| Ed Wood's much-maligned Plan 9 from Outer Space is not the worst movie ever made, nor is the cross-dressing director the most incompetent filmmaker ever to stain a Cineplex. Anyone whose sat through Manos: The Hands of Fate, or seen Rick Sloane's repugnant Hobgoblins can attest to that. Sure, Wood does have difficulty with basic cinematic concepts like continuity, narrative structure and dialogue, but there is also a spark of honesty naiveté within his work, a sense that we are actually seeing into a mind that believes whole heartedly in the celluloid sludge he is creating. Add in the fact that Plan 9 bears Bela Lugosi's final filmed "performance", a more than fetching Vampira, a lumbering load known as Tor Johnson, and more mincing aliens than a Wigstock extravaganza, and it's impossible not to love this underachieving atrocity...
The Plot:
Aliens from a far-off planet decide to play nuclear deterrent as they arrive on Earth to stop the development of the Solaranite bomb. Having used eight previous plans to no avail, they decide to employ Plan 9: the resurrection of the recently deceased. Apparently, some dead guys walking around will get the attention of authorities. Putting their plot into action, they reanimate a departed old man and his dead wife, both of whom apparently had a vampire fixation. She bears a striking resemblance to Vampira and he looks just like Bela Lugosi—well, sort of, sometimes. When neighbors next to the cemetery contact the cops about the odd goings-on amongst the gravestones, Inspector Dan Clay arrives with his men to check it out. He is immediately killed by the ghoulish couple and brought back from the dead. It requires military intervention, a self-assured airline pilot, and some rather roundabout plotting to keep the extraterrestrials from having their zombified way.
Final Thoughts:
...The truth is that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a fun little flub. It is unintentionally hilarious, painfully problematic and unabashedly innocent. As a result, everyone who claims to be a film fan should visit it at least once. Therefore, a score of Highly Recommended is easily ascribed. And the next time someone asks you who the worst director of all time is, give Ed Wood and his ersatz epic a break. After all, Uwe Boll is still making movies, and his offal oeuvre stinks much worse than anything Wood ever offered. Honestly, House of the Dead is far more half-baked and horrendous than this safe and silly crazy cult concoction. |
Reviews:
