Plane Dead

This demented and adorably over-the-top gory zombie flick was presented and introduced here at the Belgian Horror & Fantasy Festival by its writer/creator Scott Thomas. He claims that, in spite of all the obvious plot-similarities with "Snakes on a Plane", his film is definitely NOT a quick cash-in on the huge success of the 2006 summer-blockbuster and that the basic concept and the pre-production phase of "Plane Dead" actually predate "Snakes on a Plane". Well, I don't know if all that is true, but I tend to believe Thomas because he's such a nice guy and he seemed very confident. Moreover, even if "Plane Dead" simply was a rip-off of the popular Sam L. Jackson hit, I still wouldn't care that much, because it's such a tremendously entertaining and enthusiast splatter-flick! As long as you don't expect new and groundbreaking story lines and/or highly intellectual dialogs, "Plane Dead" honestly can't fail to amuse you. In most departments, it's even far better and more appealing to horror fanatics than "Snakes on a Plane", because it's a lot faster, cheesier, gorier and shamelessly features all the standard clichés us genre fans love so much. Safely protected in the cargo-hold of the red-eye flight from L.A. to Paris, a mysterious scientific experiment is transported out of the US by its malicious creators. The unscrupulous Dr. Leo Bennett and his loyal researchers developed a virus that rapidly destroys human DNA, only to revive the infected victim again as a bloodthirsty and unstoppable zombie. He plans to sell his formula to the military in order to create the ultimate soldier, of course, but some unanticipated turbulence and noisy passengers on the 747-flight cause the female "test-case" zombie to resurrect a little early, and she immediately begins to feast her way through crew and passengers. Once bitten, the victim turns into a zombie as well, and pretty soon the plane is overrun by seemingly more zombies than there were passengers in the first place. It perhaps takes slightly too long before the zombies run loose on the plane, but when they do "Plane Dead" turns into a non-stop series of laughs, creative deaths and extreme gore. Apparently, only stereotypes were allowed aboard this flight and it's always a lot of fun to watch those getting killed off one by one. Naturally it's the elderly pilot's last flight before retirement, there's the heroic copper – who eventually has to save the day - transporting a witty criminal, arguing teen couples, sexy yet empty-headed stewardesses, couples with marriage issues and Tiger Woods' biggest competitor himself! The gore is guaranteed to please people, as the script features several ingenious new methods to kill zombies, like an umbrella through the head, nine-iron golf clubs and of course airplane engines. Be honest, what would you rather get face-to-face with whilst stuck in an inescapable location: ordinary snakes, albeit a little venomous ... or filthy, virulent, ravenous and outrageous zombies? There are quite a few recognizable faces in the cast, like Kevin J. O'Connor (the creep from "Lord of Illusions" and "Deep Rising"), Erick Avari and Richard Tyson. The lines and characters are often very funny, the make-up effects are delightfully campy in an old-fashioned way and there even is an occasional moment of genuine suspense. "Plane Dead" is awesome horror-entertainment and I hope Scott Thomas will enjoy the success he deserves with it.

I was very skeptical whether I should spend my time on watching this movie. First of all it has a very cheesy name, sounds like another cheap remake and DVD cover looks also not that good. But being a fan of zombie movies I decided to give it a try. I started watching it and first 35 minutes were just as I expected the whole movie to be, but surprisingly after first 35-40 minutes it gets much better, special effects, plot and even acting gets better, well acting gets better because all amateur actors are killed by zombies. I would say you can fast forward first 25 minutes, since nothing much happens in the beginning.

I liked this movie and would recommend it to all zombie fans :)

"Flight of the Living Dead" is a decent take on the Zombie genre that kept me on the edge of the seat for the full running time. It stands out because it presents you with some things you don't expect from the average low-budget direct-to-video Zombie flick, i.e. a script that actually works, decent acting, neat make-up effects and even a nice score.

What I liked about the plot: There's are rather long but surprisingly suspenseful introduction before it gets bloody. That part works because the writers use the time to introduce some well chosen stereotypes of characters that promise to be fun victims later on. There's the jock, his rich bitch girlfriend, the cute-but-stupid stewardess, the evil corporate guy and even a Tiger Woods look-kinda-alike, just to name a few. The movie also stays relatively plausible and plays coy before it kicks into high gear for the finale. It's a sudden and thoroughly enjoyable switch in tone.

"Flight of the Living Dead" is no disguised comment on society but as far as zombie butcherfests go, this one is pretty nice. Not revolutionary film making, but rather competently executed gory fun.

If you enjoyed the intro song and desperately tried to locate it without success: Take a look at the M*Space page of one Bill Grainer, the gentleman who wrote the song.

Zombies on a plane! Sounds like a whole bunch of fun doesn't it? This movie had everything a perfect no-brainer (no pun intended) zombie flick should have. With the classic stereotypes such as hot bimbos and their sport jock boyfriends, a hero cop escorting a prisoner, sexy stewardesses, a black pro-athlete, a bible-clutching nun and off course the evil scientists guilty of it all, I didn't see how this could go wrong. The movie started off pretty good as the first zombies started to pop up but after a while it just got repetitive and boring. The special effects were almost as bad as most of the acting and basically the movie didn't show us anything we haven't seen a hundred times already in this genre, and since when did a zombie get neutralized by a non-head shot! All in all this was a bit entertaining but I hardly doubt I'll ever watch it again. 28 Weeks Later up next!

it's not a "hard zombie" film, but yet it manages to have a few "clever" scenes while mixing along some humour (not always necessary, one must admit it), which makes this film enjoyable and pleasant to watch.

the acting is fairly decent and well accomplished and the storyline, though not brilliant and all that elaborated. it still manages to keep the film from being yet another pretentious zombie production, producing good moments of solid action with a couple of more "heavy/scary" scenes, though i wouldn't quite call it a horror film.

a good option to consider ;)