"Plan 9 From Outer Space" is said to be the worst movie ever made. As a matter of fact, the movie is so bad that people actually enjoy watching it to the point that they will call up their friends, buy lots of popcorn, go to a local Blockbuster and purposely rent it for the intention of spending 79 of the most hysterical minutes you will ever spend watching a supposedly "serious" movie. So why all the fuss? Is this movie so bad that it is actually enjoyable? To answer that question you first have to understand one of the most odd turn of events in even making the movie in the first place. The movie featured Bela Lugosi. He was by no means one of the major stars of the movie, playing a ghoul man, which is just as well. See, Lugosi, who was famous for his role as Dracula, died during the making of the film. This presented a bit of a problem since he was to have some speaking parts. So to "correct" this problem, the producers got a "double" to finish the rest of the movie in Lugosi's place. This took the form of the double doing nothing more than walking around with a cape in front of his face so that nobody could tell that it wasn't Lugosi. This alone made this movie a laugh riot. But the movie laughs don't end with a Lugosi stand in. The plot, what there is of one, revolves around aliens from outer space (what else?) who are a little ticked off by the stupid minds of the planet Earth. So they come to our planet and set up their operation in a California cemetery. Their ultimate plan is go animate the dead people buried in the cemetery and send them off to march on the capitals of the world. To date, they've only managed to animate three zombies, but this doesn't in the least discourage them. A subplot involves an airline pilot, who lives near the cemetery, trying to save his wife from the middle of this mess. If the movie plot wasn't bad enough, the scenery was even worse. The cemetery clearly had cardboard tombstones as props. The flying saucer that was heading towards the Earth looked like two candlestick holders glued together. The special effects budget for this joke of a movie couldn't have been any more than a few hundred dollars, if that. The movie featured a few performers who went on to become very famous characters in their own right. One of them was Vampira, who played a vampire girl in the movie. Another one was Tor Johnson who played Inspector Dan Clay. Johnson went on to play in many low budget science fictions, though none quite as bad as this one. Following what goes on in this movie is close to impossible. There are so many goofs, such as the scenes changing from day to night and back to day again in a matter of seconds, that not busting out in laughter while watching this nightmare is close to impossible. Maybe that's what the legendary Ed Wood had in mind when he made this canned film classic. |
