Review

A plane cruising at 30,000 feet on a flight from L.A. to Paris is carrying an unexpected cargo. Well yeah, we expected the brain dead teens, nun, criminal, and cop in cattle class. And quite possibly most of us would have expected the three rogue scientists up in business class. What none of us. well okay, those who didn't see Snakes on a Plane expected was a smoking container in the cargo hold being guarded by a dude in a haz-mat suit who has a loving relationship with his automatic weapon.

During the first third of the film we spend way too much time being introduced to the zombie fodder, and quite frankly I was happy enough when the zombie outbreak occurred that the herd was culled in pretty quick order. Oops, getting ahead of myself here. The older pilot informs his co-pilot that this will be his final flight, which was kind of a giveaway that things were about to go all mental on us. Seems the three rogue scientists in business class have been experimenting with a mosquito from Vietnam that has the ability to bring dead organs back to life. Naturally being eee-vil Scientists they have experimented on their female co-worker, who I guess I don't need to explain is currently housed in the smoking container back in cargo.

Naturally the plane flies into a heavy thunder storm right on cue and there are no prizes for guessing which container pops open, disgorging a female scientist with a massive headache or something. And naturally the guard blows her away before you can say "hold on there, that might not be a good idea". Remember the mosquito with the organ reviving properties? Female scientist is soon back from the dead as a flesh-devouring zombie, notably with yellow eyes for no apparent reason. Pretty soon our patient zero has infected a whole bunch of other people and it's zombies bursting out from behind mirrors, from air ducts, and gosh up through the floor. A survival movie ensues with plenty of claret to be going on with. Ready to fly the unfriendly skies (come on, it was screaming out to be written)?

First up, the movie was released Downunder with its original title of Plane Dead, hence since I'm reviewing the R4 DVD release that's what I've called it. You may however find the movie under the title Fight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane down your local DVD outlet, assuming of course you're in the mood for a movie about a zombie plague on a plane.

For those expecting a cash-in on the infamous Snakes on a Plane, move along. Plane Dead was conceived well before the Big Bad Sam movie and while there are similarities, just how much can you do with a plane full of whoop-ass creatures, after all? - the movies are notable for just how different the approach is by their respective Directors. Plane Dead is an over the top "B" grade horror movie that doesn't attempt to bat outside its league, and that just keeps on coming at you with more gore than you can poke a stick at. Surprisingly, the gore aspects are pretty restrained, note I have a wry grin on my face as I'm writing this, for the genre and nothing is thrown onto the screen to simply gross audience members out. Slight proviso there, I guess, with the Nun and one of the scientists being sans legs after coming to the attention of the zombie hordes; guess that would gross some audience members out. Really wish you would stop interrupting, all I'm trying to say here is that if you are a veteran of zombie flicks then there's nothing out of the ordinary gore-wise going down in Plane Dead. Non-zombie fans aren't likely to dial into the movie anyway so everyone is happy end of day.

A movie that doesn't take itself seriously, which is surprising as we're talking zombies on a plane!

Director Thomas for the most part keeps everything shipshape and Bristol fashion, whatever the hell that means, but makes a couple of fatal errors that would indicate that this is his debut movie in the big chair. And a quick imdb.com search turns up the fact that this is actually Thomas' sixth outing, ergo we are not talking the reincarnation of Alfred Hitchcock here, though there might be a bit of Ed Wood channelling going down. Sorry, I could have passed it back to the keeper if this was a first attempt by the Director, but come on, after five previous movies he should have his game plan on right about now.

Thomas spends way too much time introducing his characters, most of whom are zombie chow through the second act and hence should have been incidental to developments. Either the Director is trying for a "who will survive?" angle or he simply has no concept in how to get the audience behind various cardboard cut-outs. Characterization is so incredibly bad in Plane Dead that I simply didn't give a toss about who survived and who didn't. I mean we have one teen chick who is clearly the "bitch" as she wants her boyfriend, who's doing the wild thing with his best mate's gal by the way, to get her a diet coke on the way back from the loo. Clearly the Academy is going to want phone numbers here around Oscar time! This zombie fiesta is never going to get confused with Citizen Kane friends and neighbours; the character development borders on the demented end of town.

Having no ability to do anything with even a single character "gee, wonder if that golf pro is going to use his putter sometime in the movie" director Thomas compounds his errors by getting a touch of the Uwe Bolls going down. Now I'm all up for some action scenes, but speeding things up and throwing some half-arsed rock number on isn't doing much to generate any affection over here. All Thomas does with these inserts, that come at apparent random intervals with no discernable purpose, is take the audience out of things and remind them, in case they had drifted off, that they are watching "just another zombie movie". And here I was thinking the post MTV shenanigans had been consigned to the cinematic garbage pile; guess either I'm wrong or some Directors are a bit late in getting that dispatch from the frontline.

On the bright side of the wing tip, at least Thomas does get his pacing right; once things go down they go down in a big way, and the film isn't taking itself seriously. Plane Dead at its heart is a "B" grade romp through a gore-soaked garden, and the Director keeps it on the path from opening frame to closing credits and the obligatory "it's not over" final shot. Considering this is a zombie movie without Romero helming, that's about as good as it gets and pretty much what we paid to see in the first place.

The less said about the actual script the better; crap dialogue, next to no logic going down, but bless their collective hearts, at least an over-the-top, out-there explanation by the writers on why we have zombies. Vietnam mosquitoes, got to love an explanation like that.

There's some diverting from reality, once again I have my wry smile on, with machine guns not depressurizing airplanes being the least of it. But since this is a zombie flick and not a documentary I guess we can turn a blind eye.

Without surprising anyone reading, I can categorically state that no one appearing in this movie is ever likely to get a lead in a major Hollywood production. We get a whole bunch of people delivering wood better than your lumberyard but seemingly having a ball doing so. There are no standouts, though the Airline Security Dude was threatening to take some scenes due to the incompetence of his fellow thespians. Regular television viewers may recognize some of the actors; the only one I thought I might have seen in other outings was Richard Tyson.

Surprisingly given this movie was unrated in North America, there's no T&A going down. At least one scene was crying out for it but Thomas disappoints in not pandering to the demands of "B' grade horror fans everywhere.

Nathan Wang knocked out the score on his Hammond electronic organ in his parents' basement, i.e. you have heard it all before with no surprises. Wang, give me a break here the aforementioned hard rock going down with some of the visuals has been so over done it's trite by now, try learning some new tricks.

In terms of sheer moviemaking, Plane Dead is at the bottom of the art and science bell curve with not a lot to redeem it. But in terms of value for money, going in knowing what you are going to be getting, director Thomas kicks a major. In short I was expecting an over the top trashy zombie flick and got exactly that. There's nothing going down here that will have connoisseurs raving, but if after an entertaining blood-drenched horror flick then there's certainly a lot worse than this plane full of zombie schlock flick. Yes it kept me entertained, no its not going to be entering my top twenty horror flick list anytime soon or ever.

Plane Dead didn't a receive cinema release in either North America or Australia hence there's no box office data available. The movie did play some festivals in various parts of the world but failed to receive anything remotely like a critic or audience award in any market. As stated in the main review I watched the R4 DVD release, which was pretty much sans extras and slipped onto the market without fanfare. Not surprisingly I got my copy from a bargain bin, so you may have trouble hunting the movie down though major retailers or rental places should have one in stock.

If you like second class zombie movies then dial into Plane Dead assured that you will at least be entertained. If you don't like zombie movies, second class or not, then you can safely give the film a miss as we aren't exactly talking Romero here. Plane Dead, while fast-paced and hence keeping your interest, doesn't really have the bite needed to make it a must-watch experience.