CTVA 215 Week 4 - Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957)
Maybe the ultimate camp film. These grave-robbing aliens and their Plan 9 to turn human corpses into vampire zombies that carry fainted women around menacingly is treated with the utmost seriousness. This is an EXTREMELY important issue that poses a real threat to the conservative, Cold War era American life. It’s this seriousness that Plan 9 From Outer Space treats its subject matter with that makes it such a fun experience, while also being just a truly bad film. While Ed Wood was certainly ambitious, his films came off as infamously amateur, and everything from choppy editing to continuity issues to extremely cheap looking sets all prove this point. This unprofessional look and deeply silly story almost makes Plan 9 feel like a parody of 50’s B-movies rather than an attempt to actually make one. It’s almost forward thinking in the way it just mashes up aliens, vampires and zombies at random, reminding me less of 50s monster movies and more of the goofy films paying homage to B-movies that came decades later. However, the self-serious tone throughout the film leaves people laughing AT it instead of WITH it. It’s less Rocky Horror and more Birdemic: Shock & Terror.
Plan 9 was an obscure, forgotten film until it gained a reputation in the 80s as the “worst movie of all time.” This led to a resurgence in popularity not just for this film, but for Ed Wood’s entire filmography. I’ll be honest… this definitely doesn’t live up to the hype. I gave this a star and a half on Letterboxd, so it’s certainly not GOOD, but I think most film fans have seen worse than this, even much more well known and technically competent films. What I think gives this film and Ed Wood’s filmography the reputation they have isn’t so much how bad his films are, but how obviously bad they are. They may not be the worst films ever made, but anybody can see that they’re full of technical issues and generally poor performances. They’re very accessibly bad, and that’s given them staying power. I’m ultimately glad that this film has its reputation as the “worst film ever,” since it gives audiences a reason to continuously rediscover and appreciate the work of this very unique filmmaker.