Flight of the Living Dead Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's too bad that Flight of the Living Dead is heading straight to DVD, because it's so obviously a midnight movie. I watched it during the day with a sparse audience at Fantastic Fest, and that's just not right. If you want to see New Line's latest permutation of the Snakes on a Plane formula (this time, if you're bitten you don't stay dead) you need a lively crowd filling a theater at midnight. If everyone's been drinking a little, so much the better. The film does ably deliver what its title promises, in the cheesy way that is the trademark of midnight movies.

I shouldn't have to tell you the storyline, since it doesn't matter and you'll be able to guess it anyway. A flight from the U.S. to Paris contains some top-secret government cargo, and the doctors on the plane who are associated with the cargo are very nervous. When turbulence causes the cargo to pop open, the fun begins. Next thing you know ... zombies on a plane. Every potential plot twist is preceded by hints that a child could guess, and you should be able to figure out who will live the longest after the first 15 minutes. The scenes of crazed zombies overrunning the plane (and believe me, I am spoiling nothing by telling you this) are the best parts of the movie.

Having survived criticism for agreeing to showcase Michael Bay's Transformers and, on the other end of the artistic spectrum, losing the US premiere of a Romanian prize-winner, reportedly due to an anxious distributor, the Los Angeles Film Festival prepares to open on Thursday with the world premiere of Talk to Me. The latest film by Kasi Lemmons, Talk to Me stars Don Cheadle as Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr., an "underappreciated hero of the civil rights movement." Lemmons is a member of the Board of Directors of Film Independent, the organization behind the festival, but she's also an acclaimed filmmaker in her own right, having made the excellent Eve's Bayou and The Caveman's Valentine, and the trailer for Talk to Me looks great. A rich variety of entertainment -- including live music, filmmaker talks and free outdoor screenings -- has been arranged throughout the festival, which runs from June 21 through July 1.

Still, the heart of any festival is the film programming, and the line-up is stellar. The Narrative Competition includes August Evening, which has the potential to be exceptional; it features lyrical photography and a hypnotic sense of place as an older man faces the dissolution of his family. Owl and the Sparrow also looks promising; from the trailer it appears to be a lively tale of a young girl who runs away to Saigon and gets involved with a flight attendant and a zookeeper. Summer Previews include Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris and Steve Buscemi's Interview, while the International Showcase will screen Ad Lib Night from South Korea ("amazingly powerful," according to one knowledgeable reviewer) and Guilty Pleasures will give audiences the chance to see Flight of the Living Dead; all you need to know is "zombies on a plane." About 40 trailers are available for viewing on the festival's web site; in all, more than 230 features, shorts and music videos will screen before the Closing Night presentation of Danny Boyle's Sunshine.

You thought it was weird to find Snakes on a Plane? How about zombies? Anyone down with zombies on a plane? Then get ready for Flight of the Living Dead (aka Plane Dead), an "in the can" B-level horror comedy* that New Line will be releasing stateside. Yes, it's about a zombie outbreak that occurs mid-flight, and don't even pretend that doesn't sound like some good cheesy fun.

Twitch has the press release, some international festival information and a handful of FOTLD trailers, so feel free to sift through those goodies. Fans of the schlock will want to know that Flight of the Living Dead stars Richard Tyson (Three O'Clock High), Dale Midkiff (Pet Sematary), Kevin J. O'Connor (The Mummy) and Erick Avari (also The Mummy) as the evil jerk scientist who unleashes a zombie virus on a moving plane. The filmmakers are nobody you've ever heard of, but I'll let you in on a little secret. Thanks to some connections with a few very reputable horror sites, I've already seen this flick. And it IS fun. Silly as heck, but also quite fast-paced, gory and amusing. Dare I say I found it even more entertaining than Snakes on a Plane? I might just dare.

No word on an exact release date just yet (and I can't be wrong in assuming this is a DVD-style acquisition), but you can certainly expect New Line to put together some sort of horror geek marketing push on this title. It's nothing brilliant, obviously, but I think it's a flick the genre fans are going to dig. The ones with a sense of humor and a taste for airborne zombie gore, anyway.

(* It's not exactly a horror comedy, but FOTLD exhibits a pulpy B-movie vibe that's completely intentional.)