Plan 9 from Outer Space

(1959) *1/2

Last year I lobbied for this movie's inclusion and was roundly rejected. Then, more than a full month after Horrorthon was over, Johnny Sweatpants (who called himself Summerisle back then) said this in the comments for my Thing from Another World review:


I realize it's bitchy of me to bother mentioning this after this year's pre-thon discussions (and JSP's remarks in particular) led us to a pretty broad definition of horror, and it's redundant of me to mention it after AC already reviewed Plan 9 here. But I like to show off that I did my homework.

Ah, Ed Wood, the patron saint of crappy filmmakers everywhere. I do love the story behind this movie's creation, at least as it's portrayed in Tim Burton's Ed Wood. (I highly recommend that flick, in my opinion Burton's only five-star effort besides Pee Wee's Big Adventure.) And there is truly something to be admired in the balls-out drive to just make a damn movie, regardless of niggling things like, well, everything good. Hammering out the nature of that phenomenon would take a longer conversation than I want to get into here. There is a wide array of facets to consider, like the high number of movies that are completed but then never distributed, or execrable efforts like Beyond The Wall of Sleep that ennoble nothing and no one. But I suppose it's safe to say that the raw bravery I've been touching upon in my last few reviews is in play with Plan 9, and I guess that's something.


The incompetence on display is nothing short of legendary, that's for sure. Stone gravestones wobble, as do flying saucers on the ends of their visible strings. Scenes go from night to day and back to night again with each cut of the film. Legosi's posthumous stand-in is clearly not him. This imcompetence extends into the fictional realm, as the invaders deploying Plan 9 are as limited in their invasion plans as is the movie's budget. Each meeting with their superior plays out like the Special Olympics of planetary invasion. "We have now succeeded in raising two Earthlings from the dead." Some time later there's another meeting and the same guy says "Now we've got three!" Wow. When The Ruler wants to see one of the zombies, Tor Johnson comes in and nearly strangles everybody. These guys would get their asses kicked by Marvin the Martian.


The one thing that really detracts from the fun here is that it can get kind of boring. The scene inside the saucer during which Eros and Tanna face off against three gun-totin' humans goes on for quite a while.

"Despite what I am wearing, I mock your primitive Earth weapons."
Eros's speech shows as much consistency as Wood's sense of whether it's day or night. One second he's touting his race's superiority, the next he's pushing his woman around for mouthing off. Are the aliens trying to sneak around behind the scenes, animating the dead? Or are they trying to get a meeting with world leaders that isn't happening, and that's hurting their little feelings? All these options seem to be on the table.

Plan 9 from Outer Space is assembled like a stack of child's blocks, with the blocks being drama! intrigue! skeletons! and so on. Watch it with friends and you might have a blast. I certainly found it more entertaining than Beyond the Wall of Sleep, but in deference to Plan 9's long-held title of Worst Movie Ever Made, let me just say: Mr. Wood, your movie sucks.