Sample Analysis of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space

Harold Crick
The Fantastic OER Writing Sample
Dr. James Francis
1 August 2022

Plan 9 from Outer Space: Defining the B-movie

What’s in a story?[1] Most people might consider answering that question with “a beginning, middle, and end” to comment on story structure. Others might focus on the necessity of conflict to give a story a rise and fall to its narrative. And moreover, we might list staples like characters, a good ending, and dialogue. While all of these story elements are relevant, it is the way they are crafted and combined that relegate them to particular genres and subgenres such as drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, Western, noir, and more. Beyond genre, when we evaluate the quality of a film, we may find ourselves defining the production as a particular type of movie. During the 1950s-1960s, the B-movie thrived as a low-budget, independent cinematic creation[2] that never meant to be a massive hit with crowds, but its schlock appeal helped develop niche-audience followings that celebrated its type into cult status. Actors facing declining careers, directors unrecognized or cast out of the Hollywood system, and scripts meant to serve as second-tier offerings to mainstream films for double features were clear indicators of B-movie cinema. One of the most representative B-movies, and specifically for sci-fi horror, is none other than Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). The film is the definition of the B-movie as clearly illustrated by its camera use, special effects, and characterization.

2. Defining or describing a term the reader may not be familiar with helps avoid any confusion in the essay content, especially if it is the focus of the writing.

Ed Wood, whose body of work exemplifies the B-movie aesthetic, used the camera in Plan 9 just as any director would: to tell a story. The cinematography created by the camera use, however, indicates a B-movie production. One of the most repetitive camera setups in the film is the static camera. The frame presents the audience with action directly in front of the camera with no movement; it is almost as if we are watching a stage play in which the only movement comes from the characters and our own heads turning to follow them as they maneuver the setting. This static camera is an indicator of budget constraints. Although the steadycam and other technological developments were far from being imagined, the dolly had been available for at least 50 years prior to Plan 9’s production. Wood’s use of the static camera position reveals a quick and inexpensive way to film story action that also cuts corners of implementing a dolly to capture more movement for the film. Although there are a few camera zooms—slow tracking to or away from a character—one specific static-camera use that helps define the production as a B-movie involves Vampira’s (Maila Nurmi) attacks once she becomes the undead. When the two gravediggers encounter her, a static-camera shot is used to film them looking at her and attempting to get away along with a different static-camera shot used to film her slowly walking toward the camera.[1] To create more onscreen tension and action, Wood could have had Vampira and the gravediggers in the same frame and shot the scene with a dolly of her chasing them to showcase her proximity or at least that they were all in the same environmental space. Using the static camera setup for the two separate shots allows less need for multiple takes, post-production editing, actors hitting their marks, and so forth. The setup also creates a disconnect between Vampira’s actions and those of the gravediggers, something emblematic of the B-movie film in that they don’t always portray much linear progression or fluid continuity. As she walks slowly toward the camera, we hear the gravediggers screams and demises offscreen, but she hasn’t touched them yet. But the another disconnect that helps define a B-movie is its special effects.

Almost any moviegoer of the 21st century can recognize when a film’s special-effects budget is nonexistent, and even audiences of the 20th century could tell that Plan 9 was a B-movie by its onscreen aesthetics. During many of the film’s sequences in which humans confront the aliens and the undead (one infamously portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Dracula garb), guns are used to slow down or stop the invading forces; however, when the guns are shot, we hear what can only be described as cap-gun blasts with a type of white powder billowing in the air. The resulting deaths of the undead also reveal a standard prop of the B-movie: skeletal remains. These are the skeletons that have been irradiated of all clothing and flesh; they are the commercially-produced skeletons of the high school science classroom, the skeletons we dangle in front of our houses for Halloween. And yet another indicator of the B-movie is Plan 9’s use of curtains for the plane’s cockpit and the spaceship commander’s quarters.[1] Curtains are an easy stage setup to transfer one type of room, possibly the detective’s office, into another type of room, such as the commander’s quarters or plane cockpit. It’s an easy set to put up and strike to help with the expediency of an independent-film shoot and its low-cost necessities; the curtains also provide an illusion of depth to imagine a plane full of passengers beyond the cockpit or a massive spaceship outside the commander’s quarters. But there are two main representations of the B-movie in Wood’s film that define it as such and tons of other productions: the ufo and stock footage. Each time we see the UFO (a toy model) fly across the screen, it is clear to see the string holding it up and guiding it from left to right in the frame. If the phrase “shoe-string budget” seems appropriate here, it’s because there was no effort given to hiding the string showing on the screen which lets all audiences know just how much money was available to make the film. Furthermore, when the military gets involved to fight the aliens, military stock footage is used to showcase missiles being launched, and the footage (presumably from the 1940s) does not match the screen ratio and frame of the production or its color grading. Clearly, Wood’s film is assembled by any means necessary.[2] The reality of not having a budget to make a film causes filmmakers to be creative and resourceful, and for this reason, the B-movie is often described as lacking visual taste and quality, but naysayers draw our attention to the ingenuity that comes from making something out of nothing. And one final element of the B-movie we sometimes regard as skeletal is the script, comprised of characters that don’t do much to create a dynamic story.

2. Statements should have impact and be authoritative, but we must consider the wording we use which–at times–may put forth bias or change the type of writing. This statement by the author could be revised as, “Wood’s film demonstrates the director utilized the tools and materials available to him for production.” In this manner, they avoid what seems to be a critique of the work which would indicate bias and change the close reading into more of a review.

In Plan 9, the characters are as stock as the military footage in that they serve a purpose to progress the story, but nothing more. The classic 50s household is filled with the air-pilot husband and the dutiful wife who live in a white-picket-fenced home and conform to their assigned and stereotypical gender roles of the times. The husband flies planes and is very logical about the UFO sighting; on the other hand, the wife stays at come and is very comforting to the husband about his doubts and worries. The detective and police officers occupy their roles as authority figures, but there is a clear distinction made between a standard officer who is good enough to use his gun to shoot the undead versus the detective who uses his brain to uncover details about the invasion. We even have a military colonel to whom everyone reports in order to showcase the hierarchy of authority, power, and rank in government – the depiction of masculinity and strength of nationhood. For gender, even the aliens—in their male and female presenting forms—adhere to strict binary constructions in which the woman takes a backseat to the man’s orders.[1] The undead characters bumble around, but provide visual recognition of vampire and zombies, standards of sci-fi horror. And among all these character types, one stands out the most to guide us through the story: the narrator. Plan 9 opens with a static-camera shot of a man informing us that we are about to see the truth unveiled and secrets revealed of a most horrifying incident. This type of navigating storyteller sets the tone for many B-movies; he is the man we are to trust who gives us all the information that has been covered up about this “real” story of alien invasion, and he appears at the end of the film to bookend the fiction with what is meant to represent someone outside the story world as a transmitter of facts. His voice is the first we hear when the film starts, it carries us through the film in voiceover narration, and it is the last voice we hear to close out Plan 9 – the voice of consistency and comfort to know that he will be there for us when this horrifying tale comes to a conclusion. Along with the camera use, special effects, and other characters, all of these elements combine to present Plan 9 as a quintessential B-movie.

Ed Wood wrote and directed Plan 9 from Outer Space in the mid-1950s and got the film released toward the latter part of that decade. As with most of his films, especially once he got into adult cinema, it was largely panned by critics and ignored by audiences. B-movies had no credibility or value when they were in their heyday because they were seen as filler sideshows for mainstream attractions or schlock productions to be made fun of and not take seriously. Over time, however, the recognition of B-movies for their structures, aesthetics, unique commentary on humanity and society-at-large, and directors’ visions has afforded many of the productions cult status as highly-regarded artifacts of their time. Wood’s Plan 9 may not have resonated with critics and audiences in 1959, but it remains a critical discussion in cinema to this day, only enhanced by Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) and further study of its camera use, special effects, characters, and more. What other B-movies, contemporary to Plan 9, might be viewed in a similar manner? How has the definition of B-movie changed since Wood’s film? What modern-day production represents the B-movie of the 21st century?[1] These questions stem from just one close reading of a nearly forgotten-about film of yesteryear, and there are no limits to what we can learn from investigating other cinematic creations from the past.

Work Cited