Plane Dead aka Flight of the Living Dead (2007)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2020) I am slightly, but pleasantly surprised: While I wasn’t expecting much more from Flight of the Living Dead than an average zombie film set aboard the claustrophobic confines of a plane, the result is sufficiently well-executed to be effective rather than perfunctory. This isn’t the first film to blend horror and commercial aviation, but its in-your-face title is likely to make it one of the most memorable. As a gigantic 747 takes off from Los Angeles to Paris with a near-empty passenger compartment and a dangerous cargo in the hold, it doesn’t take much time for the zombie to wake up and start wreaking havoc around the plane. The character work isn’t anything special, but it’s serviceable enough to take us to the end. The special effects are proportional to the film’s low budget, but they’re executed with enough energy that they manage to make us forgive their low quality. The script gets wild toward the end of the film with zombies being sucked outside the 747 and hitting a pursuing jet—and that’s exactly the kind of go-for-broke zaniness that more films of this type could use. By the end (somehow landing near Las Vegas despite nearing the Canadian border at some point), Flight of the Living Dead has completed its assignment: a decently entertaining take on fulfilling the titular zombie-on-a-plane premise, effective enough for fans of the genre. It’s not good enough to break out of its genre, but it’s decent enough to scratch an itch for horror fans.