Plan 10 from Outer Space

I went to the video store, hoping to rent "Plan 9 from Outer Space". They didn't have it, but they did have "Plan 10 from Outer Space", and I was in an adventurous mood, so I figured I would watch it.

It was a long strange, surreal trip. Probably best watched when you haven't slept in a couple days, or when slightly intoxicated. Very surreal. I must say that I haven't seen anything like it before. It was something that I wouldn't have watched normally, but I am glad that I did.

This is a fun little movie. It falls apart a bit at the end, but given that it must have had a budget of about $1.69, it does very well for itself, and at times achieves true strangeness.

Basically, it's a science-fiction film about Mormonism. I have no idea how it plays to non-Mormons; but if you ever wanted to sing "Maybe!" during the first verse of "Shall the Youth of Zion Falter," or giggled when the congregation sang "Yoo-hoo unto Jesus" in the old version of "How Firm a Foundation," it's definitely a must-see.

With what I can only call affectionate blasphemy, it pays homage to the inventive weirdness of 19th C. Mormonism. Most people know about the polygamy, but if you're not familiar with the background, you might think a lot of the other stuff that gets mentioned along the way was made up for the film. Not so. The Deseret Alphabet exists. God's home planet really is called Kolob, in Mormon theology at any rate. Porter Rockwell is widely held to have been one of Brigham Young's chief enforcers (it's a controversial point), and by all accounts was a very rough customer. Beehives are in fact a characteristic Mormon motif; Brigham Young was very big on them. And the ritual gestures and postures are real, but ... let's not talk about that.

The song about Kolob you hear throughout the movie is "If You Could Hie to Kolob," an early Mormon hymn. It's normally sung to the tune hymn geeks know as "Kingsfold," but you can also sing it to the tune of "The Beverly Hillbillies."

Some of the details are right -- and funny -- in ways I can't begin to explain, like having characters named Larsen and Talmadge; but I promise that if you were to say "The spaceship looks like a giant flying Liahona," every veteran of Mormon Sunday School would know exactly what you meant. And to my mind the funniest line in the movie is one that goes straight to the heart of the Mormon experience: "Just because it's made up doesn't mean it isn't true!"

I'm sure Plan 10 shocked some of the brethren and sistren. Tough noogies. Any robust religion will have jokes made about it by its members. The ones who can't bear humor of any kind are the religionists who secretly fear the jokes might be right.

Don't let the "exploit" title of the this production fool you. It's funny and a times, even charming. Stefene Russell is quite a find, and the film has a nice, quirky feel about it. Has a lot of cute comments and satire about Utah.

I actually used to work with Stefene Russell, who told me (or someone did) that the film was named Plan 10 after being called the worse movie ever, even worse than Plan 9. Anyhow, here in Utah, we do enjoy our Trent Harris. The Mormons, on the other hand...well, this place fascinates me.

There's a lot here that only a Utahn might understand, though on second viewing I realized that Trent did try to give just the right amount of background information to explain all the Mormon references. If you can find this, I'd suggest renting it. I also recommend Trent's Rubin and Ed, for that matter. And read the Wild Goose Chronicles.

Plan 10 is a fun story mixing mormon mysteries and hostile aliens from outer space. It delves into the Utah mormon realm with outstanding performances from local heroes Alex Caldiero and Gyll Huff. Don't miss the stunning visual effects (all created with an optical printer instead of digital FX) and of course the references to Rubin and Ed. Very mondo!