Plan 10 From Outer Space – A Wacky Mormon Parody

Review by Steve D. Stones

On The evening of November 24th, 2019, I had the great pleasure of meeting local film director Trent Harris for a special screening of his 1995 film - Plan 10 From Outer Space. During this event, Harris autographed my VHS copy of his other 1992 cult masterpiece – Rubin & Ed. The event took place as a film festival at The Monarch building in Ogden – an arts hub for local artists. The event was well attended and director Harris answered questions from fans in attendance. I also had the pleasure of meeting the parents of actress Stefene Russell at this event.

Norman Talmage, played by Curtis James, is a mad prophet in 1853 who buries a bronze plaque near the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. A hundred and forty years passes, and a young and beautiful woman named Lucinda Hall, played by Stefene Russell, discovers the plaque, known as the Plaque of Kolob, and becomes obsessed with decoding its meaning. Kolob refers to a star or planet mentioned in the Book of Abraham, a foundational scripture of LDS theology.

Hall’s brother Larsen (Pat Collins) is a return LDS missionary, who is receiving shock therapy treatments for stealing women’s panties. Larsen begins to see strange hallucinations after his shock treatment. He intercepts messages from outer space. Meanwhile Hall spends her time writing a book but is greatly distracted by her neighbor who dances almost completely naked in front of his apartment window every evening.

While researching Norman Talmage, Hall decides to track down his only living relative – Guy Fonsbeck (Deva Cantrell). Fonsbeck turns out to be the half-naked guy who dances in front of his apartment window every evening. Attempting to decode the Plaque of Kolob, Hall discovers a plot by aliens and their feminist goddess Nehor, played by Karen Black, for world domination to put women in charge.

The most intriguing scenes of this film are of the one-eyed beehive alien in his red space suit with bee wings. Nehor’s animated throne is another great highlight of the film. Director Harris narrates a sequence early in the film about the history of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.

An interesting connection is made in Plan 10 to Harris’ earlier film of Rubin & Ed. Hall is not allowed inside a music club where Nehor and some aliens are doing a dance. To get into the club, Hall puts a tire hub cap on her head and dresses in a cape. In Rubin & Ed, actor Crispin Glover also places a hubcap on his head to shield the heat of the desert sun. The hub cap connects the two films together.

If you own the DVD or Blu-Ray of Plan 10 From Outer Space, don’t miss the extras of a documentary Harris puts on the disc – Naked Reality. Harris drives around in the desert near the Great Salt Lake salt flats looking for interesting subjects to film. He encounters a dead beetle that crawled out into the desert and died from the heat. Harris talks about living in Hollywood and getting a phone call to go to lunch with Warren Beatty. Look quickly as the end credits roll for a special thank you to Wade Williams – science fiction archivist and collector. Happy viewing.

(The second photo above shows director Harris at far right. Blog post author Steve D. Stones is at far left. To the right of Stones is Christopher T. Ostler, who arranged to have Plan 10 From Outer Space shown in Ogden in 2028. The photo is from the above-mentioned 2019 event.)

 

Review: 'Troll 2' cult film made in N. Utah's 'Nilbog'

On Sunday night, Oct. 31, 2021, Top of Utah dwellers can watch the Utah-made cult film, "Troll 2." It's at The Monarch in Ogden, 445 25th Street. The film starts at 8 p.m. and is part of this year's 9Rails Film Festival. The Monarch opens at 7 p.m. Watching "Troll 2" is free, but it's a festival, and a lot is going on. There will be food for sale, a silent auction, a costume contest, lots of stuff to purchase, including art associated with Troll 2. After the film, one of the actors, Utah's Darren Ewing, will take questions from viewers. 9Rails had a previous festival for another Utah-helmed film, "Plan 10 From Outer Space."

"Troll 2" was filmed as "Goblin" more than 30 years ago with an Italian film crew in Morgan County with then-mostly inexperienced actors. Released quietly to video as "Troll 2," (it's not a sequel to the 1985 film "Troll," though) it slowly gained a cult following for its bizarre dialogue, outlandish plot and sheer enjoyment value. It involves a vacationing family, and a few others, discovering they have entered a town, Nilbog, full of murderous vegetarian Goblins, masquerading a humans. They want to feed the "Nilbog" milk and mostly green food to our protagonists; the better to make them plant-like and ready to consume. The film is so much fun and resulted in a well-regarded documentary, "Best Worst Movie," about the film, its characters and its steady cult following. It was directed by Michael Paul Stephenson, who played in "Troll 2," and actors George Hardy, and Ewing, were part of the documentary. You can watch "Best Worst Movie" on Tubi.

Here is our Plan9Crunch blog review. Hope readers will enjoy the film as much as we do. The three pieces of original art are from local artist Steve D. Stones. 

Plan9Crunch review by Steve D. Stones

Ever see a movie so bad that it actually improves with each viewing? If you haven’t, I would highly recommend that you watch "Troll II." If your viewing experience doesn’t get better with each viewing, you may need to increase your dosage of Prozac, or just simply lighten up a little and relax.

After all, "Troll II" is just a little movie filmed in rural Morgan, Utah where the cows outnumber the local citizens 10 to one. In the case of "Troll II," the Goblins outnumbered the local citizens for several weeks of filming during the summer of 1989.

At the time of filming, a street sign was put up, changing the city to: NILBOG. What I wouldn’t give or pay to have this sign in my movie memorabilia collection! I would even trade a double-decker pastrami sandwich with all the works, hold the mayo and mustard please.

The Goblins in the film might not take too kindly to this trade, since they are vegetarians who sweat green and eat anything green. Young Michael Stephenson even saves the day in the film with a cold cut bologna sandwich, which repels the Goblins from eating him. My favorite scene in the film is when Michael Stephenson approaches a mirror to talk to the spirit of his Grandpa Seth, and ask for his protection and guidance against the Goblins that have him and his family trapped in a house.

A Goblin immediately jumps out of the mirror attacking Stephenson. Grandpa Seth appears with an ax, cutting off the left hand of the Goblin. The Goblin then jumps backwards through the broken mirror, and the scene cuts to Creedence Leonore Gielgud, the Goblin Queen, screaming in pain in her Goblin lair of a run down old church. She tries to heal her severed arm by shoving it into the crevice of a glowing magic rock.

The expression on the Goblin Queen’s face, played by Deborah Reed, is priceless, and worth  the effort to watch or own the film. A later scene has Reed trying to seduce a teenage boy in a motor home with a cob of corn. She is dressed in a sexy black gown with black nylons and high heels, similar to Elvira, Mistress of The Dark. I don’t know about you, but I have a soft spot for those sexy raven-haired women dressed in black. Come to me Creedence Leonore Gielgud, sexy Goblin Queen!!