Plan 9 from Outer Space - Essay Example

However, the designer displays his bad taste in costumes with regards to the Eros (the alien being) and his accomplice Tanna, who both very obviously human were dressed in really shiny clothings that resembled nightsuits. Any form of realism was killed by their overly shiny night gowns and comical guns. The other characters were better off such as the dead wife of Bela Lugosi who resurfaces as the Vampire girl. She is slightly more believable with her black Adam’s family inspired gown, jetblack hair and scary long finger nails.

Inspector Clay, who becomes her victim, is dressed up in a sharp detective suit which together with her hat makes for a decent get up. However, his acting could not have been more dreadful. The Army Colonel Edwards is also appropriately dressed in detective’s clothes. Set Design The set was very obviously bargain central. There is very little variety in scenery and the most used background is the cemetary, which is kept so simple it is obvious the director was very short on cash. The movie opens with the cemetary where the Vampire girl is buried and most of it keeps resurfacing there.

It is shot from only one angle with what seems like a fixed frame. The set barely has any room for movement. Jeff Trent’s house, which is next to the cemetary is no more realistic. It is the middle of summer but the couple chooses to keep the windows closed at night just to prevent any wandering breeze from flowing in and cooling them down. The worst part is how they presented the space ships. The presence of space ships was a central concept in the movie and the fact that a kind of tin material was used to present them makes it very humourous.

The moments where the aliens fly by in their saucers is supposed to be scary, but it is hard to be scared when all you see are wheelcaps waivering in the sky. The cockpit where Jeff shoots his airplane scenes is also victim to cheap design. There is what seems like a shower separator which is the link between the cockpit and the rest of the aircraft. The waitress often comes through it as if she has no restrictions between the curtain and the supposed passengers sitting behind. Not to mention the inside of the alien saucer where only a few wooden tables and dials represent the inside of a very high-tech machine capable of travelling to earth from a different planet.

Dialogue The dialogue is very comical. It makes the movie very odd and does not help the flow at all. While the mourning of Vampire girl in the opening of the movie, along with the supposedly ‘scary’ moments where Jeff and his wife experience the alien saucer were somewhat passable, they get specially hard to follow during the rest of the movie. The really unreal dialogues come in when Jeff and the team of alien hunters enter Eros’ spaceship where Eros, in a moment of anger and pity, explains, “All of you Earth are idiots”.

The exchange of dialogue that follows pretty much reduces the movie to a comic strip. Eros explanation of the human race does not present any depth to the movie the director must have hoped for. Instead, when Eros says things like solarmanite “causes sunlight to explode,” it is hard to control your laughter. Of course, Criswell presented the intro and the outro to the movie and his presentation is worth mentioning. It is hard to ignore his poise when delivering his speech, “My friends, we cannot keep this a secret any longer, let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent.

” To describe it as a cliche would not be justified. His straight face may be funny but he delivered it with conviction. Criswell’s dialogues should be given credit. Special Effects The effects could not have been anything greater given the budget the