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American science fiction thriller that is known more for its blunders, bad acting, and poor costumes and sets than for its story line. It was filmed in 1959 and was written and directed by De Wood. This movie was meant to be the movie that made him famous, which happened, but for a completely different reason than he had hoped.
Out of his many bad films that he made, “Plan 9” was named as the “Worst Movie Ever Made” by The Golden Turkey Awards. It has footage in the movie of screen star Bell Logos, most well-known for his part as Drachma, but the actor had actually passed away right after the start to Mr… Wood filming Plan 9. The footage used was some film that had been shot of him prior to his death, but not for the movie itself. The man Wood cast to play his character was ordered by Wood to keep his face covered with the cape so the audience wouldn’t see his face because they might see that it’s not Bell.
It is hard to determine exactly what the plot of the vie is. It could be viewed as a movie about Aliens coming to planet earth to rob graves and then use the zombies they have created from the deceased to terrorize Americans. Or it could be a lesson on how the government tried to cover up Alien and OF activity by threatening and/or ordering pilots and military personnel to keep them from revealing the fact that they had witnessed Offs flying over their homes. Regardless of what the plot was intended to be, it is difficult to not be distracted from the message in the film by the poor acting.
The lines are not particularly good that he actors are given for their characters, but they are spoken in such a way that the viewer is not as aware of what they are saying, but in the strange manner they are saying it. The actors and actresses appear awkward in the majority of their scenes. Another odd distraction in the film is the commentator Cromwell. He appears to almost be a televangelist during some of his line deliveries during the film, stating “Let us punish the guilty! Let us reward the innocent! At one point during the introduction, he stated that “Future events such as these will affect you in the future”. This actually became a signature line for Cromwell. He ended his introduction to the film with this question: “Can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space? ” Cromwell was the star of his own show on CLACK named Cromwell Predicts. He projected the same persona he used in his show in his role in Plan 9. He used several of the lines from the film in columns he wrote for newspapers and magazines.
The scenery and sets utilized in the movie are also very poorly done. It is so obvious that they are sub-standard that you actually catch yourself being extracted by the cardboard headstones, the chrome hubcap flying saucers and the dog-house sized mausoleum that the old man is buried in and you aren’t paying attention to the movie itself. The mourners at his funeral actually are bent over at the waist to come out the door at the end of his service. And of course there is the obvious fact that the structure is made out of cardboard.
There are numerous scenes Plan 9 from Outer Space By aftertaste the same number of bare-branched trees each time someone is walking through the grounds. And at times during the same scene, some angles are shot in daylight while there appear to be shot in the darkness of night. There are also several scenes shot in the cockpit of a commercial passenger airplane. It is evident that the steering controls are actually made of cardboard and that the curtain behind the pilots that separate them from the crew and passengers is a plastic shower curtain.
The only portion of the film that did not appear odd in the filming technique was the portions showing the US military firing upon the menacing Offs that were hovering overhead. This was actually stock footage Marine Corps artillery units in the Korean War and Air Force training films. There are numerous rockets fired at the Offs, and some even seem like they might have hit them, but they Just hover there while they are getting shot at. These scenes were inserted with absolutely no regard to scene continuity. Plan 9 from Outer Space” is a movie that is so bad that it can actually be considered entertaining. Rotten Tomatoes refers to “Plan 9 from Outer Space” as the epitome of so-bad-it’s-good cinema. You don’t actually pay attention to the storyline of the show because there are so many distractions with the blunders, poor acting, pathetic props and scenery and laughable special effects. Looking for the blunders and mistakes in the film became the entertainment.