Saxon lands on Mars' moon Phobos and finds a female survivor. He leaves his buddy behind and takes a rescue ship over to Mars, where he joins up with the rest of the crew, who then set off home with their green skinned, creepy looking cargo.

This alien, with her beehive hairdo, evil grin, and green skin, is rather creepy to begin with, but when her eyes start glowing and she chows down on a crew member things take off. It's scientific research (the Captain's wishes to keep feeding the alien blood so they can get her back to Earth to study) versus common sense (Saxon just wants to destroy the thing, and quite rightly too). What will prevail? And what will the survivors do with the surprises that the aliens left on the ship?

Keep in mind: This film is PG, and made in the sixties, so don't go expecting Alien. The first half is full of those funky special effects from that other film, and the latter half, although not as fun, still has that creepy, silent alien prowling around. Dennis Hopper looks to be still in his teens and John Saxon gets to say lines like "I've only got paper moon money". What more do you want?

Okay, gore and nudity, but what else?

Dated...It does not hold up well under time

[jimwt66 · 5/10 · 13 May 2022]

While the acting was fine the effects were cheesy even for the time period I believe. It doesn't make sense that an intellectual vampire would kill the crew driving the ship back to Earth. At most it would take just what it needed because after one death she might have been ejected into space.

The vampire having heat vision was a little over the top also. You would think that after the vamp killed the first one they would have tied her down with something more than rope since they had no idea of her strength AND locked her inside a compartment. They also mentioned that one of the crew members that was stranded could make their emergency rations last 7 days till another ship rescued them and yet the trip back seemed to take more than 7 days.

Overall, it is an OK movie if you don't mind old horror without the special effects and gore. At most you see some blood spilled on the floor and a little on the person.

Terrific Visuals

[Space_Mafune · 7/10 · 19 April 2003]

The thing that really stands out in this film is the visual style which was largely borrowed from a Russian Science Fiction classic. I'd really love to see that film.

Of course the rest remains a lot of fun to watch as a young John Saxon and Dennis Hopper take flight to Mars and although it's paced a little too slowly, I still get a kick out of this movie especially the scene where the Alien Queen first sees Laura James. A likely inspiration for LIFEFORCE and possibly even ALIEN (although NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST , IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES are other contenders).

I get the feeling at the end of this that a further ending was originally planned given all the hints Saxon was dropping about the Earth's light on his face.

Aliens reproduce different from us

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 19 February 2017]

Cheap and shoddy though it is I have to say that Queen Of Blood has one interesting story line and as such is a bit better than some of Roger Corman's effort.

It's always fascinating to me how inevitably the science fiction films get it wrong via time. Made in 1966 Queen Of Blood has us beginning interplanetary expeditions in 1990. We've gone beyond Pluto but not with anyone human on board.

In any event Judi Meredith has been monitoring signals from space for years and now someone is responding to her. It's a distress call from a ship that has landed on Mars. Astronauts John Saxon and Don Eitner are sent and they find Florence Marly a beautiful alien queen with an appetite for human blood or any blood will do.

Of course that's far from the end of it and the alien reproduction is nothing like earth humans do it.

Basil Rathbone is in this as the head scientist and for someone who did classic roles in his prime like Tybalt and Sherlock Holmes he looks a bit pained to be working here. But the man was a pro.

The ending is original and shocking which is why you should see Queen Of Blood.

"What are we supposed to do, take turns playing dinner for her?"

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 17 November 2011]

"Queen of Blood", a.k.a. "Planet of Blood", is a reasonably enjoyable low budget science fiction picture, executive produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Curtis Harrington ("Night Tide", "The Killing Kind", "Ruby"), who uses a fair amount of footage from two big budget Soviet productions, "Mechte Navstrechu" and "Nebo Zovyot", and writes his own story around it.

In 1990, mankind makes contact with aliens who crash land on one of Mars' moons. A sole survivor is brought on board the humans' spaceship, yet she's decidedly deadly: a seductive blood sucker with green skin, a nice tall head of hair, and frightening eyes and smile. Ever engaging John Saxon is young hero Allan Brenner, pretty Judi Meredith his love interest Laura James. Basil Rathbone, in one of his final movie roles, is great fun as the exuberant Dr. Farraday. Dennis Hopper, who'd acted for Harrington in "Night Tide", is well meaning astronaut Paul Grant. Robert Boon as Anders Brockman and Don Eitner as Tony Barrata offer fine support, with a small role for none other than Forrest J. Ackerman as Farraday's aide.

While the movie is ultimately a little too slow and talky for its own good, Harrington and a capable crew give this amusing B picture a pretty good look, doing appreciable things in terms of colour. It gets off to a nice start, with the opening credits slowly playing out over paintings by John Cline, and accompanied by eerie stock music composed by Ronald Stein (who's billed as Leonard Morand).

All things considered, there are some effectively creepy moments to appreciate in "Queen of Blood", especially in the second half. Among the crew are Stephanie Rothman, director of drive-in flicks like "The Velvet Vampire" and "Terminal Island", as the associate producer, and Gary Kurtz, future producer of "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back", as the production manager. Best of all is the performance of Czech born actress Florence Marly in the title role, who has an incredible presence and makes a Hell of an impact without having to utter a word. The ending is also an interesting combination of being both somewhat happy and yet full of doubt, with a wary attitude towards the ways of scientists. Fans of the genre should find this an acceptable diversion.

Seven out of 10.

Psychodelic crap

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 27 January 2007]

Who says all the bad sci-fi movies were made in the 1950s? This film is proof that bad sci-fi knows no one decade! While this is not among the worst sci-fi films I have seen, it is pretty poor. The movie is actually a cheap attempt to recycle a Russian movie by slapping on segments of American-made film to create one coherent(?) story. So, most of the long shots are from the original film and the dialog sequences are new. Because of this, the film has a very odd tempo--with quite a few scenes that are static long-distance shots that seem to go on way too long. The American scenes are also, at times, pretty poorly done--featuring mostly low-budget actors (such as Basil Rathbone--who in the late 50s and 60s would appear in ANYTHING). The film also tries to skimp on production values (in particular, sets) by using bright green and red lights to practically blind the viewer into not noticing the cheapness of the film. The result, to put it bluntly, is "psychodelic crap".

The plot is about a rescue effort mounted in the future (the 1990s). Earth is sending a ship to rescue aliens who crashed on Mars. Unfortunately, instead of being grateful, the sole alien survivor sees the male crew as a potential buffet--drinking the blood of most of them before they reach Earth. About the only thing interesting about this is seeing this evil space queen all painted up in green. Otherwise, it's all a big snooze. Not a terrible movie,...but almost terrible.

Thumbing a ride to Earth.

[lost-in-limbo · 8/10 · 30 September 2006]

It's 1990 and earth has finally made its first contact with extraterrestrials on Mars. Which they have told earth through radio waves that they actually plan to visit earth. Although something goes wrong in their attempt and an expedition is sent to Mars to find any survivors. In which case they discover a green skinned lady. On their trip back the crew encounter that their new passenger has a deadly fixation for blood.

"Planet of Blood" is a cheap little hybrid picture by director / writer Curtis Harrington. He turns in one very solid Sci-fi / horror yarn which is held together by capable performances from John Saxon and Dennis Hopper and some strikingly eerie visuals that go a long way in plastering the film with an atmospherically moody embrace. The haunting story is quite languid, but keeps things rather firm and planted throughout the material are a few surprises and neat touches. The astute plot is quite original and has a variation that would go on to influence (with such others like "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" and Bava's "Planet of the Vampires") the masterpiece "Alien". Some might find the pacing quite slow going and a jargon packed script terribly chatty, but I found it more often interesting with the questions that are raised than boring. If action and mayhem is what you want, it doesn't really kick into gear until the final 30 minutes, where it ends on a surprising final note.

The production looks quite colourful with suited special effects (from a Russian sci-fi flick) that simply does the job. Visually, there are some wondrous lighting compositions and cardboard sets sprayed with a vibrant colour scheme. An otherworldly music score builds up some rustling tunes that rattle along. Harrington's direction is commendably focused and stylishly tailored. Performances are good with the likes of Basil Rathbone, Judi Merdith and Florence Marley as the mysteriously hypnotic and silent alien woman. Watch out for her "Look into my eyes" sequences. John Saxon chimes in with his usual impressive performance and a young Dennis Hopper is sound. Also Forrest J. Ackerman makes a minor mark in the last minute of the flick.

For it's budget, it's a well-presented and exceedingly slow burn premise with a sterling cast.

A beehive under a Gothic dome

[Kingkitsch · 7/10 · 26 August 2014]

"Queen of Blood" is one strange drive-in movie from the forgotten mid- 60s, when rubes in late-model cars flocked to the local outdoor movie palace in exotic locales throughout the Midwest. One of those rubes was myself. I never forgot this odd movie, which was unlike anything else I'd seen splashed over a screen bordered by Ohio cornfields.

Now that QOB is available on DVD, a revisit is definitely in order for all lovers of esoteric sci-fi. QOB debuted in 1966, one year after AIP's "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet". Both films were directed by Curtis Harrington. Viewing both in chronological order, it's apparent that they were both made at the same time and released a year apart. Both are paste-up films utilizing obscure Russian sci-fi intercut with American inserts. Both share the same artist's paintings under the opening titles. Both share exactly the same American sets and poor Basil Rathbone late in his illustrious career playing two different super scientists with different names wandering around the same cheap sets made of cardboard and aluminum foil. His peering out the round porthole window onto some alien landscape painting does not change between movies. As for leading ladies, "Planet" features fading beauty Faith Domergue ("This Island Earth") in a Nembutal-laced performance, "Queen" features Judi Meredith who was scant years away from "Jack the Giant Killer" where she starred with Kerwin Mathews in a complete and terrible rip-off of Harryhausen's "7th Voyage of Sinbad".

QOB is the superior movie, however much things on screen stayed the same. Questionably, QOB is one of the many precursors to Ridley Scott's "Alien", which in itself was a complete pastiche of other sci-fi epics of the 50s and 60s fueled by a huge budget and better effects. QOB features cult favorites John Saxon, and soon to become "Easy Rider" counter-culture icon Dennis Hopper playing dinner victim with creepy Florence Marley, the titular Queen of Blood. Marley's space vampire is pretty unforgettable, mute with glowing eyes while sporting a white beehive hairdo under a bizarre Gothic cathedral of a space helmet. The movie is by turns psychedelic, moody, claustrophobic, and surprisingly scary in places. Also briefly seen in the last moments of QOB is Famous Monsters magazine editor Forrest Ackerman, hauling around Marley's eggs which will probably spell disaster for Earth when they hatch.

Audio fans will recognize some strange mash-ups here, sound effects lifted from and blending both "Forbidden Planet" (1956) and "War of the Worlds" (1953). AIP pictures were shameless in appropriation, which is part of their legend. Director Harrington did better his second time out for AIP, giving QOB a shady charm that's hard to pinpoint. Not easy to forget, it's certainly worth a look for aficionados.

Oddly Engaging

[pro_crustes · 5/10 · 23 June 2004]

This is yet another of the several sf films of its era that incorporate footage from Soviet movies. As a result, a couple of the more striking visuals--involving some of those wonderful revolutionary communist statues--are due to the claimed ideals of the USSR.

The movie starts out at "Space Institute," a place with a delightfully generic name, and one that all space junkies and sf-movie nerds would like to attend. Basil Rathbone lords over Space Inst., and makes some arrogantly lofty decisions about when and to whom a major discovery will be announced. It's all very Republican, in something of the same way that feel pervaded parts of "Star Trek VI." That's kind of funny, too, since it's also subliminally communist (as a result of all the borrowed shots).

The story is bland, although good enough to enjoy if you like old sf movies. The real fun, though, is in the idea that, not too far in the future, there would be a shining center for space research; that its staff and leaders would be structured something like a mix of a school, a city, and a government; that it would be launching ships to Mars with fanfare, but also with confidence; that it would all be in a world with no bothersome concerns on the side, like terrorists or poverty.

Well, maybe someday still...

Psychedelic Alien Fun

[BaronBl00d · 22 July 2001]

Sometime in the 1990's I believe, the Earth has sent many ships to space and is awaiting the arrival of an alien to Earth after sending various stress signals. A crew of three astronauts(including a young Dennis Hopper and Judi Meredith)go to their planet when some kind of problem arises. It seems this race is dead or dying, and the scientists on Earth want to explore their culture and, unbeknownst to them, their anatomy. Another expedition is needed to go after the first with two more astronauts led by John Saxon. In control at home is Doctor Farraday, played with enthusiasm by Basil Rathbone. What the astronauts find on this dying planet(actually one of its moons) is a creature that is horrific yet strangely sexually hypnotic. The creature is in definite female form wearing what has to be one heck of a tight body suit that shows every...and I mean every curve, peak, and valley. Florence Marley plays this vision of beautiful horror. Her face is green and her hair rises up like some kind of testy beehive. She says nothing but acts with her face and facial movements. One side note about this alien presence. It feeds on blood. Well, you can guess what happens to sundry members of the crew as she/it vampirizes them. The innovative part of the script is that most of the people in charge are more concerned with saving the "beast" for the acquisition of knowledge rather than the, in many cases their own, preservation of life. This is definitely something laced throughout the Alien movies. Queen of Blood is a very innovative film that uses some insightful direction from Curtis Harrington with what looks like an obviously small budget. Harrington used clips from a Russian scinece fiction film to show the rockets and other large scale sets. But despite its small budget, Harrington manages to create a film that is haunting, eerie, and strangely beautiful, not to mention adding some good scares and some thought-provoking questions about science and its ends. He uses colors most inventively...blue, red, green hues all over. The acting is adequate. Its fun to see Mr. Rathbone, although he looks very tired and old. Mr. Sci-Fi himself, Forry Ackerman, has a bit part and oddly enough the best scene in the film at the end...a real unexpected climax. Be sure to give Queen of Blood a try...the first half or so is somewhat boring and slow, but it does pick up and I think is an excellent foray in the world of intelligent sci-fi.

Could Justify a Modern Remake

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 4 April 2013]

Produced in 1966 this movie is supposed to take place in the future when space travel is more advanced than it is today. So, when a communication is received by an alien race requesting a meeting the earth is only too happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the alien spacecraft crash lands on Mars and so an Earth spaceship is sent on a rescue mission. They eventually find a female alien and head back to earth with her as a passenger. What they don't realize is that she feeds on blood. At any rate, since I have a softness for films made during this period, I found this movie to be somewhat entertaining even though I suspect that other viewers may not like it so much. For starters, some people may feel that the special effects were elementary by today's standards. And they would be correct. So, some people may have to make allowances. Likewise, I believe that there were some portions of the film that were unnecessary and could have been written out of the film all together. For example, I don't believe that two additional rescue spaceships (one alien and one human) needed to be included. Same thing with the time spent showing the rocket ships in space. But that is just my opinion. Still, it was an interesting film and I believe that this is one of those rare movies that could justify a modern remake.

Yankee "Planet of the Vampires" Trip Movie With Class

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 7 October 2005]

Excellent ALIEN precursor is yet another take on the PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES school of post Eisenhower sci-fi that always tells the tale of a humanoid space crew who follows an eerie, alien signal to a mysterious world shrouded in storms where they encounter an Alien life form that invariably tags along for a ride home. IT! TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE is the earliest example of the story I can think of, Antonio Margheriti had a go at the idea in his GAMMA ONE QUADROLIGY films (all of them have hintings of the story cycle in one form or another), then Mario Bava made his stunning 1965 film, a movie so ahead of it's time that even now it doesn't suffer from age.

QUEEN OF BLOOD does, but in a good old nostalgic kind of way, rather than just being klunky and old fashioned like IT! Like Margheriti's neato flicks with their model space ships and Captain Video space corps, QUEEN OF BLOOD has a visual appeal to it that is decidedly different than Bava's arty, swirling hallucination. John Saxon and Dennis Hopper play two of the crew of a human ship sent in the year 1990 (yep! just 24 years ahead of when it was made, an optimistic idea if ever) to look for survivors of an Alien mission to Earth which crashed on Mars. Basil Rathbone is sharp and enunciates with his usual flair as the lead scientist of the Earth Space Corps Interplanetary division, or whatever, who directs the mission from a control panel on an auxiliary stage. He also lends credibility and class to what is really a cobbled together production combining footage from at least TWO Russian made sci fi epics from the early 1960's with some low budget but strikingly effective film shot on real world locations or soundstages that re-define the Russian footage to tell this story.

And while it may sound confusing the end result is almost seamless, not so much padding out the American film so much as serving as the framework upon which the story is woven. The film has a very rich feel for color and texture, especially with how the planet side footage works during the big rescue scenes. It is ten times more effective than the modern day budgeted recent efforts like RED PLANET and MISSION TO MARS in making the viewer feel like they are on a different world and not just watching actors in suits in front of a blue screen. The crew find a survivor, it's a she, she has an amazing bod & interesting lips, and eventually she starts draining the blood of the crew during their trip home for reasons that are never really explained. By the time they get home though, she has died after apparently spawning a Jello Egg Mould Delight complete with gross, giggly little somethings that are promptly scooped up by the military scientists upon landing on Earth. Dan O'Bannon has never cited this film as one of his influences, but he must have seen it and drew upon what he saw for his ALIEN script, eventually.

The film also sets or reinforces some important story conventions that became staples of the ALIEN litany: The mixed gender crew, the importance of mealtimes (as always to be consumed off modular looking trays with oddly shaped utensils that look like dentistry tools), and the inhospitable nature of space as the crew don their pressure suits to conserve resources or suffocate. There is a burial at space, an emergency landing, a sequence involving a ship's log, specialized medical technology and a space ship that becomes a haunted house. Saxon and Hopper are excellent, Richard Boone comes off well as the captain of the ill fated mission, but the real star of the film is probably the combination of the Russian and American footage -- a bizarre sort of social accommodation for 1966 to say the least. It's also relatively short (83 minutes or so) and half over before you know it.

One curious link to later films involving the ALIEN litany are the green giggly Jello eggs -- Luigi Cozzi must have been thinking about them when he made his splatter extravaganza ALIEN CONTAMINATION, which also has nasty, viscous spewing green pod things that spit death. It's sort of nice to imagine one as the evolution of the other, though fans of model and costume 1960s sci-fi might find Cozzi's zest for slime a bit heady. You can find that QUEEN OF BLOOD DVD through amazon.co.uk, look for a seller who will ship to the US but make sure you have a machine that will run their DVDs. It's worth it, and you won't wear out the VHS wheels on a precious old rental tape by playing it over and over and over again.

7/10. Excellent, actually!!

The green woman sucks Dennis Hopper dry

[macabro357 · 4/10 · 23 September 2003]

(aka: PLANET OF BLOOD)

Wow, I remember this from late night TV back in the 70s, only it was with a grainy print that was continually interrupted by commercials. This is strictly a low budget AIP affair using lots of stock footage from Russian science fiction films from the early 1960s.

An alien ship that has crash landed on Mars sends out an SOS to earth for help. Two rocket ships take off from the Earth's moon and head there only to find one dead alien body and a female alien with green skin and silver pointed hair that makes her look like something out of the old Star Trek TV show. She doesn't speak. Not one word. However she does feast on human blood.

The first one she kills is a young clean-cut Dennis Hopper. She sucks him bone dry of all his blood. The rocket ship team then feed her blood plasma in order to keep her satisfied from killing any of the others, even though the head pilot (John Saxon) objects and wants her destroyed. When they run out of plasma before they get back to Earth, she kills the commander by hypnotizing him and then draining his blood.

After Judith Meredith again talks Saxon out of killing her, he ties her up but she burns through the rope with those hypnotic eyes of hers and almost kills Saxon in his sleep. Meredith walks in on this and in the ensuing fight, scratches the alien woman thereby killing her. She drips green blood all over the floor. It seems this alien race are a bunch of hemophiliacs and can die from the slightest of injuries.

But that's not all. She also laid green eggs all throughout the ship that look like pink balloons covered in green jell-o. (laughs)

After they land back on Earth, Saxon wants them destroyed because they're dangerous, but head scientist Basil Rathbone refuses and wants them kept for study. It's amusing watching Forrest Ackerman carrying them on a silver tray when they take them off the ship. It looks like he's carrying dinner. (laughs)

The rocket ship interior is low budget enough and so long as you don't take it too seriously. It's a good way to pass the time if you want to check out the more obscure, cheesy sci-fi from the 60s.

4 out of 10

Impressive B Sci-Fi

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 21 September 2018]

Remember seeing this at the theater, most of it. With the chance to see the complete film, found myself pretty impressed. Quite a bit to offer for a B feature. A real young Dennis Hopper and some neat, but cheap, special effects. Earth has finally received contact from outer space; in 1990 radio waves from aliens inform us to expect visitors, but the spacecraft crashes on Mars. Many nations send rescue craft to search for survivors. A U.S. crew finds a lonely green skinned female survivor, with a strange fixation...deadly fixation.

This film is directed and co-written by Curtis Harrington and along with Hopper, starts John Saxon, Basil Rathbone and Judi Meredith. The Green Woman is seductively played by Florence Marly.

cheese factor

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 14 February 2023]

The year is 1990. Space travel has been conquered. Laura James (Judi Meredith) discovers an extraterrestrial transmission. Dr. Farraday (Basil Rathbone) deciphers it to be from another civilization and they are sending an ambassador. The alien ship from another galaxy crashes upon Mars. Earth sends a rescue mission where they find a mysterious woman.

There are a couple of familiar faces in Dennis Hopper and John Saxon. It's a bad B-movie. It's pure 50's sci-fi B-movie. It's very slow moving and the story telling is a bit muddled. The Vampire Queen needs to move faster. The Jello-eggs do look creepy. The cheese factor is very high in this one.

Great cast in a cheesy sixties sci-fi

[The_Void · 6/10 · 23 June 2008]

Queen of Blood is a low budget sci-fi flick that is often seen as an inspiration for the classic 'Alien'. Whether or not the film was an influence I don't know; although the two films do share some similarities. The film actually reminded me of a sub-par episode of Star Trek; yet in spite of that, there are some good ideas on display here and for what it's worth (which admittedly isn't much), Queen of Blood is not a bad little sci-fi flick. The film has an obvious low budget which is a hindrance but it overcomes this with an interesting plot line. The film takes place in the future (actually 1990) and follows a plot that starts with scientists receiving a distress call from a space ship that crash landed on Mars. Naturally they decide to send another team in on a rescue mission and when they arrive they discover only a single survivor - a green skinned female alien! They decide to bring her aboard the ship and after trying to help and talk to her, they find their efforts to be abortive. The alien's actual intention is revealed when she begins drinking the blood of the crew.

It's actually a shame that this film wasn't better as it features a mouth watering cult cast! John Saxon is excellent as always in the lead role and he receives good support from the likes of an aging Basil Rathbone and a young Dennis Hopper. Queen of Blood is clearly not an actor's film, but it's still nice to see these actors on screen together. The budget impacts most on the special effects and we're treated to some shocking space scenes, as well as an alien that is just a woman painted green. The film fails at delivering anything that looks even remotely futuristic and that does distract from the plot line more than just a little bit. The film is apparently put together from a couple of different sources and that would make sense as the plotting is often uneven and sometimes doesn't make a great deal of sense. Still, it would be silly to go into a film like this expecting a masterpiece; and even though I generally don't like low budget sci-fi, I was still mostly happy with what I got. Overall; this is not a must see film, but it's decent enough and I can recommend it.

You don't watch this movie...You step in it!

[neeleyfrn-51816 · 5/10 · 8 March 2022]

After seeing this, I had the sudden urge to check the bottom of my shoes.

Visually appealing, but the story is very anti-climactic... Or the budget just ran out?

Surprisingly Cohesive Outer Space Classic

[Rabh17 · 9/10 · 12 September 2010]

Remember-- this was 1966! No Computers. No CGI. EVERYTHING done by hand.

And for those of you who were old enough to see this on TV-- I say watch it again-- WHY? Because you very likely saw it in Black & White. And you saw it in the old square ratio TV-tube ratio. And probably worse-- you may have seen a video store VHStape repro with all the washed out colors, scratchy, jittery juddering that came with a haphazard transfer.

This movie was a true Screen production. And I recently streamed a clean video reproduction of this gem via Netflix to my Flatscreen and I was amazed at the quality of the entire show and taken in by the Movie itself.

One-- it's an ironic chuckle to see a movie purporting to be 30 years into the future- 1990! on my Flatscreen via the Internet.

Two- It's a Monster Movie. What Movie from the Age of Outer Space doesn't have One? And like all Monsters we know and love-- this one likes and prefers Blood. . .But Doesn't like unattached girlfriends.

The setup and the story is very cohesive. The science isn't too wild and doesn't have too much hand-wavium. This movies was intended as a SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC outer space entre to the screen. So excuse the fact that they travel to Mars inside of a few days instead of MONTHS, or the fact that they've intercepted a signal ". . .within our Galaxy, but from outside our solar system. . ."

The scenes from the alien planet are cool and definitely otherworldly. And the depiction of Mars is actually pretty realistic, considering what they knew back then.

And the 'Monster'. She's worth watching. She's acting totally and only with her glowing white eyes, Her writhing red lips and her white, white teeth. And she is enjoying herself! When I first saw this when I was kid, I thought I heard a scary bee-like buzzing whenever they focused on her lips-- but I guess that was a vacuum tube inside the TV Set and not the movie (Yes, That's how OLD I am!)

Pluses:

Woman are portrayed as Levelheaded and intelligent, though seems that the world of the future was only populated by Platinum Blondes.

It's a story about meeting an alien culture, albeit a bloodthirsty one. So it makes sense that after you find that your alien guest sleeping peacefully in her bunk with a delightful dab of blood on the corner of her lip after gorging on one of your crewmembers-- the scientist of the group talks about donating blood in shifts to keep her satisfied. And of course, you know that HE will be Next!

For the Nerds in us, they actually gave a nod to interplanetary travel restrictions on Time and Fuel. (despite the fact that the alien rocket crossed interstellar space in a matter of days-- but hey, they were a race of advanced Plant Vampires with Laser heat Vision! They're allowed to break the laws of physics)

Bring your friends over and watch this one after Midnight with chips and dip.

Queen of Blood (1966

[Arwen1957 · 7/10 · 18 May 2007]

I found this movie to be disturbingly good. I only saw it once but have never forgotten it. I enjoyed watch this movie build to it's obvious conclusion. For those who are not a part of the misguided in the name of knowledge movies. This movie may seem silly and pointless. But to those of us in that group the movie is a great way to remember all of those movies that were so bad that they are good. The costumes of the vampire alien are so campy that they have to be seen to be believed. And her hairstyle has to be seen just for the laughs it will bring. All in all one of those movie that should be seen just for the sake of camp.

Casual feeling sinks this

[Wizard-8 · 4/10 · 23 March 2019]

I had wanted to see this movie for many years, but I couldn't find it anywhere on video or on television. But the other night, it was broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, and I finally got to see it. Was it worth the wait? No, not really. True, there is fun to see Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, and John Saxon together in the same movie. The special effects that were taken from a Soviet science fiction movie do look pretty good. And I will admit that the movie does have at times an effective moody feel and atmosphere. But the story moves at an absolute crawl despite the running time only being around 81 minutes. The padding of the movie is obvious and excessive. The characters in the movie don't find themselves in real danger until more than two-thirds of the movie has passed. And while I do realize that the movie was made in 1966 - a more naïve time period - some of the actions and opinions of the characters seem really stupid and unbelievable. People with great interest in low budget genre movies of this period might get more enjoyment out of the movie than I did. But even then, I don't think the movie could be labelled as an absolute must-see.