Flight of the Living Dead (aka: Plane Dead)

(2006) ****

On route to Paris from Los Angeles, a 747 containing some very special cargo is headed for disaster. Unbeknownst to its passengers a military scientist, now on the run from the CIA is transporting his research, which includes the “infected” body of one of his colleagues/test subjects. Apparently his top-secret research involved designing a serum to inject into soldiers that would keep the soldiers fighting even after they are mortally wounded. It gets better. The plan was to also infect captive enemies and then release them presumably to infect their own. When the 747 has the misfortune of running into two simultaneous thunderstorms, the cargo is shaken up and the infected scientist/zombie is released, and she’s pissed off.

While all this is occurring the stereotypical passengers are slowly introduced. We have a Tiger Woods-like golf pro and his bitchy wife, a cop handcuffed to his prisoner (he stole $35 million from the Russian mob, stole a plane and crashed it, we’re told), nuns, scientists and doctors, two couples that are having affairs with one another, and the usual hot flight attendants and pilots.

Released from her coffin, the scientist-zombie begins her rampage. After killing her colleague, she begins mauling anyone else who dares to go into the cargo hold, quickly creating a zombie army. These aren’t your George Romero shuffling-zombies; these are the vicious zombies from the Dawn of the Dead remake. Things quickly get out of control as the zombies break through the cargo hold and begin their attack. As more and more zombies are created, the plane is increasingly damaged and there are fewer places to hide. With only a small handful of non-infected humans left, will they be able to get out of this jam intact?


It gets worse…

Things just get crazy,

I loved Flight of the Living Dead and it’s my first 4-star rating this year. Yes it’s derivative and yes the acting is sub par at times, however this simply doesn’t matter. I’ll admit, for the first 15 minutes or so I was watching with detachment. However, once the first zombie appeared they had me. This is a vicious balls-to-the-walls action flick with non-stop mayhem. Following the lackluster Land of the Dead I didn’t thing the zombie genre had anything new to say. Well Flight of the Dead says nothing new but it’s a violent adrenaline rush. A must-see for fans of zombies.