PLAN 9 (2015) Zombie infested remake

DIRECTED AND WRITTEN by John Johnson 

STARRING  - Brian Krause as Jeff Trent,  Amy Hart as Paula Trent,  Mr Lobo as Criswell, James Rolfe as Officer Cop Policeman,  Conrad Brookes as Jamie,  Sara Eshelman as Lucy Grimm,  John R. Price The Second as Inspector Clay.

PLOT - In the small town of Nilbog, it is Halloween night and events are occurring that will place the lives of every man, woman and child on the planet Earth in deadly danger.

In a small independent film studio - washed up jobbing actor - Criswell - frustrated and disillusioned,  walks off the filmset of his latest job - a remake of a bad 50's sci-fi film - after an argument with the director.

Meanwhile - above the town - pilot Jeff Trent is forced to use evasive maneuvers to avoid a meteorite that is crashing to Earth, narrowly missing him. Upon landing, Jeff reports the incident to the local police who ridicule him and ignore the report.

Across town - brilliant young scientist - Lucy Grimm is conducting experiments on the Solaranite wave spectrum which she believes will be beneficial to mankind. However, what she doesn't realise it that her experiments will prove to be a danger not only to life on Earth but also to other worlds in the galaxy and that her actions have been noticed by an intelligence that is watching her from across the gulfs of space...

Further still across town...Lucy's grandfather, grieving the loss of his beautiful young wife, dons a Dracula Halloween costume and hands out sweets to trick or treaters. After doing this he goes upstairs and sadly and quietly hangs himself.

Later that night a wave of cosmic energy blasts from the meteorite and reanimates the dead residents of the local cemetery. Lucy's step grandmother is one of these walking dead, along with the recently desceased corpse of her grandfather.

Very soon - the dead are rising all over the town of Nilbog, feasting on the flesh of the living. Terrified survivors band together to defend themselves - Criswell and Jeff are holed up in the local hardware store with a ragtag bunch of townsfolk fighting off the hordes of ravenous undead. Jeff's wife - Paula - is rescued by a squad of police officers and they too have to fight the walking dead to survive. Meanwhile at the lab, it falls to Lucy to try to find a way to stop these reanimated cadavers and the alien intelligence that has activated them. Will she succeed or will the wave of reanimation consume not only the town of Nilbog but also the rest of the surface of planet Earth ?

DIALOUGE  - Criswell - "Newsflash bubby - remakes are overplayed ! They're overdone ! 99.9 percent of them suck donkey balls. I don't know why anyone in thier right mind would want to remake this movie anyway !!!"

PERFORMANCES  - It's a low budget contemporary independent film - so don't go into this expecting Oscar worthy performances, but by and large the acting in this is pretty decent for what it is. 

As with Wood's original, Director Johnson has assembled an eclectic cast of oddball performers. Most of them are actors associated with previous genre films and TV series along with several faces known from the online horror/sci-fi scene. It's a mixture of experienced veterens and enthusiastic amateurs. It's occasionally an uneven mix but as with the original the sheer enthusiasm of all concerned shines through and wins you over.

Brian Krause as Jeff and Amy Hart as his wife Paula are given a lot more depth than thier 50's counterparts where given. Krause is a lot more badass and resourceful than 50's Jeff but still comes across as an ordinary bloke thrust into an extraordinary situation and portrays it well. Especially in the scenes where he's worrying about his wife and how well she's faring in the face of this mini zombie apocalypse. 

Hart too is good in her role. As with Jeff, the modern day Paula is a lot more three dimensional than the 50's version. There is a lovely callback to the original in one scene - in both versions the character of Paula is trying to get Jeff to rethink his career as a pilot. In the original, Paula tells Jeff that she gets lonely at night when he's away and has to content herself with cuddling his pillow in bed when he's not there. In the remake you see Paula talking to Jeff's pillow as she nervously rehearses what shes going to say to him to try to get him to change his job. The pillow line in the 50's is one of those blink and you'll miss it character lines, so it's nice to see it expanded upon here - it's a little easter egg for hardcore fans of the original that only they would pick up on. It's a nice, subtle scene.

Mr Lobo is a TV/Internet horror host and founder of Internet television channel O.S.I. 74 which specialises in cult, horror and sci-fi shows and films (well worth a watch if you're into the type of stuff that can be read about on this site - https://www.osi74.com ). Here he plays the modern day counterpart of Criswell. He's totally different to the original but makes the role his own. Lobo's Criswell is an acerbic, embittered, washed up actor. In the first quarter of the film he's rude to practically everyone he comes across. However as the film progresses he becomes an unlikely hero as the situation seems to bring out the best in him. It's not the subtlest of performances but he does it well and is a likeable presence onscreen. He even gets to put his own spin on the original Criswell's infamous opening monologue which you can tell he has a lot of fun with.

There are also some nice guest turns from the supporting roles - YouTube star James Rolfe of Cinemassacre fame gets to play Officer Cop Policeman (the character is never verbally named onscreen, 'Cop Policeman' is what it says on his name badge), it's a generically two dimensional performance but that's the whole point - hence the name badge - he does "cop things" and dies a cop's death - cannon fodder in the battle against the zombies. Conrad Brookes - at the time the final surviving cast member of the original film - also makes an appearance, he doesn't get to do much as he was well into his eighties when this was made, but it's nice to see him all the same, passing the torch onto the modern day generation of B-movie actors and filmmakers.

John R. Price The Second is a much better actor than Tor Johnson in the original, he doesn't get a lot to do except be bumped off and come back as a zombie as per the 50's version but his resembelence to Tor Johnson is uncanny...

Well done to the casting department on that one.

SFX  - There are some very well designed zombies in this film and the overall emphasis is on practical make up effects over CGI - which is always a good thing in my book as the very notion of practical effects seems to be becoming something of a lost art in this day and age.

SEX & VIOLENCE - There's some gratuitous nudity in this film - a couple of characters both male and female seem to be driven mad by the effects of the cosmic rays and remove thier clothes as a result. It doesn't really add anything to the story - its just kind of there...

There is, of course, lots of gut munching, entrail chomping zombie action coupled with lots of shotgun assisted exits for the aforementioned undead - all depicted in loving gory detail for your delectation and delight.

RATING - I like how this film takes the concept of the original movie and runs with it, taking it to the next level - a level which Wood was never able to realise. Naturally, Johnson has a bigger (but still small) budget than Wood had and access to more advanced special effects, but is the remake a better film than the original ?

Well...yes and no.

It's a much bigger film with a larger cast and a more apocalyptic feel. The zombies and the reanimation pulse are a much more credible threat than in the first film - you actually feel that these zombies could easily overrun the small town and that the reanimation pulse will eventually grow and cause the dead to rise on a global scale. Far more convincing than just the three zombies of the original - it seems like this time the alien's plan might just work.

Also nice are the kisses to the past and homages to other genre films. The towns name - Nilbog - is the same name as the setting for another "so bad it's good" film, 1990's Troll 2. The scenes in the hardware store of shut in locals fighting off zombies is also reminiscent of the original Night of The Living Dead. The filmmakers have clearly had a great time referencing all thier favourite B-movies and this film really does come across as a genuine passion project as a result, much like Ed Wood's original did all those years ago.

Where the film loses over the original is that it lacks the themes that where present in Wood's version. There is no sense of concern over the notion of science being out of control, no fear of just where our own curiosity is leading us. It's merely alluded to as a plot point and then passed over in favour of seeing more zombies get thier brains blown out, rather than it being a central theme and concern of the story. 

This version is much more of a splattery horrorshow than a sci-fi movie and does fall into the usual zombie clichés. However, it does what it does very well and is an overall entertaining film.

I'm going to give it 4 and a half reimagined Zombies out of 5 - it loses half a point for missing out the original's thematic emphasis but its a fun romp and a respectful, loving tribute to the original. Ed would have been happy I think.