Forgotten Filmography Friday 14

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane
(dir. Scott Thomas, 2007)
New Line Pictures
Summary: Zombies on a plane. Zombies. Plane. Take Snakes on a Plane, remove Samuel L. Jackson and the snakes he’s just about had it with, and add zombies. You’re more or less there.



My screenwriter friends in Santa Barbara were quite obsessed with zombies. Quite a few film geeks I know love their George Romero films, or 28 Days Later, or many of the other zombie classics. My favorite of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series is the Joe Dante-directed episode “Homcoming” in which dead veterans rise from the grave in order to vote against the unseen President who sends us to war. And my favorite half of Grindhouse was the Robert Rodriguez-penned Planet Terror

So, before we get into the meat of it, is this a good zombie movie?



I actually think so.

This is not a good movie in the traditional sense. It will not redefine a good zombie movie the way 28 Days Later did, for example. But, as a zombie movie, it is a resounding success.

We have the set-up for all the resolutions in the first ten minutes. All the basics trappings are set up, every little set-up dangled up to be gnawed apart later.



For what really is “zombie Snakes on a Plane,” this film is quite enjoyable and quite suspenseful. It’s a good idea, well-written, well executed, decent acting. The zombie effects are great.



And it’s scary too.

My one major complaint is that we don’t see zombies for about 40 minutes, and in a movie about plane zombies, I hope to see the walking dead within the first 30 minutes, tops.



So, keeping in mind its nature, I’d recommend Flight of the Living Dead, especially for zombie movie fans. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a lot of fun. B+.