"A routine idea, crudely written, directed and acted, provides just about the weakest SF-cum-horror thriller to come out of Hollywood in years."
Monthly Film Bulletin

"From the hammy intro by Criswell to the hammy afterword by Criswell, this grade Z 1956 home movie masquerading as a theatrical film is an unalloyed delight, raising rank amateurishness to the level of high comic art."
Joe Dante, Castle of Frankenstein

"Incredibly awful script, acting, special effects and editing mar the film a wee bit."
Ed Naha, Horrors: From Screen to Scream

"... so very bad that it exerts a strange fascination."
John Brosnan, The Horror People

"The merits of this incredible film have not been exaggerated. It's not actually the worst film ever made, but it's the most entertaining bad one you'll find... Worth watching nine times."
Michael Weldon, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film

"... the worst horror film ever made... (an) abysmal, exploitative, misbegotten piece of trash... (a) miserable waste of celluloid."
Stephen King, Danse Macabre

"If you see it, it's unlikely you will argue that any film is worse...it's so bad that it borders on the ludicrous. To think that such an inept, berserk picture exists truly boggles the mind."
Danny Peary, Cult Movies

"... the film gives the appearance of having been slung together by drugged mortuary attendants."
Philip Strick, Science Fiction Movies

"It literally 'says' nothing, it has no characters, no story, no direction, no whatever; it's a completely unstructured dream produced with no interference from the conscious mind at all."
The Aurum Encyclopedia of Film: Science Fiction

"The director's magnum opus... inimitable..."
John Charles, Video Watchdog

"Despite its reputation, this is actually a long way from being the worst film of all time... With its papier mache flying saucer and the worst cardboard graveyard ever, this has become a cult favourite."
Stephen Jones, The Essential Monster Movie Guide

"The picture is utterly wretched-- almost incomprehensible-- and has deservedly been listed as one of the worst films ever made."
Arthur Lennig, The Immortal Count: The Life and Films of Bela Lugosi

"So mesmerizingly awful it actually improves (so to speak) with each viewing. And remember, it's all based on sworn testimony!"
Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide

"Subversion is the film's driving force, and Wood does it with style. Nothing here is what we expect, or what narrative demands. The graveyards have plastic headstones, paper mausoleums, and sticks for crosses. A simple sequence of driving from a police station to the cemetery becomes an existential nightmare as the sky shifts willy-nilly between day, dusk, and darkest night over the course of the drive."
Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal

"Things I learned from this movie: Funerals take place at 4:00 am, spacecraft developed by advanced aliens are unable to fly without wobbling, outer space is awful damn windy..."
Andrew Borntrager, BadMovies.org

"The ultimate cult flick"
John Wirt, Baton Rouge Advocate

"This is a perfect film... the standard by which all other vampire/UFO, grave robber films must be found wanting."
Clayton Trapp Brilliant Observations on 1173 Films

"Whether it's the obviously cardboard tombstones, astoundingly stupid 'day for night' photography or the delightfully clumsy performances... Plan 9 provides guaranteed laughs."
Brian Lindsey, Eccentric-Cinema.com

"...sluggish, clunky, repetitive, a technical nightmare, without proper funds, badly-acted, and preachy almost to the point of an insult. Yet it is absolutely earnest. Therein lies its humour and its persistent appeal to cult audiences: it tries so hard, it tries so honestly, and it fails so horribly."
James O'Ehley, The Sci-Fi Movie Page

"What's most striking is the sincerity that Wood brings to his work. The man doubtlessly thought himself to be a capable filmmaker and believed he had something of value to tell audiences. The result is a strange and endearing sweetness that radiates from every frame of Plan 9. It's sort of like watching the Special Olympics -- Wood may not be the most fleet-footed guy on the track, but you're pulling for him anyway."
David Lazarus, Salon

"In many ways, Plan 9 from Outer Space is the ULTIMATE cinematic experience. It requires absolute attention from the audience, and demands complete suspension of disbelief in order for the premise and performances to work. And these are good things. Movies are meant to engage, to stir and involve. If Plan 9 is going to entertain you, you have to meet it halfway. You have to forgive its flaws and its gaffes and simply enjoy."
Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

"Ed Smith's (sic) nano-budget sci-fi howler just may be the worst movie ever made. But if you don't find yourself giggling you're not of this Earth."
Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly

"I'm sure Plan 9 was horrible in its day. I have no doubt of this based on what I've seen watching it. But frankly, it can't even begin to compare to the lousy stuff that circulates today."
Steve Anderson, Film Threat

"(Its) sheer incompetence makes it oddly lovable and it's packed with incident. At least they tried, eh?"
Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

"... a delightful exercise in desultory special effects, off-the-wall dialogue, and low-budget mishigas."
J. Hoberman

"Plan 9 from Outer Space is the ultimate in improvised filmmaking."
Guido Henkel, DVDReview.com

"Ed Wood, Jr.'s 1956 reverse-classic Plan 9 from Outer Space may not be the Worst Film of All Time... but in its total conviction, strained seriousness, wacky syntax, absurd non sequiturs and deliriously inept direction through Wood's bullhorn, it was certainly the most entertaining slice of '50s kitsch."
Paul Mandell, Film Score Monthly

"Now that almost all great directors have been thoroughly analyzed in print, zonked-out eccentrics are having their day, and Ed Wood is the zonkiest of all. He lies somewhere in the twilight zone between idiocy and inspiration, between genius and hopelessness. He was inspired all right, but by goals and desires incomprehensible to us mere mortals. Plan 9 from Outer Space... is testimony to Wood's guilelessness-- he can't even make a cheap bad movie right, but he makes it his own way."
Bill Warren, Keep Watching the Skies (revised edition)

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith