
The film was originally developed under the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space, but in 1959 it was retitled Plan 9 from Outer Space and re-released under that name. By causing chaos, the aliens hope the crisis will force humanity to listen to them otherwise the aliens will destroy mankind with armies of the undead. The aliens implement "Plan 9", a scheme to resurrect the Earth's dead, referred to as " ghouls". The film's storyline concerns extraterrestrials who seek to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that could destroy the universe.

Other guest-stars are Hollywood veterans Lyle Talbot, who claimed that he never refused any acting job, and former cowboy star Tom Keene. It also posthumously bills Bela Lugosi (silent footage of the actor had been shot by Wood for another, unfinished film prior to Lugosi's death in August 1956, and was inserted into Plan Nine later). It stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, and "Vampira" ( Maila Nurmi) and is narrated by Criswell. It later went into general release on Jin Texas and several other southern states re-titled Plan 9 from Outer Space, before being sold to television in 1961. The film was shot in November of 1956, and had a theatrical preview screening on Ma at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles (the onscreen title at this time read Grave Robbers from Outer Space).

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction- horror film, produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood.
