Flight of the Living Dead
is Just What Zombie Fans Have Been Waiting For
Flight of the
Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane has great gore, a passable
story and characters that you despise just enough to applaud their
being ripped apart. If you are a zombie fan and have been waiting for a
new entry worth seeing, this is it.
Written
by The Horror Czar Don
Sumner September 29, 2007
Release: 2007 Directed by: Scott Thomas Written by: Scott Thomas, Mark Onspaugh and David
Shoshan
Starring:
David Chisum as Truman Burrows Kristen Kerr as Meagan Kevin J. O'Connor as Frank Lee Strathmore Richard Tyson as Paul Judd Erick Avari as Dr. Leo Bennett
A great zombie movie is hilarious at its core…if
you are appropriately freakish. Bodies being ripped apart, tendons
snapping between starved undead teeth, blood spraying like a fountain
from a newly exposed jugular and peppering the lovely face of an
innocent blonde victim of the feasting
arisen…that’s some funny stuff.
Beyond the inherent hilarity of a good zombie movie there are a few
primary directions that a modern zombie movie can go. The first is
primarily serious, ala Romero (Night
of the Living Dead, Dawn
of the Dead, Land
of the Dead, etc.), where there are is very little
overt comedic content beyond the inherent zombie elements. The
second, evident in Return
of the Living Dead directed by Dan
O’Bannon, has strong elements of slapstick along with the
traditional zombie-movie factors. The third is clear comedy mixed with
zombie-isms, and Shaun
of the Dead stands out as a perfect example.
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on
a Plane is done in the comedy style, but not slapstick, and
just enough “serious” to make the whole thing work.
The story takes place, as the title would imply, on a plane. An evil
doctor is transporting a woman in stasis who has been infected by an
experimental virus. The virus is designed to allow soldiers in the
battle field to continue fighting even after being mortally wounded.
When the flight from Los Angeles to Paris encounters a couple of
serious storms the turbulence damages the stasis chamber and the
occupant emerges, confused and weak. Terrified, the armed guard in the
cargo hold shoots her with a machine gun, simultaneously destroying the
plane’s communications system. Like a downed soldier stasis
woman arises to continue the fight, this time thoroughly zombified and
hungering for human flesh.
One by one the passengers and crew become infected by the virus,
appropriately transmitted through blood and saliva (i.e. a bite). A few
survivors must find a way to survive the zombie infestation, land the
plane and avoid the U.S. Airforce fighter assigned to shoot the
infected flight out of the sky.
Flight of the Living Dead is, in a word, fantastic.
A
zombie outbreak on a plane is a great new concept in a horror movie
landscape that is screaming for some great new concepts. Granted, the
space constraints of an aircraft add some challenges, but no problem
for director Scott Thomas, who makes excellent use of the huge 747. The
specific zombie attack scenarios are hilarious, the gore is
sufficiently over the top, the back story of how zombies are created
works and there are plenty of characters to root for…along
with plenty others that cause glee when they are ripped to shreds.
Horror Movie Freaks
is the FREE eZine from Best-Horror-Movies.com
that will give you the new horror releases, the new horror news and the
new horror reviews that you CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT!!
Subscribing is easy, painless and free.
Do it NOW!!
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on
a Plane is done in the comedy style, but not slapstick, and
just enough “serious” to make the whole thing work.
