The young audience for ’50s sci-fi movies lived in a democracy of blissful ignorance. With no Internet blogs to alert them to cult films, and with few newspapers reviewing B pictures, kids went innocently to Saturday matinees and consumed whatever they were fed. Even an Edward D. Wood, Jr., movie. Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls, The Sinister Urge: all were no-budget fiascoes — movies so cheesy, cheese would say they stink. What makes them watchable is Ed Wood’s unconquerable passion, which kept him going through so many (self-made) disasters. His anti-masterpiece, described by Mystery Science Theater’s Michael J. Nelson as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies,” is this interspecies marriage of sci-fi epic and zombie thriller. As the ads read: “Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!” Many more people have laughed at Plan 9‘s inadequacies than ever saw it in the ’50s. The difference is, today’s connoisseurs are ready to sneer. Once upon a time, though, the movie was met with a theater-full of youngsters, wide-eyed with perplexity.
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