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Subject: 19 Hour Plan 9
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Interdisciplinary artist Joe Wilson’s 19 Hour Plan 9 is a wild thing that one 
definitely does not see every day. Wilson took Ed Wood’s cult classic black 
and white film Plan 9 from Outer Space and ran it through Final Cut Pro 
software to stretch the runtime from 79 minutes out to 19 hours. We will not 
review the original Plan 9 here, please see the link above to Josiah Teal’s 
very fine review of the original film. He rates it 10/10. 

Considering the technical implications when a 79-minute film runs for 19 
hours, doing some quick kitchen math, we can boil down the result to give 
context. Film is shot at 24 frames per second (FPS). The runtime of Plan 9 is 
79 minutes, giving us 113,760 individual frames. Playing those frames at a 
speed that culminates in a 19 hour runtime changes the frame rate of playback 
to 1.66 FPS. We are seeing less than 2 frames every second. TL;DR: That’s 
slow. 

In email to Film Threat’s Chris Gore, Wilson shared insights into the 
process: “It’s been super fun and frustrating working on this, 30 hour render 
in FCP on an old laptop, uploading for a couple of days, partially due to the 
power to the computer being accidentally turned off.”


“…Plan 9 from Outer Space…[stretched] from 79 minutes out to 19 hours.”

Wilson suggested skipping ahead to scenes with Tor Johnson, and they are 
mesmerizing. One instance of this is around 7hr 59 min, where the vampire 
girl (Vampira / Maila Nurmi) floats into frame, announced by her unnaturally 
long fingers, followed by undead Inspector Clay (Tor Johnson) rising slowly 
from his grave. On the film website 19HourPlan9.com Wilson writes about 
making this version: “19 Hour Plan 9 is not intended as kitsch artifact but 
as an evolving landscape of light, shadow, and cinematic texture that is also 
sometimes hilarious.” Given that the source material itself is a kitsch 
artifact, it is challenging to consider the project in this artistically 
repurposed context. 

The question top of mind is whether anyone will actually watch for 19 hours 
(in fact it would be longer with potty and snack / booze / mind-altering-
substance breaks). If someone takes it on, I’d like to hear about it. Note: 
viewing over multiple sessions is not the same as watching it in one sitting. 

One may ask how a critic can review the film having not watched it in its 
entirety, which is a fair question. We agreed to take in 45 minutes of the 
experience and focus on particular moments in the film, like the appearance 
of Tor Johnson rising from the grave. The rest we can extrapolate. Wilson 
should consider providing a map of particularly interesting moments, 
incidents like a torturously long phone bell ringing, or appearances by Bela 
Lugosi, Vampira, and Johnson. The experience of the film is, to say the 
least, trippy, but the sound is problematic. With it slowed so dramatically, 
the sonics take on a backward-echo effect that is intensely grating. The 
visuals are hypnotic as black and grey shadows play on the screen. 

It is impossible to assess this work in comparison to more traditional format 
films, as it is more of an art installation. We’ve credited Joe Wilson as 
director here, but “conceptual artist” would be more accurate. 19 Hour Plan 9 
would play well projected on the wall of a Goth club at 2AM listening to 
“Bela Lugosi’s Dead” echo off stone walls at a breathtaking volume.  One 
could think dark thoughts, sip absinthe, and consider the nature of time and 
mortality. 

19 Hour Plan 9 (2025)
Directed: Joe Wilson
Written:
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, etc.
Movie score: 7/10