A review of "Plan 9 from Outer Space"

CONFESSIONS OF A FILM JUNKIE: A REVIEW OF “Plan 9 from Outer Space”
By: Brian Cotnoir

  Out of all of director Edward D. Wood Jr’s.  films, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" has been called "The Worst film ever made".   So I decided to put it to the test; is the "Worst film ever made" by the "Worst Movie Director of all time" really as bad as it seems; surprisingly, no.                                                                               

 "Plan 9 from Outer Space" tells the story of a group of Aliens from another planet who come to Earth to resurrect the bodies of people of Earth in hopes of controlling them and stopping them from destroying the Universe.  Now, the story itself isn’t all that bad, but the film does have MANY flaws to it.  For example, throughout the movie people can be seen leaving a scene in the day time and arriving at night in the next scene (and visa versa).  Most of the Acting ranges from incredibly cheesy to flat out terrible.  The only actor who's performance really sticks out in my opinion in John “Bunny” Breckinridge’s portrayal as "The Ruler".  Plan 9 was also the last film to feature the great actor Bela Lugosi.  Lugosi died while they were filming the Plan 9 so Wood brought in a body double.  You never see the body doubles full face, because he hides it behind a black cape throughout the scenes he is featured in, but you can still clearly tell that the body double is NOT Bela Lugosi.                                               

 It was also no secret that Mr. Wood had an over dependency on Stock footage too complete some of his movies.  Throughout the movie stock footage of U.S. Military troops firing rockets and flying planes.  Also this film has the absolute WORST editing job ever.  The same scenes are used over and over again and you always can tell the difference by the quality of the film in the actual movie and the military stock footage.  The special effects in the movie aren’t all that great either (The “flying saucers” are clearly hubcaps that someone sprays painted silver).                                                                                    

  Yet, despite having all these flaws I actually enjoyed the movie.  Yes it is an EXTREMELY cheesy movie, but it’s so cheesy it’s actually kind of good and even entertaining at some points.  So is “Plan 9 from Outer Space” the worst movie ever made?  In my opinion no; I could probably think of at least 5 movies off the top of my head that were worst than this movie.  I would definitely recommend “Plan 9 from Outer Space , the movies not too long (running time approx. 1 hr 15 mins) but it is a film you might want to check out and I think most people would really enjoy it.