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| "Future events such as these will affect you in the future." |
Directed by: Ed Wood
Produced by: Ed Wood, Hugh Thomas, Jr., Charles Burg, J. Edward Reynolds
Written by: Ed Wood
Budget: $60,000 (roughly $489,000 in 2015, according to US Department of Labor)
Starring: Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira, Bela Lugosi (posthumously)
When aliens invade and start resurrecting the dead to attack the living, it's time for us as a species to face...grave robbers from outer space...uh, I mean, survive in the face of plan nine from outer space.
Plan 9 is arguably the best known of Ed Wood's films, and one that exemplifies his style of film-making, if that's what you could call it. It's been held up as an example of how many of Wood's ideas may have been just a little higher than he could reach with his budget and, potentially, skill as a director and writer.
It's notable as Bela Lugosi's last screen credit. Wood and Lugosi developed a close friendship towards the last few years of Lugosi's life, and Wood planned on his inclusion in an abandoned film of his. After the actor died, Wood used what footage he had in this one. This is fairly easy to notice at certain points because Wood utilized almost every scrap of film from Lugosi's part, including trims and shots that would normally have been left on the cutting room floor and the drop in quality is noticeable even through the standard Wood camp.
The So Bad It's Good
The physical production is the Woodiest of Ed Wood movies, with cardboard headstones, a jet cockpit rendered by a curtain and nondescript steering yokes of some sort. At several points actors will bump into the headstones and you can clearly see them wobble against the curtain hanging behind the set. Whenever you see an actual UFO flying around it's clearly tied to a string and moving against a backdrop and the only exterior shot of the landed ship is represented by the corner of a building and a ladder.
Action scenes are handled with the classic Wood style, with stock footage cut in with very cheap original footage. The UFOs are either model kits, hubcaps, or plates on strings, and the first combat sequence where the military fires on the aliens uses real military stock footage of launchers and jets. Much like the chase scenes these are seriously hindered by the small sets.
Chase scenes are likewise hilarious, with actors running around the same set. This creates the unfortunate effect of making it look like everyone is running back and forth over the same twenty feet of graveyard, while scenes of Lugosi and the stand-in show obvious changes between outside locations and on-set shots. Gunshots are the old-school smoke-and-sparks, and getting hit by a gun apparently makes you develop a minor full-body twitch.
It feels like some of the actors are stage actors, some are film, and others aren't actors at all. Certain characters have a flourish to their movements and dialogue that screams Theatre! while others are competent, and even more don't seem to quite understand what they're doing at all. I'm fairly certain that at spots you can see the actors look down at a copy of the script when they forget their lines.
The entire plot of the movie hinges on classic bad Hollywood science, with the premise that a bomb could explode light particles (or atoms, as stated in the movie) and start a chain reaction that blows up the universe itself. There's an anti-war message in the movie, combined with an environmental message and speech about uniting to better ourselves. Each one is explained within a five minute monologue, just like all good movies.
The So Bad It's Bad
Some of the performances dip into bad, rather than funny bad. Vampira's performance as a zombie is lifeless, pun both intended and not intended. At certain points her facial expression looks more fitting to a bored funeral goer rather than a risen corpse.
There's a lot of filler between shots of the UFOs flying around, people walking, and other miscellaneous footage that doesn't contribute much. There's at least a minute-long scene where the same footage of a military general looking through binoculars is reused. While most of these are actually pretty amusing, it gets tiring at points. There are plenty of moments where the scene will change to a group of characters simply standing around before going back to the actual story.
The Rest
Plan 9 feels like the classic black and white b-movie that every other one in recent memory has been modeled off. With the cheap sets, stilted delivery, and brilliantly obtuse script it's got that perfect camp formula.
There was a remake released in February, 2015 which is sort of an homage/remake/mockery of the original. I haven't actually seen it, but it appears to be a remake with modern horror gore and parody elements. It might be worth checking out, but I don't know that it's necessary. It feels to me like the problem you get when a mega-fan takes over production of an IP and emphasizes their own vision for it. In all honesty I probably would have preferred just a straight shot-for-shot reshoot.
Should You Watch It?
Absolutely. I've seen The Room referred to as the Citizen Kane of bad movies, but that title is far more appropriate to Plan 9. It can fit in at any spot on a bad movie list, either as the first as an introduction or at the end as a grand finale. There's plenty here to entertain. I haven't gone as far in depth on this movie as I could have, because I truly think this is a movie everyone should see at least once.
You can watch the movie in full either on Youtube or Wikipedia.
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