Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)

Unspeakable horrors from outer space paralyze the living and resurrect the dead!

In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington D.C. see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife, and a policeman try to stop the aliens.

Date of release
1957-03-15
TMDB
4.2 / 10 (637)
Runtime
1h 18m
Genres
Science Fiction, Horror
Director
Edward D. Wood Jr.

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $60K
  • Filmed in: Los Angeles

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 American independent science fiction-horror film produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in black-and-white in November 1956 and had a preview screening on March 15, 1957, at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles under the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. Retitled Plan 9 from Outer Space, it played in 1957 as a double feature with the British thriller Time Lock, and went into general release in July 1958 in Virginia, Texas, and several other Southern states, before being sold to television in 1961. In Texas, it played on a double bill with the re-released Devil Girl from Mars (1954).

Production

Plan 9 from Outer Space combines elements of science fiction, Atompunk, and gothic horror. Science fiction remained popular throughout the 1950s, though the genre had experienced significant changes in the post-war period. The Atomic Age, heralded by the development of nuclear weapons and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had inspired science fiction films to deal with the dangers of unrestricted science, while space flight and the e…

Plan 9's script seems to aim at being an epic film, a genre typically requiring a big budget from a major film studio. That Wood made it with minimal financial resources underscores one of the qualities of his work: his ideas tended to be too expensive to film, yet he tried to film them anyway. As Rob Craig argues, Wood's failed efforts give the film a peculiar charm.

Turner Classic Movies describes the production as having been financed under a contract with a Baptist organization; as a condition of that contract, many members of the cast and crew were baptized in a Beverly Hills swimming pool. TCM also notes that producers J. Edward Reynolds and Hugh Thomas Jr.

The film opens with an introduction by Wood's friend, psychic Criswell: "Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives." (This line appears in the narration for General Motors' "Futurama" ride and its accompanying film, To New Horizons, which were part of the 1939 New York World's Fair—years before Criswell's television program.) At the time of filming, Criswell was…

Another line asserts that the audience is interested in "the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable", implying that the film's audience will have a fascination with the paranormal. The narrator claims that "we" (the filmmakers) are bringing to light the full story and evidence of fateful events, based on the survivors' "secret testimony".

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