--- title: "Plan 9 from Outer Space: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/plan-9-from-outer-space/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/plan-9-from-outer-space" critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957): what the critics said Critics' score 71 from 8 reviews: 6 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics find Plan 9 from Outer Space entertaining despite its conspicuous technical failings, with praise clustering around Ed Wood’s earnestness and pleasure in filmmaking. The flimsy sets, wooden performances and crude flying saucers become sources of comedy and, for its admirers, affection. The positive reviews value the straight-faced delivery and lack of cynicism: they find enough enthusiasm on screen to make the mistakes part of the appeal. The scores nevertheless span a wide range, and the critics disagree about more than how much ineptitude they can enjoy. Den of Geek defends the plot as coherent and surprisingly solid, while The Independent finds it baffling but takes pleasure in the film’s innocence. Time Out is the clearest dissenter, treating the absurd premise and glaring continuity errors as grounds for its poor reputation. The central divide is over whether Wood’s sincerity makes those faults enjoyable or merely leaves them exposed. ## Slant Magazine — Jordan Cronk Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 March 2012. The critic celebrates Plan 9 from Outer Space as a glorious cult classic and a sacred text of B-movie lore, a masterpiece of the maladroit born from sincere artistic limitations. Wood’s uncommon devotion to his material and the film’s earnestness are singled out for praise amid its flagrant incompetence. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/plan-9-from-outer-space/) ## The New Yorker — Richard Brody Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 August 2016. The oft-ridiculed director Ed Wood stared so fixedly at his own grandiose designs that he stumbled upon the stuff of filmmaking in this extravagant example of his sublime absurdity. The flimsy sets, flagrant acting, perfunctory staging, and hectic montage of stock footage convey a frenzied vision of cosmic catastrophe that comes to life only in the awesomely silly special effect of a flying saucer aflame in the night sky; Wood is an auteur despite himself. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/plan-9-outer-space) ## The Independent — Geoffrey Macnab Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 23 April 2021. The critic finds rewatching the film a reassuring experience as it remains every bit as bad as remembered, with stilted dialogue, a baffling plot and laughably crude effects. He singles out its magical innocence, complete lack of cynicism and childlike pleasure in filmmaking for praise, arguing these qualities make it joyfully entertaining despite its ineptitude. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/culture/ed-wood-plan-9-from-outer-space-tim-burton-johnny-depp-b1835024.html) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 13 March 2007. The critic notes the film has become accepted as the worst ever made but argues it is consistently entertaining thanks to its ranting dialogue, camp performances, wobbly sets, paper-plate flying saucers and bizarre elements like the Bela Lugosi footage. He concludes it is worth seeing even for those tired of bad-movie fandom, describing it as brilliantly terrible or terribly terrible depending on viewpoint. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/plan-9-outer-space-review/) ## Time Out — CR Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The film earns its reputation as one of the worst ever made through its absurd plot involving alien invaders resurrecting the dead, but it carves a historical niche thanks to Bela Lugosi's final screen appearance. The review highlights glaring continuity errors, such as mismatched furniture and a stand-in for the deceased Lugosi who towers over the original footage. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/plan-9-from-outer-space) ## Den of Geek — Jim Knipfel Rating 4.5/5. 26 October 2013. The film is not the worst ever made and Ed Wood was not the worst director; it is a singular, fast-paced and entertaining sci-fi/horror/conspiracy picture driven by genuine love for filmmaking. The coherent plot involving aliens resurrecting the dead to warn Earth about a doomsday weapon stands out as surprisingly solid for its era. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/plan-9-from-outer-space-a-reappraisal/) ## Collider — Lloyd Farley Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 27 October 2024. The critic calls Plan 9 from Outer Space Ed Wood's best bad movie, a schlocky and poorly made but hugely entertaining cult classic full of exuberance and soul. They highlight its cardboard sets, wooden acting, continuity errors, and the use of unrelated Bela Lugosi footage as sources of its accidental charm and enduring appeal. [Read the review](https://collider.com/plan-9-from-outer-space-worst-movie/) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Rating One star for quality; five for fun. 7 March 2009. The critic calls the film the worst ever made but also one of the funniest and most lovable, praising its passion and straight-faced delivery despite technical flaws. Wood's determination to finish the low-budget production despite setbacks like Lugosi's death is singled out as what makes it compelling. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/plan-9-from-outer-space-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/plan-9-from-outer-space.md