If you have seen the movie Ed Wood you probably already now a little about this movie. If you haven’t heard about Ed Wood, he was a director who through his career created several movies which were notorious for their strange plots, technical errors and bad special effects. I was very curious myself to find out if his movies really were that bad and decided to check this one out as it was called the worst movie ever made.
The storyline of this movie really is ridiculous. Earth is invaded by aliens who want to prevent us from creating a weapon which would destroy the universe. In order to do so they use plan 9, which means they will turn people who have just died into zombies who they can control, spread fear on the planet and causing chaos. The execution of this plot is just as crazy as Wood used cheap sets and lots of free stock footage to make the movie. A large part of the movie takes place on a graveyard and as the actors are walking around you can see gravestones moving or even falling when they brush against them. The stock footage often feels out of place or doesn’t match with something shown before.
Wood’s biggest star at the time was Bela Lugosi (famous for his role as Dracula), who had died before the shooting began. As he still had some footage of him he decided to use it and for the shots in which he needed his zombie version to be present had another actor (who was a lot taller) walk around holding a cape in front of his face.
It’s really hard to give this movie a proper score. It’s like watching a car crash, you really don’t want to look while you drive past, but can’t help doing so. The same goes for this. The bad acting, cheap effects, hilarious dialogue and voiceover just made it a very entertaining watch. I couldn’t really turn it off. Despite the low score I suggest to still check it out as it’s so bad it’s good.
Score: 2
I remember seeing this years ago; I’m not sure it really falls into the category of “so bad it’s good”; but you’re right, it’s hard to stop watching it! I seem to remember it being called the worst movie ever made! We actually have a comic book shop in Aberdeen called Plan 9!
Yeah, I agree. I should have said “so bad that it’s endlessly entertaining for all the wrong reasons”. Hahaha, so did they base it on that movie?
I remember thoroughly enjoying this movie. Yeah, it was horrible, not to mention the crappy paper mache cockpit of the plane separated by a shower curtain from the rest of the crew, of husky Tor Johnson, the detective, being reanimated and too large to get out of the grave (this part had me laughing in fits), but I think it definitely fits the category of “so bad, its entertaining” and is indeed the grand daddy of that.
I will give Ed Wood props for sticking to his vision (until he moved on to straight up pornography), but man, this film is just so unique in its awfulness. I mean, the plot of aliens trying to destroy the world by reanimating the dead… That just sounds like a whole lot of fun! I heard some independent film makers are remaking this film “properly”. I can’t wait to see how that one turns out! haha
That cockpit was hilarious and I kept wondering what it was they had in front of them. Tor Johnson was also very funny and his accent so heavy that I had a hard time understanding him.
I didn’t know that, but would be interested to see what the end result would be. Thanks for commenting Gelo!
Amazing film. One of my all time favorites! Though, I think you should change your score to a 10. How it can get anything less is inconceivable!
Hahahaha, if I would score it purely based on enjoyment it would score higher!
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