Queen of Blood (1966)** 1/2 (out of 4) Earth finally manages to make contact with an alien form but that form crashes on Mars so astronauts are sent to try and rescue any survivors. Allan Brenner (John Saxon) and Laura James (Judi Meredith) both have different opinions on the mission but soon they are fighting for their lives when the Queen alien (Florence Marly) turns out to be a vampire.QUEEN OF BLOOD isn't your average horror film. If you're familiar with Curtis Harrington then you know he liked to go more towards the art house than the drive-in. His feature film NIGHT TIDE is one of the strangest horror movies that you'll ever see and QUEEN OF BLOOD is just as weird on many levels. I know a lot of people praise Mario Bava for PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES and how he managed to turn a low-budget into a great looking production. I think Harrington really deserves the same credit because this movie certainly looks wonderful even if the film itself isn't a complete success.What does work here are the terrific visuals. You've got the budget of your typical low-budget nature but Harrington makes sure you can't tell that by looking at the picture. I really loved the use of color throughout the film and especially the glowing reds. The colors certainly leap off the screen and manage to grab and hold your attention. Another plus is that we've got an excellent villain in the female vampire. I really loved her look with the green colors and there were some great scenes with the red blood just dripping from her that was quite effective.Another plus is that we've got a good cast with both Saxon and Meredith doing a nice job with the lead roles. Marly is also quite good in the role of the vampire and we've got Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper in small roles. The film certainly does have some flaws including its story, which is rather unoriginal and there's no question that the psychedelic nature doesn't always work in regards to its story. Still, QUEEN OF BLOOD is an interesting picture visually and certainly worth watching.

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.

Take Dennis Hopper, give him a leading role, and hand hi ma script written by Curtis Harrington. Then allow Harrington to direct said picture. What do you get? "Night Tide", one of the single greatest horror films in movie history. However, if you do the same thing, put it in space and throw in a green-skinned alien, you have "Queen of Blood".Let's be fair. It's a 1960s b-movie with no budget and recycled images from a Russian film. If you have to steal from Russia to make your movie, that's a sign right there that you're in trouble. But, accounting for the low budget, and ignoring this, it's not actually a bad film. I mean, compare Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires". Bava is by far a bigger name than Harrington... but I would say "Queen of Blood" is the better film.And the plot, really, is not that bad. Some have said they see the beginnings of "Alien" in this one. Of course, many films have been said to be precursors (including "Dark Star") so I don't believe much of that unless I hear it from the creators themselves (and Dan O'Bannon is sadly passed).

I remember this film as a kid, and thought it was kind of scary. the images that stuck in my mind were the alien babe, but she is introduced late in the movie and isn't actually all that interesting.The movie spends a lot of time like most conventional 50's and 60's Science Fiction, being too fixated on "Wow, we are in space". And while I'm sure people at the time were quite impressed, it had the usual fixtures of period Sci-Fi - Spaceships with office furniture, laughable technology like guages with needles and reel to reel tape recorders, female astronauts being treated like secretaries, and so on.The notion is that some astronauts go to Mars to meet up with an extraterrestrial spacecraft and find its lone survivor, a hot alien babe in a skin-tight suit. She also happens to be a vampire, and proceeds to suck the blood out of Dennis Hopper and some other guy who didn't go on to have a better career. Least intimidating movie monster ever, she gets killed by a scratch in a cat fight.