The Horror at 37,000 Feet

A transatlantic airliner full of stereotypes finds itself terrorised by an evil supernatural force that resides in the container hold. William Shatner stars in this one and he had this to say about his appearance, "I get sucked out of an airplane while carrying a lit torch into the airliner's baggage compartment while trying to confront a druid ghost." If that isn't a recommendation then I don't know what is! It is a film with some silly plot developments for sure (the doll!) but I am a sucker for any 70's movie set on a Boing 747 where disaster strikes and this is another one, even if it makes Airport '79 seem believable by comparison.

Finally this showed up on lunchtime TV yesterday. Brief - all of 72 mins, "Horror at..." is a highly entertaining twist on the airplane based suspense theme. All of the ten passengers carry an attitude problem with Buddy "Barnaby Jones" Ebsen being an arrogant millionaire. Tammy Grimes, as always, looks ravishing and plays a sinister part perfectly. Chuck Connors excels as the Captain, pre-dating his Airplane II role by some nine years. Yes it'll make you laugh but that's what makes it so good. 7/10

Although not as good as that terrifying Twilight Zone episode starring Bill Shatner, this movie is definitely under appreciated. The plot is strange with all the Druid rituals, but the oddness of the subject matter adds to the atmosphere. It takes place on a virtually empty airplane which I myself have flown on before. With a full plane, the whole thing would have been a chaotic mess where as this sparse cast allows for a bit more calmness and thought. The characters work together to defeat this demon or ghost or whatever it's supposed to be, but they gradually fall apart as the terror gets more intense. You will recognize most of the actors and they all turn in decent performances. It's hard to pick a favorite, but Shatner's drunken defrocked priest is the most interesting. The special effects are good at times, but occasionally amateurish due to working under a TV budget as opposed to a movie one. The whole package is very entertaining though. When I realized it was coming to an end I was kind of disappointed as I wanted more. Overall, the film really impressed me and after watching this it made me want to look into many more 1970s made for television horror movies.

Reasons to recommend this TV-movie:

The story centres around an evil druid artifact that threatens the passengers and crew of an airliner in flight. Now how much more potential for good creepy fun could a premise hold? It's like something Matheson and Lovecraft might have put their heads together to come up with.

Eerie phenomena galore as the windows on a aircraft suddenly frost over as if blasted by an arctic breeze, spooky sounds (borrowed from "Forbidden Planet") echo through the plane and a flight officer inside an on board elevator is turned into a frozen corpse.

Great atmospheric music courtesy of Morton "Hawaii Five-0" Stevens.

William Shatner in one of his best post "Star Trek" roles plays an ex-priest who reclaims his faith to combat the evil force threatening the plane. It's almost too good to be true seeing Shatner once again on a plane encountering the supernatural just as he did in the similarly titled "Nightmare At 30,000 Feet" episode of "The Twilight Zone." And he's really good in this, too.

Roy Thinnes from "The Invaders" and "The Norliss Tapes" comes along for the ride playing the guy who brought the cursed artifact on board.

Also on the passenger list: grabbing an extra pay cheque in between episodes of "Barnaby Jones" is the one and only Buddy Ebsen. Hmm, actually he coulda' stayed on the ground, but then with a cast so jam-packed with stars at least one actor's presence is likely to stick out like a sore thumb, right?

Anyways, despite a little bit of questionable casting, a smidgen of scenery-chewing and a dash of dated effects, this is still quite an enjoyable little horror story that someone really ought to consider remaking.

'The Horror at 37,000 Feet' has to rank as one of the lesser efforts from the era when the made for TV horror movie flourished. It has some great moments, but not as much atmosphere as one would like. Some viewers may appreciate the fact that the evil in this story is never really given a face, others may be underwhelmed. The acting is variable, the direction (by David Lowell Rich) competent if not distinguished, and the special effects entertaining enough, but mostly what this television movie delivers is laughter - I'm assuming most of it is of the unintentional variety. Be prepared for very dodgy accents, which is also part of the (mild) fun of this thing.

The cast of big names includes Chuck Connors as intrepid pilot Ernie Slade, Buddy Ebsen as pompous rich man Glenn Farlee, Tammy Grimes as the self-righteous Mrs. Pinder, France Nuyen as passenger Annalik, the almighty William Shatner as cynical boozing ex-priest Paul Novalik, Roy Thinnes as architect Alan O'Neill, Paul Winfield as dedicated Dr. Enkalla, Will Hutchins as cowboy film star Steve Holcomb, and Russell Johnson as Jim Hawley, another member of the flight crew on a plane travelling from London to NYC. Unfortunately, Alan has ruined the trip for everybody by bringing back architectural artifacts - specifically, the remains of an abbey - in the cargo hold. Bad idea. Apparently druids used this place in a previous century. The passengers and crew are then subjected to supernatural phenomena including freezing cold and wind, a lot of ooze, and cracks opening up in the floor. It remains to be seen if these people will figure out how to survive before the plane runs out of fuel.

In general, this is fairly entertaining, with Shatner stealing the show as the former religious man, treating us to some very Shatnerian acting. Grimes is also a total hoot as the crazed lady who seems to have all the answers. Director Rich does at least give this thing a good sense of pace; like many movies of this kind, 'The Horror at 37,000 Feet' clocks in at a trim 70 minute plus running time. Best of all is when the flight crew are making their way through the hold. The finale is likely to leave people busting a gut laughing, however.

Worth a look if one is really into the TV horrors of the 1970s.

Six out of 10.