PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
*1/2 out of *****

Reviewed by Finger_Of_DOOM

Genres
Horror
Sci Fi
Vampires
Zombies

1959
Written and directed by
Edward D. Wood Jr.
Cast
Vampira .... Vampire Girl
Bela Lugosi .... Ghoul Man
Criswell .... Himself
Gregory Walcott .... Jeff Trent
Mona McKinnon .... Paula Trent
Duke Moore .... Lt. John Harper
Tom Keene .... Col. Tom Edwards
Carl Anthony .... Patrolman Larry
Paul Marco .... Patrolman Kelton
Tor Johnson .... Insp. Dan Clay
Dudley Manlove .... Eros
Joanna Lee .... Tanna
John Breckinridge .... The Ruler
Lyle Talbot .... General Roberts

What hasn't Ed Wood done? Bad horror – check. Gender bender comedies – check. Porn – check…Ok, so maybe there's a lot he hasn't done, but he's certainly the king of all that is cheese. The original schlock filmmaker as immortalized by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's film is probably not too far off the mark; this eccentric maniac is responsible for cinema’s worst, yet most entertaining films, Plan 9 From Outer Space being his most famous; it’s universally hailed as 'the worst movie ever made', something I'm not so sure it entirely deserves. Sure the movie is badly scripted, shot, directed, acted…I could go on, but the point is the film may be bad, but I can think of many other films much worse than this. Manos: Hands of Fate (1966) anyone? Or perhaps Robot Monster (1953), or even Vincent Gallo's boring crap-fest Buffalo '66 (1998), probably my most hated film of all time Anyway, Plan 9, although terrible, is actually quite entertaining in the 'so bad it's good' category of entertaining. This is the best kind of movie to watch with a bunch a friends, just make sure you're all drunk. Trust me you'll have a great time (unless you're underage and cannot drink legally, then I suggest you either wait until you're old enough or get on a sugar high by drowning yourself in Coca-Cola and eating nothing but candy during the viewing of this film).

Plan 9 From Outer Space tells the story of a bunch of aliens that come to earth with one thing on their mind, world domination! Using a cemetery as their base of operations, they put into action plan 9; to re-animate the dead and set the zombies onto the stupid-minded humans. That's basically it. Nothing too special in terms of plot but then again nothing Ed Wood ever did was particularly well thought out. For a science-fiction film about an alien invasion there seems to be a whole lot of talking and characters not doing much; I guess shooting an entire invasion would have been beyond Wood's budget.

Speaking of which, it looks as though the film was shot on a budget of several dollars, a handful of peanuts, and a tank of gas. Pretty much in keeping with Wood's style you can expect very little in the areas of production design, costumes, and most importantly the performances. I think Wood is the only director out there that's basically made an entire movie out of the first takes of every performance, that's what Plan 9 feels like most of the time. The performances aren't exactly Oscar material, especially that of horror movie regular and type-cast-for-all-eternity-as-Dracula, Bela Lugosi who basically strolls his way through this film lifeless and emotionally detached from just about everything and everyone (it's probably all the morphine he was popping (incidentally the footage of Lugosi in this film was shot just before his death, for additional shots a stand-in was used)). And of course there's also everyone's favorite Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson who’s probably the only actor (if you can call him that) that can be out-acted by a cinderblock. This guy is basically a zombie and spent most of the film acting like he just came out of a heart operation and was shot up with enough drugs to make Keith Richards' brain explode.

But aside from the asinine script, the terrible performances, the bad costumes and cheap sets, Plan 9 manages to do what a lot of bloated and heartless Hollywood films today fail to (especially the sequels and remakes…enough already!), it entertains. It's a bad film that you can watch with friends and laugh at the preposterous set-ups and the crazy dialogue. It's so bad it's great. Besides, I'd rather watch this film than any of the shit-fests that the esteemed Dr. Uwe Boll manages to crap out every year. So grab this flick, a sizeable amount of alcohol, and a bunch of your closest friends, sit back and enjoy.

Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.

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