For generations, Ed Wood has been known as “the worst director of all time.” This sympathetic critical study repositions the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space as a maverick independent whose work challenges the boundary between “bad” and “good.”

When Edward D. Wood, Jr. died in 1978 at fifty-four, just days after being evicted from his home, he was largely forgotten. Two years later, he was named “Worst Director of All Time”—a title that cemented his cult status. By the time a youthful Johnny Depp starred in an eponymous movie about the filmmaker in 1994, Wood’s low-budget films including Plan 9 from Outer Space, Glen or Glenda, and Bride of the Monster, had become beloved “so bad they’re good” classics. Since then, rediscovered works and shifting cultural attitudes have led new audiences to embrace his eccentric style and ahead-of-his-time takes on gender and genre.

Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA is a critical reappraisal that takes Wood seriously, positioning him as a true independent who blurs the lines between high and low art. Will Sloan traces his marginal career—from Bela Lugosi collaborations to pornographic films—and explores how Wood’s chaotic sets, fading stars, and taboo subjects created something singular. Placing his films in their cultural context, Sloan reveals how Wood fused grindhouse with avant-garde, nostalgia with innovation, and failure with vision. Marking the centennial of Wood’s birth, this engaging take is both a timely investigation into the politics of taste and a loving tribute to a defiant outsider artist.