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Plan 9 From Outer Space
R1 - America - Off Color Films Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (4th February 2006). |
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The Film
 What hasn’t Ed Wood done? Bad horror: check, gender bender comedies: check, porn: check. OK, so maybe there’s a lot he hasn’t done but he’s certainly the king of all that is cheese. The original schlock filmmaker as immortalized by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton‘s film is probably not too far off the mark; this eccentric maniac is responsible for cinemas’ worst, yet most entertaining films. Plan 9 From Outer Space being his most famous, and universally hailed as ‘the worst movie ever made’, something I’m not so sure it entirely deserves. Sure the movie is badly scripted, shot, directed, acted - I could go on, but the point is the film maybe bad but I can think of many other films much worse than this. Manos Hands of Fate (1966) anyone? Or perhaps Robot Monster (1953), or even Vincent Gallo‘s boring crap-fest Buffalo 66 (1998), probably my most hated film of all time! Anyway, Plan 9, although terrible, is actually quite entertaining in the ‘so bad it’s good’ category of entertaining. This is the best kind of movie to watch with a bunch a friends, just make sure you’re all drunk. Trust me you’ll have a great time (unless you’re underage and cannot drink legally, then I suggest you either wait until you’re old enough or get on a sugar high by drowning yourself in Coca-Cola and eating nothing but candy during the viewing of this film). Plan 9 From Outer Space tells the story of a bunch of aliens that come to earth with one thing on their mind, world domination! Using a cemetery as their base of operations, they put into action plan 9, to re-animated the dead and set the zombies onto the stupid minds of the humans. That’s basically it. Nothing too special in terms of plot but then again nothing Ed Wood ever did was particularly well thought out, for a science-fiction film about an Alien Invasion there seems to be a whole lot of talking and characters not doing much. I guess shooting an entire invasion would have been beyond Wood’s budget. Speaking of which it looks as though the film was shot on a budget of several dollars a handful of peanuts and a tank of gas. Pretty much in keeping with Wood’s style you can expect very little in the areas of production design, costumes and most importantly the performances. I think Wood is the only director out there that’s basically made an entire movie out of the first takes of every performance, that’s what Plan 9 feels like most of the time. The performances aren’t exactly Oscar material, especially those of horror movie regular and type-cast for all eternity as Dracula, Bela Lugosi, who basically strolls his way through this film lifeless and emotionally detached from just about everything and everyone (it’s probably all the morphine he was popping, incidentally the footage of Lugosi in this film was shot just before his death, for additional shots a stand-in was used). And of course there’s also everyone’s favorite Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson whose probably the only actor (if you can call him that) that can be out-acted by a cinderblock. This guy is basically a zombie and spent most of the film acting like he just came out of a heart operation and was shot up with enough drugs to make Keith Richards‘ brain explode. But aside from the asinine script, the terrible performances, the bad costumes and cheap sets, Plan 9 manages to do what a lot of bloated and heartless Hollywood films today fail to (especially the sequels and remakes - enough already!), it entertains. It’s a bad film that you can watch with friends and laugh at the preposterous set-ups and the crazy dialogue. It’s so bad it’s great, besides I’d rather watch this film than any of the s**t-fests that the esteemed Dr. Uwe Boll manages to crap out every year. So grab this flick a sizeable amount of alcohol and a bunch of your closest friends, sit back and enjoy.
Video
Presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 1.33:1, Off Color Films have included two transfers on this disc, a colorized version and the original black and white. The color transfer was created by Legend Films. Using a relatively new 48-bit colorization process to achieve a final image in high definition or to film quality as stated in their official site. For a z-grade film such as this and also considering its age the transfer is generally very good. Sharpness is nicely balanced however not entirely consistent, there is some evidence of print damage and inherent flaws. Blacks aren’t deep and bold and shadow detail is virtually nil, an unfortunate byproduct of the colorization process perhaps. I’ve reviewed a few other Off Color Film releases and my comments regarding the colorization still stand, on any given day I’d still rather watch the original black and white version, just as the director had intended. But I do understand why colorization of film is done, as there are people out there that for some reason just can’t watch black and white films (call it a prejudice towards vintage and classic films) so if this colorization attracts a few more viewers to these films then all the better (as long as the original black and white version is made available to purists and that’s what Off Color has done here). Now that I’ve got that rant out the way the color is of a high quality you can clearly see that time and patience was taken in getting it right, there is no evidence of color bleed so that’s a bonus, however it still looks a bit unnatural, like actors wearing way too much make-up that’s pan caked on. Now for the black and white transfer, I was very pleased with this transfer. I’ve seen this film on many formats from VHS to Laserdisc to DVD and I’ve seen many terrible prints, with damage you could swear was done maliciously and not naturally occurring. The image is quite sharp, although grain is evident and sharpness is not consistent all the way throughout, there are some flaws in the print but a balanced level of contrast between black and white is solid, blacks are nice and bold, grey tones render well and detail is not entirely lost within it. Aside from a few problems this is likely the best transfer I’ve ever seen for this film.
Audio
While previous Off Color releases have included an up-mixed DTS track, this release only has one track, a restored version of its original English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track. I was happy to hear minimal flaws with this soundtrack; the dialogue is clear and for the most part distortion free. I couldn’t hear any hiss, pops, or any other major problem that’s usually heard with film of this age. There were a couple of drop-outs but lasted seconds and where during transitions between one scene and the next so the dialogue was never affected. Unfortunately this release does not include any subtitles.
Extras
First up we have a feature-length audio commentary by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Carrying on his MST3K shtick Nelson spends his time over the following 79 minutes making jokes about The Citizen Kane of bad movies. Nelson suggests that it’s not wise to watch this movie alone, and he’s there for you. He basically makes fun of just about everything from the cast and character motivations, to the costumes, hairstyles and special effects. There a several gaps of silence, Nelson is basically watching the movie along with you and occasionally a line of dialogue or silly set-up will spur him into making a comment. There’s some funny stuff in here but the gags get tiresome after a while. A collection of 3 deleted scenes are included, they play one after the next in a reel and runs for a total of 1 minute 20 seconds. The footage has been colorized like the film itself and is in fair condition, while there is more print damage on these scenes. They are basically outtakes, the first is clearly a blooper and the other 2 provide exposition that’s not really necessary. One of the scenes even includes a poster in the background that clearly shows the DVD cover for Reefer Madness, which is a shameful attempt at marketing. We also get some Ed Wood home movies there are two clips, the first shows Ed celebrating a birthday and runs for 1 minute 14 seconds while the second clip show Ed dressing up in drag and runs for 43 seconds. Both clips are in color, although they're very badly faded, the overall condition of these clips are very bad and look as if they were stored in a plastic bag left out in the sun for a decade. Next up are a collection of Ed Wood commercials, we get 4 vintage commercials all of which are in black and white and in varying degrees of condition. These ads aren’t particularly great, but provide some kitsch value for interested viewers. The commercials included are: - Surprise runs for 51 second, in this clip we a see an about to be married couple, the groom has surprised his wife to be with a brand new used car. - Treasure and Curves runs for 53 seconds, in this clip three lady pirates are burying some jewelry in what appears to be some sort of Jewelry store ad. - The Bestest runs for 1 minute 3 seconds and sees two dueling cowboys about to draw guns, when one notices the other’s fine boots purchased at the best shoe store in town, and at a mighty fair price too! - Magic Man runs for 54 seconds, a man disappears and reappears all dressed up in a fine suit, that’s about it. Following that are the Lost 8 Plans these short segments narrated by Mike Nelson tell us what the previous 8 plans of the invading alien force were, all of which failed. They all feature interesting animation and occasionally use a segment of the film and are by far the funniest extra on this DVD. The plans include: - Plan 1 runs for 16 seconds, in this failing attempt the flying saucers attacking Earth get tangled in their puppet strings. - Plan 2 runs for 24 seconds, here we have a failed attempt to control squirrels to attack earth. - Plan 3 runs for 25 seconds, here we see the failed attempt of the alien sitting tight and not doing anything. - Plan 4 runs for 25 seconds, in this failed attempt the Alien leader lands in the Castro district of San Francisco and meets a nice young man (In the Brokeback Mountain kind of way, nudge, nudge, wink, wink) and eventually his plans are sidetracked. - Plan 5 runs for 20 seconds, in this failed attempt Bela Lugosi is turned into a zombie clown. - Plan 6 runs for 16 seconds, in this failed attempt the invading force lands on Earth 400 million years too soon. - Plan 7 runs for 10 seconds, in this failed attempt the aliens plan on taking over the planet by increasing the garden gnome population. - Plan 8 runs for 19 seconds, in this failed attempt Vampira is sent to gather reconnaissance but eventually gets married with children and forgets her mission. Next up is a Legend Colorization Demo promo reel that runs for 2 minutes 57 seconds and basically shows highlights from the films they’ve colorized with comparisons between the black and white version and the color. It’s purely a promotional piece that doesn’t really require repeat viewing. The disc also includes the film’s original theatrical trailer in color and runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. The disc also includes a series of bonus trailers all of which are also in color, and they are: - The House on Haunted Hill which runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. - Carnival of Souls which runs for 2 minutes 27 seconds. - Night of the Living Dead which runs for 1 minute 8 seconds. - Reefer Madness which runs for 2 minutes 7 seconds. - The Three Stooges which runs for 58 seconds. The disc also includes a DVD-ROM content in the form of web links to Legend Films. Rounding out the extras is an insert with a message from Mike Nelson and a cardboard UFO dangly.
Packaging
Off Color Films have packaged Plan 9 From Outer Space in a Limited Edition release featuring an autographed cover by Mike Nelson from Mystery Science Theater 3000 who has provided an audio commentary for this release.
Overall
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