Yes, there is big love in our hearts for Plan 9 From Outer Space.
Most filmmakers would be put off by their leading man croaking, but Edward D Wood Jr wasn’t your typical director… I first discovered his “pride and joy” via 1980 book The Golden Turkey Awards, where it won a vote for Worst Film Of All Time. You can see why. Firstly there’s the small matter of that dead star. After Bela Lugosi passed away, Wood roped in his chiropractor and got him to hold a cloak across his face. But as aliens launch a fiendish scheme to revive the dead, that’s just the start of the absurdities. Their motivation is baffling. Eventually we’re told humanity must be prevented from destroying the universe with “Solaranite”, which can ignite sunshine. This seems harsh, given that we’ve never heard of it… And TV horror host Vampira (aka Maila Nurmi), with her cinched waist and plunging neckline, is peculiar casting as Lugosi’s late wife, one of only three corpses the aliens revive.
The production values are laughably shonky. Cardboard tombstones visibly wobble. You can see the fishing line holding up the alien ships. A spacestation interior consists mostly of curtains. The alien leader (Bunny Breckinridge) seems to be wearing a medieval page’s smock. There’s endless stock footage.
All the same, I’ve got a soft spot for Plan 9 From Outer Space. I never fail to chuckle at Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson struggling to climb from his grave, Breckinridge’s camp mannerisms, and an alien’s hissy-fit about how “All you of Earth are idiots!” You can’t help admiring the lengths Wood was willing to go to – which in the case of Plan 9, largely funded by local Baptists, included being baptised in a swimming pool! And while Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic Ed Wood romanticised the story, it did capture something truthful about the way Wood brought together (in Maila Nurmi’s words) “Hollywood bottom fish” to build an outsider family. Burton’s film is also, I think, his best. So while Wood’s career was a catalogue of ineptitude, great art did eventually come from all his endeavours.