Review – The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr.

The more I learn about the subject of this documentary, the sadder it makes me. Wood himself seemed to want to make good movies despite being really bad at it, so mocking him leaves me uncomfortable. Further, his “haunted world” of friends and other associates includes a number of neurodivergent or otherwise vulnerable people who deserved neither to be exploited by Wood nor made fun of by us. To be fair, the filmmakers here do their best to keep things respectful. But that can’t allay the strong, lingering sense of “I’m sorry that happened to you” (except perhaps for the conservative businessmen Wood conned into financing some of his pictures). Mildly amusing