The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

"Queen of Blood" is one strange drive-in movie from the forgotten mid- 60s, when rubes in late-model cars flocked to the local outdoor movie palace in exotic locales throughout the Midwest. One of those rubes was myself. I never forgot this odd movie, which was unlike anything else I'd seen splashed over a screen bordered by Ohio cornfields.Now that QOB is available on DVD, a revisit is definitely in order for all lovers of esoteric sci-fi. QOB debuted in 1966, one year after AIP's "Voyage to a Prehistoric Planet". Both films were directed by Curtis Harrington. Viewing both in chronological order, it's apparent that they were both made at the same time and released a year apart. Both are paste-up films utilizing obscure Russian sci-fi intercut with American inserts. Both share the same artist's paintings under the opening titles. Both share exactly the same American sets and poor Basil Rathbone late in his illustrious career playing two different super scientists with different names wandering around the same cheap sets made of cardboard and aluminum foil. His peering out the round porthole window onto some alien landscape painting does not change between movies. As for leading ladies, "Planet" features fading beauty Faith Domergue ("This Island Earth") in a Nembutal-laced performance, "Queen" features Judi Meredith who was scant years away from "Jack the Giant Killer" where she starred with Kerwin Mathews in a complete and terrible rip-off of Harryhausen's "7th Voyage of Sinbad".QOB is the superior movie, however much things on screen stayed the same. Questionably, QOB is one of the many precursors to Ridley Scott's "Alien", which in itself was a complete pastiche of other sci-fi epics of the 50s and 60s fueled by a huge budget and better effects. QOB features cult favorites John Saxon, and soon to become "Easy Rider" counter-culture icon Dennis Hopper playing dinner victim with creepy Florence Marley, the titular Queen of Blood. Marley's space vampire is pretty unforgettable, mute with glowing eyes while sporting a white beehive hairdo under a bizarre Gothic cathedral of a space helmet. The movie is by turns psychedelic, moody, claustrophobic, and surprisingly scary in places. Also briefly seen in the last moments of QOB is Famous Monsters magazine editor Forrest Ackerman, hauling around Marley's eggs which will probably spell disaster for Earth when they hatch. Audio fans will recognize some strange mash-ups here, sound effects lifted from and blending both "Forbidden Planet" (1956) and "War of the Worlds" (1953). AIP pictures were shameless in appropriation, which is part of their legend. Director Harrington did better his second time out for AIP, giving QOB a shady charm that's hard to pinpoint. Not easy to forget, it's certainly worth a look for aficionados.

Remember-- this was 1966! No Computers. No CGI. EVERYTHING done by hand.And for those of you who were old enough to see this on TV-- I say watch it again-- WHY? Because you very likely saw it in Black & White. And you saw it in the old square ratio TV-tube ratio. And probably worse-- you may have seen a video store VHStape repro with all the washed out colors, scratchy, jittery juddering that came with a haphazard transfer. This movie was a true Screen production. And I recently streamed a clean video reproduction of this gem via Netflix to my Flatscreen and I was amazed at the quality of the entire show and taken in by the Movie itself.One-- it's an ironic chuckle to see a movie purporting to be 30 years into the future- 1990! on my Flatscreen via the Internet.Two- It's a Monster Movie. What Movie from the Age of Outer Space doesn't have One? And like all Monsters we know and love-- this one likes and prefers Blood. . .But Doesn't like unattached girlfriends.The setup and the story is very cohesive. The science isn't too wild and doesn't have too much hand-wavium. This movies was intended as a SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC outer space entre to the screen. So excuse the fact that they travel to Mars inside of a few days instead of MONTHS, or the fact that they've intercepted a signal ". . .within our Galaxy, but from outside our solar system. . ."The scenes from the alien planet are cool and definitely otherworldly. And the depiction of Mars is actually pretty realistic, considering what they knew back then.And the 'Monster'. She's worth watching. She's acting totally and only with her glowing white eyes, Her writhing red lips and her white, white teeth. And she is enjoying herself! When I first saw this when I was kid, I thought I heard a scary bee-like buzzing whenever they focused on her lips-- but I guess that was a vacuum tube inside the TV Set and not the movie (Yes, That's how OLD I am!)Pluses: Woman are portrayed as Levelheaded and intelligent, though seems that the world of the future was only populated by Platinum Blondes.It's a story about meeting an alien culture, albeit a bloodthirsty one. So it makes sense that after you find that your alien guest sleeping peacefully in her bunk with a delightful dab of blood on the corner of her lip after gorging on one of your crewmembers-- the scientist of the group talks about donating blood in shifts to keep her satisfied. And of course, you know that HE will be Next!For the Nerds in us, they actually gave a nod to interplanetary travel restrictions on Time and Fuel. (despite the fact that the alien rocket crossed interstellar space in a matter of days-- but hey, they were a race of advanced Plant Vampires with Laser heat Vision! They're allowed to break the laws of physics)Bring your friends over and watch this one after Midnight with chips and dip.

Queen of Blood is a low budget sci-fi flick that is often seen as an inspiration for the classic 'Alien'. Whether or not the film was an influence I don't know; although the two films do share some similarities. The film actually reminded me of a sub-par episode of Star Trek; yet in spite of that, there are some good ideas on display here and for what it's worth (which admittedly isn't much), Queen of Blood is not a bad little sci-fi flick. The film has an obvious low budget which is a hindrance but it overcomes this with an interesting plot line. The film takes place in the future (actually 1990) and follows a plot that starts with scientists receiving a distress call from a space ship that crash landed on Mars. Naturally they decide to send another team in on a rescue mission and when they arrive they discover only a single survivor - a green skinned female alien! They decide to bring her aboard the ship and after trying to help and talk to her, they find their efforts to be abortive. The alien's actual intention is revealed when she begins drinking the blood of the crew.It's actually a shame that this film wasn't better as it features a mouth watering cult cast! John Saxon is excellent as always in the lead role and he receives good support from the likes of an aging Basil Rathbone and a young Dennis Hopper. Queen of Blood is clearly not an actor's film, but it's still nice to see these actors on screen together. The budget impacts most on the special effects and we're treated to some shocking space scenes, as well as an alien that is just a woman painted green. The film fails at delivering anything that looks even remotely futuristic and that does distract from the plot line more than just a little bit. The film is apparently put together from a couple of different sources and that would make sense as the plotting is often uneven and sometimes doesn't make a great deal of sense. Still, it would be silly to go into a film like this expecting a masterpiece; and even though I generally don't like low budget sci-fi, I was still mostly happy with what I got. Overall; this is not a must see film, but it's decent enough and I can recommend it.