Main cast: David Chisum (Truman Burrows), Kristen Kerr (Megan), Kevin J O’Connor (Frank Strathmore), Richard Tyson (Paul Judd), Raymond J Barry (Capt Ray Banyon), Todd Babcock (1st Officer Randy Stafford), Derek Webster (William “Long Shot” Freeman), Erick Avari (Leo Bennett), and Siena Goines (Anna Freeman)
Director: Scott Thomas
As the title suggests, Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane is all about zombies on a plane. It’s a pretty chilling premise, as, after all, where else can one run on a plane, right? The passengers of this particular flight would find out soon enough when a bunch of idiot scientists bring on board a canister containing a body injected with some kind of serum. The body soon wakes up, becomes a zombie thing (the one that can run quickly instead of shambling around like more traditional zombies), and starts biting and infecting other people on the plane.
This movie is, predictably enough, horribly unrealistic. The plane is indestructible. Really! Bullets fly, explosives go off, but the plane keeps going like a boss. And yet, when the plot demands it, floors and walls tear apart like they are made of toilet paper. Don’t ask how these guns and explosives make it into the plane undetected. There is a secret room behind the restroom mirror, and there are many sewer-like passages you can crawl into all around the plane.
The whole thing is totally ridiculous, but at the same time, ridiculous enough to become entertaining despite itself. It helps a lot to have a core main cast that play their roles just fine, without any hammy or stiff acting to be seen. The pacing is fine. The movie shies away from being too gory (I suspect this is due to budget issues) and there aren’t many scares to be had, but it delivers by being an action-horror hybrid rather than an outright horror movie.
Its greatest flaw is its predictability. The characters are what they are on the box, and people who are familiar with horror movie tropes would be able to correctly guess who would die and who wouldn’t shortly into the movie. For a movie with an interesting premise – zombies on a plane – it can be disappointing that it seems content to be another formulaic action-horror flick.
At the end of the day, this one won’t win any awards, but it wins some points from me for being as entertaining as it can be given its premise and limitations. I won’t want to openly acknowledge that I like this show, but hey, if you do stumble upon it one day, maybe on cable, it’s fine to keep watching instead of changing the channel.
