Plan 9 From Outer Space is director Ed Wood's masterpiece of ineptitude. It is a long heralded bad movie, a staple of the so bad it's good "genre". I wasn't excited for the opportunity to see the movie. I've seen it, alone or with the great Mike Nelson commentary, and Tim Burton's great Ed Wood bio-pic that details the making of the film many times over. It was the opportunity to see it in a theater, with my girlfriend, buddies, and a crowd that had me pumped. This is how these types of movies are meant to be seen I think.
Something that my crew and I seemed to not realize, or at least to the extent it would play out, was how much of an "event" the showing would be attempted to be made into. I was aware that a costume contest would be held, but when what seemed to be a make-shift band kicked off the festivities with a medley of songs I was left a bit confused. Was this to be taken seriously, or for laughs? Also, why they didn't fit Vampira by The Misfits into that medley I'll never know.
After this, a lady decked out in Vampira gear gave a bit of an over view of women in horror, which is apparently what this event was held for (also as a fund raiser for The Trillium Arts group which is apparently who performs at the theater from time to time). It was, she told us, Women in Horror Month, which confused me because I thought it was black history month. I guess they can live hand in hand. Her speech was far better than the band, but suffered from inaccuracies and an attempt to free style the speech. Had she written out what she wanted to say before hand and read it I wouldn't have minded it at all.
Up next was a reading from the original Frankenstein novel, in honor of Mary Shelley. It was presented as being broadcast on a radio station, but whether that was just shtick or actually happening I never figured out. If so, it's gonna take a long time to get through that book, I'll tell ya that. The strangeness just kept coming after that with what I can only describe as an interpretive dance number. This is when it become totally not my scene. Strange stuff was going down and the audience, much like me, didn't seem to know whether to take it seriously or not. I mean, honestly I thought it was funny, but I didn't want to be so rude as to laugh at loud at them.
When that was done it was finally time for the costume contest. The only part of this madness that I was aware of before hand. It was a pretty standard affair, people coming up and being judged by rounds of applause. The stand-outs for me (and I think everyone, as they won) was a dude that seemed to have just thrown together multiple Halloween costumes and was just acting silly. Among his different pieces of wardrobe were skeleton hands, one of those cheap gowns that usually comes with a mask at Halloween time, a terrible Freddy Kreuger mask and a straw hat. Also of note was a little girl done up in what I would describe as a proto-goth outfit, and was just about the cutest thing. The overall best costume by far though was a lady dressed as a victim of The Birds. With birds dangling off and just the right outfit to portray that time period she was far and away the best on display.
We weren't done yet though. A fellow that was apparently once a WV local did an introduction to the film. He basically told of his days discovering terrible movies at the video store, a tale any horror fan can relate to, and how he discovered Mystery Science Theater 3000. This was all to build to his statement that MST3K were afraid of this film (not true, but worked for the introduction. I've heard they were reluctant to do it because it just seemed like such an obvious film for them to riff) and that we were all in for a truly terrible movie. His introduction was much more in tune with what I would've expected of the evening and I enjoyed it.
Finally it was time for the film. A part of mind wondered if they had an actual print of Plan 9, but as was to be expected it was just a projection of the same DVD that I own. Still can't beat watching it on the big screen though. The performance part of the evening didn't end with the pre-show though. Every time that one of the infamous pie-plate flying saucers would make an appearance they would dangle one of their own in front of the projector. This was slightly funny the first time, but became grating over the films 80 minute duration. They would also flash lights near the stage each time a siren was heard, have someone scream each time someone screamed on screen (that one didn't last thankfully), and most confusingly to me, project what appeared to be the letters "HO" in red over the screen each time there was a death. I have to give it to them for attempting to add to the experience, but there's no accounting for taste I suppose. The atmosphere of the crowd and being there with my girlfriend and buddies really made the film enjoyable, but as is the case with any terrible movie really, it eventually gets a bit boring. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening though. I really hope it was a success and that this isn't the last time that something like this happens. With a bit of refinement this could be an awesome monthly event. There are tons of films that benefit from a showing like this. May I suggest Troll 2?
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