moonspinner55 In the year 1990, scientists from an American "space institute" translate a radio signal sent from a distant planet notifying Earthlings of an impending visit, but instead the intrepid aliens crash land on Mars and a rescue team is sent into space to find them. Another one of those B-grade American International products with poster art more creative and promising than the film being advertising. Still, writer-director Curtis Harrington isn't Ed Wood; he attempts to put on a colorful show, even though a great deal of the special effects footage has been lifted from two Soviet features, "Mechte Navstrechu" and "Nebo Zovyot". Actors John Saxon, Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper alternately look bemused and embarrassed. ** from ****

bkoganbing 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.

poe-48833 Until reading the background information on QUEEN OF BLOOD here on this site, I was genuinely impressed by parts of the movie- parts that I now realize were lifted from OTHER movies... What a difference an Editor can make... The Alien sequences (the aforementioned LIFTED sequences) are eerie and Alien in the extreme and very much worth seeing; the rest of the movie, not so much. QUEEN OF BLOOD taken altogether isn't really a BAD movie, but now I know that it's not a particularly GOOD movie, either. (The Queen herself could suck my Blood anytime, but now I've got to track down the movies from which the really interesting parts were taken to find out just how good THEY were...) (Oh: the Alien eggs revealed at film's end were yet another Steal by Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott when they concocted ALIEN.) Thanks to whoever did the research for the heads up.