Cannes 2016: Nicolas Winding Refn Says Alien Ripped Off Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires
John Squires
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Italian filmmaker Mario Bava has had a whole lot more influence on horror cinema than he often gets credit for, and as many fans have pointed out over the years, his 1971 film A Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve) was ripped off by Steve Miner for Friday the 13th Part 2. But did he also directly inspire Alien?
As reported by Variety, Nicolas Winding Refn was on hand at Cannes last night to present a 4K restoration of Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, and in his introduction he called out Ridley Scott’s Alien for essentially ripping off the 1965 film – though it must be noted that he doesn’t think any less of Alien because of it.
“Planet of the Vampires is the film that Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon stole from to make Alien,” he told the Cannes audience. “We found the elements; we have the evidence tonight. This is the origin!”
“When you look at the two movies, it’s not just similarities,” he elaborated. “It’s lifted structure, scenes, characters, dilemmas, themes that are very apparent. “I think it’s wonderful; everyone steals from everyone. And with Alien, which is another masterpiece, it defined genre movies as having a very high artistic standard. But the irony is that it all comes back to this Italian movie that I don’t think has gotten the recognition it deserved.”
Time to revisit Planet of the Vampires with a fresh set of eyes!
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