Stand-up comedian Sean Mason hates it when people call Ed Wood Jr.’s “Plan 9 From Outer Space” the worst movie ever made. Here, our first guest writer defends what he calls “a relevant sci-fi”.

“Plan 9 From Outer Space” aka “Grave Robbers From Outer Space” is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, directed by Ed Wood, widely regarded as one of the worst directors in the history of cinema. And it is horrendous. Poorly scripted, poorly shot, poorly acted.

But brilliant. Hilarious dialogue riddles nonsensical scenes and it’s endlessly quotable. Ed Wood’s style was to shoot just one take and move on, he was a drunk, half-deranged, still writing on the day of shooting. It shows.

There is one wonderful scene in which an American general insists that there are no aliens, and then says that there have been alien visitors before. It would be quite easy to read this scene, in hindsight, as being about the indecision of the American military, a paranoid discussion of the way Government’s keep secrets from societies through lies and spin, talking in circles.

Which it isn’t. It’s just poorly written.

PAULA TRENT: …A flying saucer? You mean the kind from up there?
JEFF TRENT: Yeah, either that or its counterpart.

But that is not to say that Plan 9 is not a valid piece of science fiction. The best science fiction says something about the society in which it was made. The science fiction films of the 50’s reflected the growing distrust and the threat of the communist menace. The sci-fi of the 90’s was primarily concerned with technology gone wrong. The best science fiction captures the zeitgeist of the era or comments on what is loftily described as “the human condition”. Even future fiction is really about the time it is written.

And, once you stop laughing at the piss poor dialogue and start listening to it instead, when the aliens reveal their motives to our human, All-American Heroes™, the film takes on a new and suddenly relevant meaning.
Suddenly the film isn’t about a ridiculous plot to use the undead to destroy the humanity. Okay, it is, but it also has a serious political message, as important and vital as any of the other great Cold War science fiction films of the time. A message that is still just as relevant even today.

The alien’s message is a warning; they intend to destroy humanity before humanity destroys the solar system. The aliens tell us that we have discovered the nuclear bomb; soon we shall discover the “Solanite bomb”, which would wipe out all life in the solar system.

It’s like The Day the Earth Stood Still, but with zombies instead of a budget.

EROS: You do not need guns.
JEFF TRENT: Maybe we think we do.

Then the film takes its message one step further, arguably a more daring and damning comment on America than any of its contemporaries. Whilst The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers were about not knowing who to trust and the red menace, Plan 9 makes a judgement on America’s own destructive nature.

COLONEL TOM EDWARDS: …Why, a particle of sunlight can’t even be seen or measured.
EROS: Can you see or measure an atom? Yet you can explode one. A ray of sunlight is made up of many atoms!
JEFF TRENT: So what if we do develop this Solanite bomb? We’d be even a stronger nation than now.
EROS: [with disgust] Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
JEFF TRENT: That’s all I’m taking from you!

Because the aliens make their warning, justify their actions… And the All-American Hero™ beats the crap out of them and destroys their ship.

So we dismissed this film as shit, which it is (in that good way), but it shouldn’t be dismissed as a piece of science fiction, which it was.

Because that’s the thing about humans.

We’re stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Sean Mason is a stand-up comedian, improv performer, writer and filmmaker. He’s also on Twitter – follow him @SeanMason.

Watch “Plan 9 From Outer Space” in its entirity below.

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Tags: Bad Movie, Bad Movies, Bela Lugosi, Criswell, Dudley Manlove, Ed D. Wood, Ed Wood, Ed Wood Jr., Lyle Talbot, Plan 9, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Vampira, Worst Movie

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 8:03 am and is filed under Bad Acting, Low Budget, Stupid Plots, Zombies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.