Genre: Sci-Fi

Rating: NR

Also known as:
Demon Planet
The Haunted Planet
The Haunted World
The Outlawed Planet
Planet of Blood
The Planet of Terror
The Planet of the Damned
Space Mutants
Terror en el spacio
Terror in Space
Terrore nello spazio

Synopsis: (Note: Do not confuse this movie with 'The Planet of the Vampires', a.k.a. 'Queen of Blood'.)
While investigating a signal from the planet Aura, two ships, the Argos and the Galliott, are caught in a gravity field and pulled down to the planet. Wracked by the intense g-forces, the crew of the Argos passes out, except for Capt. Mark Markary (Barry Sullivan). However, as soon as the ship lands, the crew begins to attack each other. Luckily, Mark is able to return them to their senses but with no memory of what happened. Receiving a distress call from the Galliott, they try to fly over and investigate but their engines are broken. Trekking across the planet's surface, Mark finds the crew of the Galliott dead, apparently having murdered each other. Leaving a crewman (Mario Morales) to guard the Galliott, Mark retrieves some tools from the Argos but, when he returns, the guard and the dead bodies are gone. Back at the Argos, Mark surmises that they're not alone on the planet and orders Wess (Angel Aranda) to try fixing the engines. However, a short time later, Mark finds Wess trying to remove their 'meteor rejecter' after falling asleep. Realizing that the aliens can control them while they're unconscious, Mark orders that each crewmember be guarded while sleeping. A short time later, a crewmember is killed while standing guard. Mark and Sanya (Norma Bengell) investigate an ancient spaceship filled with strange alien skeletons and lose another crewman (Ivan Rassimov). When they return to the Argos, they learn that Tiona (Evi Marandi) is in shock after seeing the 'dead' crew of the Galliott. Mark is skeptical until Capt. Sallis (Massimo Righi) and another Galliott crewmember show up, apparently alive and well. Mark allows Sallis on board the Argos but soon discovers that Sallis really is dead and aliens from a different vibratory plane are using all the dead bodies to try and escape the planet. The alien inhabiting Sallis tells Mark that they will let the remaining crewmembers live if they surrender their will and let the aliens inhabit their bodies voluntarily. Mark refuses the offer but while Sallis is keeping Mark busy, the other Galliott crewman steals the Argos' 'meteor rejecter'. Leaving Wess behind to finish his repairs, Mark leads a mission to retrieve the 'rejecter' and destroy the Galliott. They succeed but only he and Sanya make it back to the Argos alive. Mark, Sanya and Wess escape the planet but once in space, Wess discovers that Mark and Sanya have been 'possessed' by the aliens. In a last act of defiance, Wess destroys the 'meteor rejecter', preventing the aliens from returning home. Unable to survive in space for long, the aliens are forced to land on a small planet nearby, a planet called Earth.

Type of mind control: Alien telepathy?

Mind control scenes:
The first mind control scene occurs when the crew of the Argos begins attacking each other after the ship lands. The next mind control scene is when Mark catches Wess trying to remove the 'meteor rejecter' after falling asleep. When the next mind control scene occurs depends on whether you consider aliens reanimating dead bodies to be mind control or not. I don't but I will say that there are a lot of dead people walking around and talking during this movie. Whether the aliens' control of Mark and Sanya at the end of the movie is mind control or not is also open to debate. We don't see them die and they don't appear to be reanimated corpses but having them surrender their will to the aliens voluntarily would seem out of character. In my opinion, if they're still alive then it's mind control and if they're dead, then it's not.

Subjective Rating: 2 out of 5
If, unlike me, you consider the alien's possession of the dead bodies to be mind control then this movie is chock full of it. However, if you don't consider reanimating corpses to be mind control then the mind control in this movie is pretty scarce, even if you believe that Mark and Sanya are alive and being controlled at the end of the movie. The mind control is also inconsistent. The crewmen can't remember attacking each other after landing but Wess can remember trying to steal the 'meteor rejecter'. If you want zombies, then watch this movie. If you want real mind control, then I recommend you look elsewhere.