THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

A group of scientists, fleeing from the law, have managed to smuggle a potentially deadly cargo on a routine commercial flight from Los Angeles to Paris. This cargo, guarded by armed official, is a female scientist locked in a quarantined unit for the duration of the flight; a forced test-subject infected with a disease that can reanimate the dead. However, when the plane encounters a freak storm and runs into major turbulence, the unit breaks open, allowing the dazed and confused occupant out. Gunned down by the panicked guard, the infected scientist quickly reanimates as a flesh-eating Zombie, biting and transferring the diabolical disease to the guard as her first victim. At 30 thousand feet, there is nowhere to run - many of the crew and passengers are killed in the onslaught that follows… but they don't stay dead. A US air marshal, a cop, his prisoner and a flight attendant try to ride out this flight from Hell just long enough to stay alive.

MY VERDICT:

Flight of the Living Dead is the Zombie version of the bonkers "so bad it's good" Hollywood blockbuster, Snakes on a Plane, and, despite this tenuous tie, it's actually not terrible. A large part of this 'not bad' quality of the film comes from its originality - aside from the few moments in World War Z, we've never seen the grisly effects of a Zombie outbreak on a plane. I really like the mild tension caused later on by the prisoner being transported to Paris, escaping custody and the mistaken belief that he could, in fact, be the killer and not the Zombies. The acting is also surprisingly good for a low-budget film. Other than those highlights, the movie is all very tongue-in-cheek, never taking itself too seriously. A prime example of this is the stupid number of guns found on board the flight, as well as the almost infinite source of ammunition - the main characters very rarely reloading their shooters. They even detonate quite a sizeable improvised explosive inside the plane, mid-flight, and no one even bats an eye! The Zombies do seem to possess some limited form of intelligence, often appearing more like crazed demons than mindless, infected ghouls - possibly an intentional oversight to complement the singular nun passenger.