I finally decided to see this one, after years of hearing
about it. For those who don't know this film has claimed the title of
"worst film ever made" for the last 50+ years. While I personally
don't think this is the worst film ever made (or that I've ever seen) it is
pretty dang bad. This is the film that would make Ed Wood a star (albeit
ironically). Ed Wood made a number of horrible B films throughout the 50s but
this is his most famous/infamous. Less than 20 years after his death he would
be immortalized in a critically acclaimed film made by Tim Burton, but during
his lifetime Ed Wood would never see such positive acceptance of his work. Plan
9 is about aliens that come to earth and plan on taking over the world by
raising the dead (don't worry if that doesn't make sense, Ed Wood never makes
sense). The film has so many errors that it, Ed Wood, and his other films have
all become ironically inspirational, people see his films and think "If
somebody can make a piece of crap like that there's hope for me in the film business!" There are continuity
errors up the wazoo, wooden acting, horrible sets and lighting (most notably in
the airplane scenes) and Cadillac hubcaps on wires posing as flying saucers.
The film has one of the biggest cult followings of all time for any film though.
The entire genre of "so bad they're good" movies was basically
created because of this film, it is still enjoyable to watch and laugh at
because of how amazingly bad it is. There are a few things that should be
mentioned about the film for those who don't know anything about it: 1). this
was Bela Lugosi (the legendary horror actor most famous for playing Dracula
[1931])'s last film. Lugosi was one of Wood's heroes growing up and he managed
to meet and form a unique friendship with the man, and give him the last few
roles of his career. Lugosi died only managed to film about 15 minutes of
footage (or less) before he died leaving Wood to find a replacement for him for
the rest of the film. His replacement ended up being a
dead ringer for
Lugosi... from the eyes up that is, Wood forced the replacement to walk around
the set covering his face with his cape (like classic Dracula) so only his eyes
nose and above were exposed. 2). Vampira, a 1950s horror TV host who would
introduce B horror movies late at night, (the original Elvira, also think
SvenGhouli) makes her most famous film appearance in this film. In my opinion
the best scenes of the movie are when Vampira and Tor Johnson ( a 400 pound
Swedish professional wrestler with very limited acting ability) are walking
through the graveyard together. Both Johnson and Vampira are unusual characters
in personality and lifestyle and they are even more unusual in their
appearance, seeming practically otherworldly (Vampira pretty much invented the
"vamp" look for women, and she had an unusually small waist). 3).
Lastly Ed Wood was a master at collecting and using stock footage. Basically
anything you see of unusually high quality compared to the rest of the movie is
stock footage, which as I mentioned before could
stand out like a sore thumb, but in other incidents he was extremely creative with it and you wouldn't
necessarily know it was stock footage. The worst part of the film however is
the last quarter or third of the movie, when the plot just kind of goes out the
window, and the dialogue becomes so verbose and lengthy that it's incredibly
hard to understand what is going on, and thus it drags and people (like myself
and a friend) can tend to dose off at that point. Obviously I have to give the
film a very low rating for quality ( I won't even mention how low) but as for
pure enjoyment and campy entertainment value, I give it a 3.75/5. The movie is
enormously influential, and if you enjoyed it I recommend The Lost Skeleton of
Cadavra, it's a 2001 film that spoofs 1950s B movies like Plan 9, and it is
available to stream on Netflix. You can view the trailer below:
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