5. Plan 9 From Outer Space
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u2ukRYsYPmo Ed Wood is known for his classically bad films, and perhaps none is no more famous than his immortal sci-fi Plan 9 From Outer Space, which is also lucky enough to be blessed with an equally, spectacularly bad trailer, only adding to the joy of this wonderfully terrible film. We can't criticise Wood's film for having a trailer that is not reflective of the final product, because really, this trailer is the perfect way to sell the film; it is cheesy, poorly written, technically inept, and really, pretty damn hilarious. It's a trailer that has no pretensions about what it is, and gives viewers a precise insight into what they'll be paying money for. It's also got some wonderfully inane voice-over work, chiefly this scarcely comprehensible zinger - "Its safe to say that the grandchildren of some of the people in this theater will not be born on Earth". The film is a classic of its kind because despite being awful on every conceptual level, it's got heart and you can tell it's made with passion, and this trailer is a perfect reflection of that, even if by all conventional standards it is an absolutely horrible trailer that barely makes any sense. At the time, we can only imagine it was met with the same derision that we now level against the likes of Jack and Jill.
Shaun Munro
Contributor
Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.
See more from
Shaun