‘But one thing’s sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and somebody’s responsible…’
Ed Wood is famous in film circles simply for being a terrible filmmaker. Despite a long career, his lasting legacy will be that for many years, his science fiction disaster Plan 9 from Outer Space was long considered the worst film of all time. Due to this notoriety, the film has endured where other crappy ’50s sci-fi films have not. Disappointingly, it’s actually not that bad…
The plot. It’s a toughie. Aliens have descended from space to kill everyone and reanimate them as zombies. They aren’t very good at this though seen as only three people are reanimated throughout the entire movie. They also have a gun that can turn people into skeletons. It’s unclear why this isn’t their plan A but then many things here are unclear.
Other than its sheer incompetence, Plan 9 from Outer Space is also notable for being Bela Lugosi’s last film. The legendary Dracula actor died whilst shooting some other nonsense for Wood and the resourceful director decided to recycle the footage here. This does, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint), mean that he is inexplicably dressed as Count Dracula the whole time despite the fact that vampires or Dracula are not mentioned anywhere else in the film.
Is Plan 9 from Outer Space the worst film of all time then? It’s certainly shoddily made, but it’s made with heart at least and I enjoyed it more than at least three Marvel movies so as a cinematic experience it’s far from the worst ever. Indeed, I would urge anyone with 80 minutes to spare to give this film a chance. It is a cinematic landmark of sorts.