"Can your heart stand the shocking facts about Graverobbers from Outer Space?" That's the question on the lips of the narrator of this tale about flying saucers, zombies and cardboard tombstones. A pair of aliens, angered by the "stupid minds" of planet Earth, set up shop in a California cemetery. Their plan: to animate an army of the dead to march on the capitals of the world. (The fact that they have only managed to resurrect three zombies to date has not discouraged them.) An intrepid airline pilot living near the cemetery must rescue his wife from this low-budget terror.

Plan 9 was originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space (which is what The Amazing Criswell refers to it as in the introduction), but it was changed to Plan 9 from Outer Space. According to the Tim Burton biopic, the reason for the change was because the original title was considered sacrilegious by the film's backers, the deacons of the Baptist Church of Beverly Hills. In reality, however, the Baptists who sponsored the film were not opposed to the title Grave Robbers from Outer Space. The exact circumstances are unknown, but the film, which took three years to release, was distributed as Plan 9 from Outer Space without any acknowledgement of the congregation. It is possible that Wood, or his distributor, were trying to avoid paying royalties.

To convince the church to bankroll the film, Wood had the entire cast baptized. However, since Tor Johnson, a professional wrestler, was such a huge man (well over 300 pounds) he couldn't fit into the church's baptismal. Thus the baptism was convened at a swimming pool.

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