Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak On A Plane

2007, USA

Director: Scott Thomas

Writer: Scott Tomas

Cast: Kevin J. Connors, Erick Avari, David Chisum, Kristen Kerr, Richard Tyson

Producers: Scott Thomas, David Shoshan

Genre: Horror, Comedy

Rating:

Distributor: New Line Cinema

Web: www.plane-dead.com

Running Time: 96 minutes

Well, there’s not much about this movie the title doesn’t tell you. Aside from Snakes On A Plane, an obvious titular inspiration, Flight Of The Living Dead (renamed from  Plane Dead) has probably the most coldly descriptive title since pornography lost its sense of humor and started naming films after orifices. This film, which is about zombies on a plane and is apparently unrelated to the serialized webcomic by Scott Ewen, is likely destined for DVD, where it will languish on shelves until you and your buddies decided to resurrect the spirit of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and have a laugh at a crappy movie. However, as is always the case in these situations, no matter how funny you and your friends are, you will lose interest midway through the 60^th line of dialogue lifted directly from Terror Train or a similar 80s slasher, and just start playing cards or checking sports scores online.

And you’d be right to. There’s really nothing here in Flight Of The Living Dead that you haven’t seen before, provided you’re the kind of person who would deliberately rent Frankenfish. If you’re not, then I wouldn’t recommend starting with half-serious horror films here. Sure, it’s a cut above some of the genre quickies, with a budget that allows for some interesting zombie effects, if not for a decent plane set to put the action in. As well, a quirky and amusing performance from character actor Kevin J. O’Connor livens things up, but for the most part, the film doesn’t really seem to be trying very hard. In the early stages of the film, director/ co-writer Scott Thomas doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether he’s making a B-movie or a B-movie parody; midway through, it becomes evident that he doesn’t care, and neither do we. A group of scientists are transporting a fellow doctor infected with a zombie virus on a plane, when turbulence sets some predictable events in motion. What follows from there is some interesting effects and gore, dialogue often so bad that it’s probably be a joke, and much of the sort of thing that’s amusing and diverting, but not really worth going out of your way to see. And, as with Snakes On A Plane, what the title doesn’t say, you don’t really need to know.

Flight Of The Living Dead was preceded by American short The Fifth, by Ryan Levin. Hampered by a bad transfer, the short, about a serial killer and his weekly poker night, is inventive and hysterical, if a tad over-acted.

Rating: 5 on 10

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