Once dubbed the "worst director of all time," Edward D. Wood Jr. helmed a collection of widely-reviled films spanning multiple decades. From the confusing, almost avant-garde Glen or Glenda to the outrageous posthumously-adapted screenplay I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, Wood is infamous for his overambition and extremely cheap and quick style.
That said, his films have attracted a cult fanbase over the years owing partially to the acclaimed 1994 Tim Burton film simply titled Ed Wood. While objectively dreadful, there's a strange charm to Wood's films that evokes the amateur filmmaker in all of us.
The Sinister Urge (1960) - 2.6
In typical Wood fashion, the 1960's The Sinister Urge is a nearly-incomprehensible noir thriller that was seemingly made in part to lambast the adult film industry while itself being an adult film. The plot revolves around a hitman working for some sort of adult film racket who becomes homicidal when viewing adult films. He also manages to kill all of his victims in the same spot every time without being caught.
The most significant problem with The Sinister Urge is that, while most of Ed Wood's films are unintentionally hilarious, this production is just bad from beginning to end with no kind of redeeming value whatsoever.
Night of the Ghouls (1959) - 3.5
As unbelievable as it may seem, a collection of Ed Wood's movies could loosely be cobbled together into a sort of trilogy, as they feature recurring characters and reference previously seen places and events. This very loosely strung-together trilogy culminates with Wood's 1959 effort Night of the Ghouls, a "horror" film that sees a charlatan medium named Dr. Acula—yes, that's the character's name—get what's coming to him after scamming his customers.
As is the case with just about everything Wood worked on, Night of the Ghouls makes almost no sense and has no regard for continuity. However, more than five decades after its release, it could be construed as an unintentional masterpiece of directorial missteps.
Jail Bait (1954) - 3.6
When a delinquent son is suspected of stealing a gun from his father, a famed surgeon, a criminal conspiracy begins to unravel, setting in motion a tale of plastic surgery and sub-par noir intrigue.
Jail Bait is often forgotten among Wood's filmography, and that may be because, much like The Sinister Urge, it's not bad enough to fall into the so-bad-its-good territory. Boring, badly acted, and uninteresting through and through, Jail Bait is a snoozefest that pales in comparison to technically worse films such as Plan 9 From Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls.
Take It Out In Trade (1970) - 3.9
Later in his career, Wood turned almost entirely to adult filmmaking, likely as a means to support himself following the total failure of every one of his original films. Much of his work from this era of his career was once considered to be lost, as was the case with Take It Out in Trade. Fortunately, a 16mm print of the flick was found in 2017, allowing for a Blu-ray release to be pressed the next year.
Take It Out In Trade involves a couple who hire a private detective to track down their missing daughter. She's eventually discovered in a so-called "house of ill-repute," and one can imagine what follows from there.
Plan 9 From Outer Space (3.9)
The film that would go down as Ed Wood's magnum opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space is a terrific trainwreck of a film that unites the unrelenting ambition of an amateur filmmaker with unbelievable ineptitude and a stunning disregard for continuity or intelligibility. A film about a race of aliens who revive the dead to prevent humanity from constructing a weapon capable of destroying the universe, Plan 9 is a bizarre mish-mash of horror, sci-fi, and drama, and it's the very pinnacle of so-bad-its-good entertainment.
The film is also notable for being Bela Lugosi's final starring role. Though he was top-billed, the Dracula actor died before filming could begin, so Wood cobbled together a script that made use of previously-captured footage.
Glen or Glenda (1953) - 4.1
An oft-discussed aspect of Ed Wood's life was his fondness for dressing in drag. During a time in which such subject matter was deemed to be highly inappropriate, Wood's films offered progressive opinions on then-taboo topics. Or, at least, they would have had they been intelligible in the least.
Another film often considered to be one of the worst ever made, Glen or Glenda—also known as I Changed My Sex—was supposed to be a film about the first-ever sex reassignment surgery. However, Wood more or less hijacked it, turning the script into something of a biopic. Today, it's perhaps most known for its weird and vaguely terrifying vignettes of Bela Lugosi emphatically spouting strange nothingisms.
Bride of the Monster (1955) - 4.1
The 1950s was a decade rife with B-grade horror cinema which played up pervasive fears of atomic warfare, and Ed Wood's 1955 work Bride of the Monster, the first of his so-called trilogy, was among the lowest of the low-grade. His second film starring Bela Lugosi, Bride of the Monster concerns a scientist attempting to create a race of "atomic supermen" to take over the world.
It makes almost no sense, makes repeated use of out-of-place stock footage, and features some of the very worst practical effects imaginable. Still, it's loaded with that odd Ed Wood charm for which the once-maligned director has become so famous.
Final Curtain (1957) - 4.6
A relatively short film about the spooky happenings occurring in an empty theater late at night, Ed Wood's Final Curtain plays on the universal fears of being alone in the dark in unfamiliar places. While the director had dabbled in more traditional horror tropes in the past, Final Curtain was perhaps Wood's scariest film.
Few would argue that Final Curtain is a good movie, but, while it carries many of the classic goofy Ed Wood traits, it's an attempt to strike out from the silly shlock for which he was previously known, and it's certainly more heartfelt than the adult films he would later produce.
The Young Marrieds (1972) - 4.8
One of Ed Wood's final films, 1972's The Young Marrieds is an adult film that features the sort of wooden acting and shoddy plot one might expect from the genre. It was thought unremarkable when it was originally released and was considered to be lost media until a remaining film reel was uncovered by adult film preservationist Demitrios Otis.
While an overall score of 4.8 out of 10 would constitute a flop in the minds of most, for Ed Wood, that's a high mark. Of course, IMDb wouldn't come into being until long after Wood's death.
I Woke Up Early The Day I Died (1998) - 5.5
Though Ed Wood did not direct 1998's I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, the film was adapted from a remaining screenplay he had penned, and the filmmakers were careful to craft the film as Ed would have. Extremely low budget, ridiculous, and nearly incomprehensible, it was an Ed Wood project through and through, and it even received the same scorn and disinterest as films directed by the man himself.
His films may have been flops, but there was a sort of pioneering spirit in Ed Wood to which many viewers can relate. It's present in I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, just as it is in nearly everything on which he worked.