"Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959)

There are likely much more disastrous and ill-conceived films than Plan 9 From Outer Space, but in the conversation about the "worst movie ever made" -- an honestly arbitrary label -- Plan 9 is often claimed to be the worst of the worst; sometimes even getting regarded as the "Citizen Kane of Bad Movies" (heck, the DVD back-cover proudly declares it). And to be sure, Plan 9 is a very, very, very bad movies, but we only talk about it being bad because it's since become a staple of classic cult cinema. We watch it because it's bad; because its bad elements ultimately make for a movie that is weirdly entertaining to watch. Plan 9 is one of those movies that helped define the idea of "so bad its good" cinema. This is ineptitude at its endearingly finest. I take a cue from critic Scott Tobias here in his own discussion of bad cinema, "The real 'worst film ever made' isn't anything you would ever want to watch". Film obsessives often actively seek out works like Ed Wood's stunningly incompetent Plan 9 because they actually have a weird, perverse value to them that a film that was just purely bad would not. Plan 9 is certainly bad but if it were merely just bad and had no, um, redeeming qualities, well, then there would be little reason to partake in watching it. Tobias notes that the film has a sense of narrative ambition. There's clearly a story and, even with its Swiss cheese plot holes, gaps in story beats, and the general questionableness of the narrative, it's not entirely hard to follow. There's definitely times where you'll have to ask yourself, "Wait, what just happened?" But it's more due to poor execution and Wood's terrible script than for wont of a story, even if the story is absolutely wanting. The execution is a huge part of the problem; there's a major gap between Wood's vision and the presentation of that vision. He doesn't have that large of a budget and he doesn't do a great job to work around his budgetary constraints or to hide them. UFO's are very apparently hanging from strings, gravestones get knocked over by actors, it's daytime in one shot and night in the next, boom mics appear in frame, actors are obviously reading from scripts, and stock footage, and footage in general, is reused over and over again. Because of this the story's premise seems even more laughable and ludicrous than it already is. Simply put, aliens are raising an army of zombies to kill humanity. There's more weird, and very unnecessary, quirks and specifics to it but they largely don't matter and discovering them only adds to the fun of the film, watching it struggle to tell a bizarre story that only gets more muddled and self-serving as it goes along. The funniest part to me though is the countless clunky lines of the film, which are equally poorly delivered to hilarious effect. When you open on a line such as, "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. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future," and the line is provided with total seriousness and gravitas, well, you know you're in for something. That something is a well-worn contender for the title of the worst movie ever, but whether it is or isn't doesn't matter. There's a lot of amusement to be found in the poorly handled and conceived science fiction turkey.