The Horror at 37,000 Feet

The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

AIRPORT with demons is the best way to sum up this made-for-TV flick that isn't one of the best out there but thankfully there's a terrific cast that helps make it entertaining. What we've basically got is a flight from London to Los Angeles where a couple bring on board an ancient abbey. Half way through the flight an invisible demon breaks free and goes after the passengers. THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but if you enjoy these TV movies and you like the genre then you should be able to at least get a few kicks out of it. We get a pretty impressive cast that includes Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, William Shatner and Paul Winfield and there's no question that these familiar faces help keep the film moving at times. I think out of all of them Winfield comes across the best as a good-hearted doctor trying to help people. Shatner is fun to watch as the former priest who has turned to alcohol instead of God. The screenplay offers up several interesting ideas, although not too much can be done with such a short running time of 74-minutes. I really liked how the demon was using the cold to work its magic as this here is something I've never seen before. There are some major problems in the picture and one is the incredibly bad and campy sound effects that play whenever the demon is at work. These things are never scary and quite often they kill whatever the film had working up. The shots of the plane flying are also quite laughable in how cheap they are but this here doesn't kill the film too much. THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET is short enough and contains enough fun to make it worth viewing.

Disaster movie meets horror movie as supernatural events happen on a passenger plane.

This might be just a TV movie but this is more fun than Airport 1975 and Airport 79 put together!

1960s sci-fi stars William Shatner (Star Trek) and Roy Thinnes (QM's The Invaders) dealing with more out-of-this-world dangers in the early 1970s, that is what draws me to this movie.

But if you don't view the film that way, well, you might not get such a blast out of it. The horror element is very mild, in fact the first 30 or 40 minutes of the flick are more about the quirks of the passengers and crew of the plane...not much horror.

Produced by Anthony Wilson who was the story editor for all 83 episodes of Lost In Space.

I just found this long lost gem of a movie on YouTube with a surprisingly good print. I hope others enjoy it on YouTube, if it does not get taken down.

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

... there is some degree of atmosphere (mostly taking place in the cargo room) in the movie, even though the acting looks like it leaped off the page of a graphic novel. Chuck Connors is Captain Slade, who flies the plane in the dark of night from London to New York. But something sinister is in the cargo hold: an ancient Druid altar containing a demon. Jane Merrow seems to know what is going on and blurts out the reason they are in danger, failing to leave anything to the viewer's imagination. William Shatner is a former priest who drinks far too much, and the inside temperature of the plane continues to drop. The big question is: will the airplane reach New York by sunrise?

Roy Thinnes, Russell (The professor) Johnson, Tammy Grimes, Paul Winfield and Buddy Ebsen provide reasonable support in this made-for-television movie. Best watched at the time I did (which was past midnight!), only one of the passengers makes a sacrifice to the demon.

A familiar cast of TV veterans star in this entertaining, reasonably effective TV movie that stars Roy Thinnes("The Invaders") as an architect transporting an old Abbey altar on an airplane from London to L.A. that comes to demonic life, threatening all aboard, like William Shatner("Star Trek") as a former priest called back into action to defeat the evil, and Chuck Conners("The Rifleman") as the pilot. Buddy Ebsen("Barnaby Jones") and Russell Johnson("Gilligan's Island") costar.

Interesting coincidences here: both Shatner and Johnson starred together on an excellent episode of "Thriller" called 'The Hungry Glass', and Shatner also memorably appeared on "The Twilight Zone" as a similarly tormented man('Nightmare At 20,000 Feet') Both Shatner and Conners would later costar in spoof "Airplane II: The Sequel"

Just out on DVD, and worth a look.