Plan 9 From Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Runtime: 79 minutes

Directed by: Ed Wood

Starring: Some famous faces

From: Reynolds Pictures

The past few days I've been greatly occupied with other concerns (I'll discuss that in my next review, up tomorrow) but at least I had the time to revisit an infamous bad movie which has had a stinky reputation since it was included in The Golden Turkey Awards book four decades ago... but it is not THAT bad when years later people saw some of the worst movies on MST3K, such as Manos, The Creeping Terror, and other atrocities.

Of course the movie has many problems: boom mics are seen, the cockpit of an airplane has wooden chairs and a shower curtain dividing the room from the rest of the plane, piss-poor dialogue, faulty logic, a scene changing from day to night repeatedly, some long dull stretches, cheap props and effects, & the not so convincing plan of still having Bela Lugosi's role in the film despite dying early into shooting via... having random stand-ins cover most of their face w/ their arm as they wear a cape.

All that said, this isn't so painfully bad that I struggle getting through it. Yeah, there's at least one long dull stretch but even then the poor filmmaking results in a movie that unintentionally becomes quite entertaining due to the ineptitude. The general plot is not a bad one: while the idea of resurrecting the dead to help prevent planet Earth from destroying the entire universe due to nuclear weapons is wacky, the anti-war message at least is in lockstep with what was a popular theme at the time. There are some familiar names that also appeared in other Ed Wood productions, and I can never get mad at Wood himself as he was a fascinating figure and it reminds me that I should view the Wood biopic as I understand it's worthwhile and I am sure riveting also.


This week, I needed some laughs and Plan 9 provided that. There definitely are plenty of atrocious movies which don't have as much atmosphere, less coherent plots, more aggravating moments, worse acting, cheaper productions, and overall are more grueling to get through than this silly 50's B-movie; I am sure that this isn't even the worst thing that Wood ever directed. One day I am sure I'll find that out for myself.