From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Queen of Blood released in 1966.
Starring:
John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Judi Meredith
Directed by:
Curtis Harrington
Genre:
Horror, Sci-Fi
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Rating:
Unrated
Budget:
N/A
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
5.3
The Synopsis is:
In 1990 aliens contact Earth but crash land on Mars. A team of astronauts are sent to rescue the aliens but their mission encounters a blood sucking queen alien.
Story:
This is actually the American remake and continuation of a film from the soviet union, A Dream Come True (Mechte navstrechu) released in 1963, written by Mikhail Karzhukov and Otar Koberidze.
The American & UK rights for this movie and many other impressive movies with fantastic special effects for the time from the Soviet Union were purchased by Roger Corman in the early 1960s in which he then recycled into the space related films he made during that era.
Corman then handed the screenplay and directing of the film to Curtis Harrington, who had just come off the heels of making a similar kind of horror film with Night Tide, starring Dennis Hopper.
The film follows the original film nearly exactly, even using the very same footage, until about the time that the alien is rescued and taken to the ship on Mars.
After that, the story gets darker and more original almost acting as a sequel to A Dream Come True.
Curtis Harrington used Queen of Blood as a base to create a compelling story about humanity’s scientific advancement versus our survival, much like Alien explored with it’s franchise later on after 1979. It is an unknown territory to explore that may lead to some kind of progress for humankind, but if the threat to humans is too great, can we and should we outright destroy that potential? It battles individual ethics and mindset which varies from person to person.
I enjoyed that depth versus the original movie, which I watched as well, a concept that ended up being incomplete and nothing more than a dream at the end. I know we are all so tired of movies that end like that.
Queen of Blood upgrades the idea, tackling a powerful topic.
Pacing:
At 1 hour and 18 minutes the beginning runs a little slow before you get to the alien woman and there are a few repetitive parts in order to prove the point that she is dangerous.
Challenge:
The challenge of this film is the Alien and the possible alien invasion under the guise of a friendly visit to Earth as an ambassador. What a clever ruse!
In the beginning there is a painting with possible visions of the Alien world and their existence. They look like plants which an astronaut later points out that the Alien’s green skin may be some kind of chloroform.
The Alien is estimated to be the Queen of her world sent on a mission to get to Earth and dispatch her eggs to take over the planet. I always wondered why she doesn’t hold off on eating the humans until she reaches Earth, but then it makes sense that she may have needed sustenance to hatch her eggs. Waiting to get to Earth may have been too late.
I loved the Queen and the mystery that surrounds her. What a fascinating character that never utters a word, but smiles at her victims revealing a perfect set of teeth ready for devouring her prey. A real man eater. The ultimate femme fatale reminiscent of the alien girl in Lifeforce released in 1985, hypnotizing her prey.
She’s fantastic.
Empathy:
The earthlings receive a message from space that an alien species is sending their ambassadors to earth in peace. The aliens crash land on one of Mars's moons so the earthlings send a team of astronauts to Mars to recover them on a ship called the Oceana.
The two characters with the most focus in the story is Laura James and her boyfriend, fellow astronaut Alan Brenner.
The other humans in the film are pretty much disposable, but characters that the film develop in such a way that you do feel some emotion when they meet their end.
I think that it is because many of them are in the mindset that they should preserve the Alien species to study which is kind of frustrating because you know that this will end in disaster.
The Queen's first victim is Paul, who is instantly entranced by her. Once he dies, Alan Brenner is the first one to say, “We ought to destroy her right now!” So immediately, I liked him for speaking for the audience.
Paul’s death is covered up by the officials back on Earth, so even after all of the events of this film, no one will know the true danger they’ve found.
The commander of the Oceana makes every excuse for the Queen and even suggests that they take turns donating blood for the creature to keep it alive.
The look on Laura’s face when he says that is priceless.
The commander is very rational about everything that has happened even the death of his comrade an makes excuses for every strange occurrence. It makes you wonder if the Queen has him under his spell.
You don’t really feel sorry for him when the Queen comes after him and he has the nerve to pull out a gun on her at that last moment! I didn’t feel empathy for him, but his character was developed enough to add him to the challenge of the film.
But we’ve got to talk about Laura James. Even though I wouldn’t call her the main character, she is the hero because she is the only one to be able to actually go toe to toe with the alien and win.
You could even say that she is a direct predecessor to Ripley from the Alien franchise. There are a lot of similarities between the two characters and the two movies.
Technical:
Besides the Queen and her creative costume design the best part of the film is its use of models and miniatures to create the exciting vision of an alien world, the Earth’s lunar base, and the many futuristic establishing shots.
These were all taken (uncredited) from the original movie A Dream Come True and just a few scenes from The Sky Calls released in 1959.
As I said before, these were films Roger Corman bought the rights to use. Many people seem to be upset about that, but you can see that the production went out of their way to match what they could of their own original footage and it is used cohesively in the film to tell the story.
Some of the effects a little outdated even for 1966, however, this is typical of low budget productions.
Another challenge for them is usually lighting, which was pretty awful in some scenes where shadows completely obstructed the actors faces. Then too there were some moments when the lighting or rather lack of it had brilliant strategic placement to create fear in a scene.
Another inexpensive manipulation were a few wild zoom ins to denote intensity in the scene. It worked for me, creating some drama within the film.
The original effects for the Queen’s attacks are not bad for 1966 using lots of simple practical effects.
The music is quite good, giving the film a very mysteriously other worldly feel when the aliens were on screen. There were also a few blood curdling stings when the film wanted us to be scared. Just lovely.
Lots of weird alien sound ques and slow moving suspense.
Performances:
Being a low budget film, there wasn’t much in the budget for a lot of time for the actors to spend during filming. Actor John Saxon said that his scenes were shot in about seven to eight days and some primary actors filmed for a day or two.
I pretty much enjoy everything I’ve seen John Saxon in because he has such a charismatic character in general. It was very easy to latch on to his character especially since he was one of the few written to make sense.
I just loved Judi Meredith as Laura James. She brought a very serious, but naturalistic instinct to the character that made her performance so refreshing.
Dennis Hopper plays Paul and his method of acting is a lot different than his later work… more understated, but still good. Maybe his performance was a little off because John Saxon said in an interview that Dennis "was trying very hard to keep a straight face” on set because of the way science fiction was viewed as a joke in society in the 1960’s.
Czech actress Florence Marly as the Alien Queen was an incredible performance even though she says nothing during the film. Her expressive facial expressions spoke for her character, making her mysterious character, yet strangely transparent.
The director had to fight Roger Corman to have her play the role "because she was an older woman” but he felt that “she had the required exotic quality that would work in the role." And he was right. She is exceptionally gorgeous and her look enhanced the mystique in the role.
Best:
The best parts of the film are the scenes taken from the original movie. Those visuals were excellent and had the budget to be wildly imaginative.
Next, the Queen and her compelling presence.
And one scene that really stands out to me is the Queen’s attack on the commander. That entire scene kept brewing into something really powerfully creepy and in it you can see may have influenced Alien released in 1979 in this movie, where the alien comes closer to attacking while the lights are blinking off and on.
And I’m not the only one who saw the similarities because Curtis Harrington himself said Ridley Scott’s “film is like a greatly enhanced, expensive and elaborate version of Queen of Blood". Another key point of interest is that both aliens lead their attack with their teeth. It is the focus of the fear.
The Ending:
I like the the fact that they did not set Laura up to be a damsel, but it is in fact she who gets the upper hand on the Queen of Blood. I also enjoyed the fact that the ending was not a happy one which left it open to your mind’s interpretation of what will happen next.
Wish List:
The saddest part is that the film gives away the best turn of the story by naming it Queen of Blood and putting a scary woman on the picture. I wish that there was more of a mystery. However, it makes up for it by making the Queen so dynamic in her scenes.
I also wish the film was a edited a little tighter, so those moments when you need the suspense to crawl on the screen, it makes an impact.
And there is one puzzling moment in the film that I wish had been cut out where there is supposed to be an astronaut carrying the Queen through the Martian storm, but for just a second there are two astronauts. At first I thought it was just a misdirection, but it turns out to be a mistake that was left in.
Enjoyment:
Based on the poster, I avoided this movie like the plague. It looked like it might have been a vampire movie which I am totally OK with, but I thought it would be a monster movie based on the way the Queen is drawn on the cover.
A few years ago, I just said what the heck, let's give it a chance and I was so impressed with this movie as I saw more of where they were going with the story. I loved the ideas presented in the film and how much charm it had for me.
I absolutely love this movie! It has clear B movie flaws but It’s so good, in that classic B movie way. Love, love, love this one.
My Rating:
7.9
That sums up my review. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
If you enjoy my content and want me to continue you can help at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/retronerdgirl
Follow Retro Nerd Girl on twitter: https://twitter.com/Retro_Nerd_Girl
Like Retro Nerd Girl on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/retronerdgirl
No comments:
Post a Comment