Queen of Blood

This article is about the 1966 film. For the 2014 film by the same name, see Queen of Blood (2014 film).

Queen of Blood
Theatrical release insert poster
Directed byCurtis Harrington
Screenplay byCurtis Harrington
Based onstory A Dream Come True
by Mikhail Karyukov
Otar Koberidze
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyVilis Lapenieks
Edited byLeo H. Shreve
Music byLeonard Moran
Production
company
Cinema West Productions
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • March 1966 (1966-03)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$65,000[1]
Box office$17.3 million (as at 1 Oct 1966)[2]

Queen of Blood (also known as Planet of Blood) is a 1966 American science fiction horror film produced by George Edwards and Samuel Z. Arkoff, directed by Curtis Harrington, that stars John Saxon, Basil Rathbone, Dennis Hopper, and Judi Meredith. The film is based on the screenplay for the earlier Soviet feature film Mechte Navstrechu (A Dream Come True). Director Harrington also reused special effects footage from that film, as well as footage from the Soviet science fiction film Nebo Zovyot (Battle Beyond the Sun).[1]

Queen of Blood was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with Blood Bath. Director Curtis Harrington felt that Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) must have received some inspiration from his earlier feature, saying "Ridley's film is like a greatly enhanced, expensive and elaborate version of Queen of Blood".[3]

An alien species contacts Earth saying that they are journeying across the galaxy to make formal contact with humanity. Their interstellar starship crashes on Mars and an Earthship is dispatched to attempt a rescue. On Mars, they locate the downed spacecraft, but only a single dead alien humanoid is found aboard. They determine that an alien rescue shuttle left the Red Planet but crashed on nearby Phobos. A strange, green-skinned woman is found alive aboard the shuttle's wreck. As they head back to Earth, the crew begins to die, drained of their blood.

  1. ^ a b Landis, Bill (1982). "Curtis Harrington". Fangoria. pp. 51–52.
  2. ^ Mark McGee, Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures, McFarland, 1996 p240–241
  3. ^ "Retrospective in Terror: An Interview with Curtis Harrington - April 2005". The Terror Trap.