Wood arranged to have uniforms and props borrowed from the local Police Department. He recalled that his own salary was minimal ($350), and that considering the limitations of the budget, Tommy Kemp, who handled the special effects for the film, did an acceptable job, using hub caps as space ships. When the film premiered in Hollywood in 1959 under the title, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Lugosi's widow Hope Lininger, together with Tor Johnson, appeared on stage in place of her dead husband.

Lugosi was convincing as an elderly man mourning his dead wife before an open grave. The scens of Lugosi stalking a cemetery in his Dracula costume as a corpse raised from the dead are deeply moving, especially as it was his last role. Gregory Walcott, the lead, was a regular on the defunct TV series 87th Precinct. Finnish-born Maila Nurmi recreated her Vampira role--a characterization she made famous as a Los Angeles TV horror show hostess--as ...