FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (formerly PLANE DEAD) is about… you guessed it, the undead being unleashed on a plane. Lethal cargo is hauled in the hull of a commercial airline on its way to Paris when hell breaks loose and the zombie infection spreads quickly leaving the living no where to run.
From the beginning we are treated to all the stereotypes, and a few new ones, we have come to expect from a low budget horror film. There are the twenty-year-old sexed up couples, a handcuffed convict, a heroic cop, a heroic other cop, a nun (!), a golf pro, a funny looking Asian, a bitchy Black lady, an old man about to retire, and young beautiful stewardesses. Granted I haven’t been on too many flights in my time, but not a single stewardess I have ever seen looked this young or pretty. I’ve also never seen punks tossing a football in the aisle during a flight.
The women in particular were poorly written. The men nonstop disrespect their ladies, try to smack the stewardesses’ asses, ask for an in-flight BJ, cheat on their girlfriends, and refer to women as “bitches”, “sluts,” and “psychos.” I can understand if you are setting up your male characters to look like douche bags that deserve to die, but it is irresponsible to write every woman as an object and unrealistic to assume every woman would tolerate this.
This brings me to another story issue. How is this zombie canister even on an airplane? It is apparently baggage for a doctor, which makes no sense. Not even taking 9/11 into account with the rigorous strip searches enforced, How can the doctor transport hazardous waste? How can he employ an armed man to sit in the hull and guard it with a machine gun? How does all of this happen undetected for a man on the run being tailed by the government?
[Editor's Note: It is called "suspension of disbelief" something you should really get used to if you are going to write horror movie reviews.]
It is a bit of a shame as I had high hopes. I thought the film would be cheesy fun with a title like this, but instead it takes itself way too seriously. And it has great production values that unfortunately the script cannot match. This reduces it to made-for-TV, aired-on-Sci-Fi channel fodder. I think of this more as a corny disaster movie ala POSEIDEN ADVENTURE than a zombie flick. (During the director’s commentary, he actually says the setup is like a “70s disaster” movie). This is why the movie doesn’t work for me. Zombies are either for pure entertainment or commentary and this was neither.
However, a very strong point for the film was definitely the SFX by Optic Nerve Studios. The zombie chaos doesn’t kick in until the 50-minute mark (in a long 94min movie), but once it does it doesn’t let up. There are multiple shootings, busted heads, strangulation, an umbrella kill, flying zombies, and legs ripped off. The make up used on the undead is what could easily sell the film from just the DVD artwork alone. All of the chaos at the end of the film should be enough to keep people interested, but it just took too long to get there. Even the crew admit during Commentary that they had to rearrange scenes to make things more interesting and move some action into the first half of the film.
I kinda get the feeling that this movie was financed based on a 10 second pitch. After the “success” of SNAKES ON A MUTHAFUCKIN’ PLANE and 28 WEEKS LATER, this seemed like the logical way to go. (Yes, New Line was the distributor for SNAKES as well). But more care should have been poured into the script considering the majority of the film involves the audience getting to know the characters. For instance, I should care that the old White dude dies the day before his retirement, but don’t because he acts so stupidly. Or I should care that the couple die in each others’ arms, but don’t because just 20min earlier the dude told her she never should have married him. And so on.
As for the acting department, only two people really stood out (as good). Richard Tyson has not failed me yet. He has been in more mainstream fare like BLACK HAWK DOWN and other low budget hits like BIG BAD WOLF (Read our Review). But by far the best performance was by Kevin O’Connor as the smart-ass convict. You might remember him as trouble-making, backstabbing Beni from THE MUMMY or as Igor in VAN HELSING. Both Tyson and O’Connor liven up their one-note characters and made me wish some of the fat were trimmed, so these guys could have had more lines. Kristen Kerr is an up and coming actress with great turns in Ramzi Abed’s BLACK DAHLIA MOVIE and David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE, but she isn’t given nearly as much to do in this film. I was half expecting her to be transformed into a bad ass by the end of the film and battle all the zombies by herself. Regrettably that doesn’t happen. She does however manage to fall in love with a man that looks old enough to be her father. No offense, but as a young lady myself, that was a tad unbelievable.
DVD Extras: A short Gag Reel, some Trailers, and Commentary with the Director, Producer, and Editors.
Weird Fact: Image Works first production was MICROWAVE MASSACRE aka “the worst horror movie of all time.” (Although I recall liking it myself).
Favorite Quote: Paul reading Meagan’s badge, “Mee-Gan? That’s funny, I used to be a Vegan.” Meagan replies, “No, it’s actually May-Gan.”
Bottom Line: Pretty awesome zombie carnage if you can handle wading through 50min of obnoxious banter with worthless characters.
Rating: 6/10
Read our interview with director Scott Thomas here.
Read our interview with actress Kristen Kerr here.
Read All of Molly’s Reviews and Interviews in her Archives
