Saturday Movie Review – “Plan 9 From Outer Space”

Another week, another review. This one is a true cult classic.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Bela Legosi as the Old Man
Gregory Walcott as Jeff Trent
Mona McKinnon as Paula Trent
Duke Moore as Lt. John Harper
Lyle Talbot as General Roberts

Written and directed by Ed Wood

Complete information is available from the IMDB.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

Aliens come to earth to prevent us from destroying the Universe by reanimating the dead.

High Point

How the old man dies.

Low Point

This is known as the worst movie ever. It’s really, really bad, but there are worse.

The Scores

The originality is laughable. Apart from hiring the director’s wife’s chiropractor to replace a dead star, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done time and time again, and a whole lot better. I give it 2 out of 6.

The effects are not quite as utterly terrible as the rest of the movie. I give it 3 out of 6.

The story is nonsensical, crammed with terrible dialogue, and based on a paranoid scientific plot that we knew was impossible decades before they made this film. I give it 1 out of 6.

The acting is awful. I don’t know if these people called themselves actors, or if Ed Wood pulled random people off the street and put them in front of cue cards. Mind you, with this script, I don’t know that there were cue cards for anything other than technobabble. I give it 1 out of 6.

The emotional response is actually quite good. Sometimes the worst movies are the most entertaining. Watch it and laugh hard for over an hour. I give it 6 out of 6.

The production is terrible. There’s no consistent time of day. The scale is wrong when Clay comes back from the dead out of a tiny grave. The headstones are often loose, and shake or shift at the lightest tap. I give it 1 out of 6.

Overall, this movie is great fun to laugh at, but not to laugh with. I give it 6 out of 6.

In total, Plan Nine From Outer Space receives 20 out of 42.

Next Week

Next week, we review the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes.

9 replies on “Saturday Movie Review – “Plan 9 From Outer Space””

  1. Erm.

    It’s really, really bad, but there are worse.

    There are?? Name one!

    • Re: Erm.

      There are?? Name one!

      I’ll name several next year. I’ve got close to 50 absolute stinkers, so I’m tempted to use those ones for the Saturday reviews in 2007. (I’ll need to pick up about 4 more to cover all 52 weeks.)

      • Re: Erm.
        6/6 emotional response?

        I know this film is funny, but it has a lot of tedious moments too. Some of it is "so bad it’s good." Some of it is just awful.

        • Re: Erm.

          6/6 emotional response?

          I know this film is funny, but it has a lot of tedious moments too. Some of it is "so bad it’s good." Some of it is just awful.

          I’m a sucker for bad movies, though, so when the tedious bits come, I’m too busy laughing at the bits that came before.

      • A stinker for you

        I’ll need to pick up about 4 more to cover all 52 weeks.

        2001 A Space Travesty. I had the misfortune to spend^H^H^H^H^Hwaste money on renting it. One of the few movies I’ve ever stopped after an already horribly painful 20 minutes and return to the store.

        Bloodthirst: Legend of the Chupacabras. This looks and feels like a small part-time, inexperienced theatre group, and random family members, were hired to read cue cards. And one gets to wear a rubber suit.

        There are loads of horrible b-movies that my wife loves to rent that I’ve had the misfortune of sitting through. Alcohol can help. Sometimes.

        Damien

    • Re: Erm.

      There are?? Name one!

      The movie production is among the worst ever, discounting amateur flicks you’ll never see in the theater. As a piece of entertainment there are many many many worse movies.

  2. typo
    Even though Ed Wood was interested in transexuals, Mona McKinnon did not play Paul Trent.

Comments are closed.