10 Essential Trash Films You Need To Watch

Everything you’ve heard about Ed Wood’s signature film is true, more or less. When his friend Bela Lugosi passed away, Ed decided to incorporate footage he’d shot of the actor, using a stand-in who was a foot taller and looked nothing like Lugosi to “seamlessly” integrate the scenes into the narrative.

You see, Lugosi’s character has been resurrected by some pompous aliens that want to destroy mankind before it can discover Solaranite, a means of exploding sunlight that will devastate the universe. With Lugosi, wrestler Tor Johnson and TV host Vampira under their command, the aliens’ plot is curtailed when their space ship catches fire, turns into a flying hubcap and explodes. The End.

Shot in 1956, this anti-masterpiece sat unreleased for three years until a distributor placed it on the bottom half of a double bill with Time Lock, a British thriller notable for an early appearance by Sean Connery.

Becoming a staple of late night TV, the picture came to the attention of Stephen King (who called it “the worst horror film ever made”) as well as Harry and Michael Medved, whose book The Golden Turkey Awards elevated Wood from obscurity to the lofty position of “The Worst Director Of All Time.”

Check out this perennial classic, and ignore the woeful remake that's currently doing the rounds.