One of the elements I truly loved about "Altitude" is that director Kaare Andrews manages to convey a sense of isolation in the open skies. He constantly zooms back upon open spaces and landing strips mountain ranges, all of which are dwarfed when the people inside the small aircraft find themselves in the middle of a mysterious nowhere land in the sky being terrorized by unexplained phenomenon threatening to throw them in to oblivion. Andrews who has a past in comic books really knows how to express a sense of the EC Comics atmosphere where every scene is painted like a graphic novel, especially when the group of friends venture in to the blue sky to be confronted with a black cloud that brings them in to an endless abyss of lightning, darkness, and zero answers for survival. Andrews creates a film in the vein of "The Langoliers" mixed with "The Mist" in where these people are stuck in the middle of nowhere being terrorized by menaces in the darkness that they can't see through the bickering and panicking. We're given glimpses of the menaces and some distant sounds of roars and squeals, but we're not offered up a definitive look in to what is in the skies awaiting these hapless passengers, thus "Altitude" is a harrowing little horror film that kept me uneasy for most of the narrative, and I imagine it will be even more horrifying for anyone afraid of planes.

The movie is immediately uneasy as Bruce becomes anxious and very uncomfortable especially in the company of two rival males vying for Sara's attention, and a submissive girl also looking for the attention of the two friends constantly undermining Bruce. Andrews keeps the film very urgent and speedily paced with shots of the infinite abyss upon where these people trek against their own will and must soon figure out where they are. Are they in purgatory? Another dimension? Were they abducted by aliens? Did they fly through a hole in to an alternate reality? Most importantly why haven't they stopped flying especially since they've run out of fuel? Andrews horror film really does keep up with tension and mounting dread as the film gets darker and darker with peeks and glimpses in to the menace in the skies, and soon touches upon themes of trauma and repressed fears to make "Altitude" a much more complex horror film with ambiguous plot devices that blur the lines of reality and nightmares. The big pay off in the finale is rather harrowing and Andrew delivers with a horrifying and yet mind boggling closing scene that will provoke conversation among viewers after the credits have rolled.

In spite of one dimensional characters, and a muddled however surprising ending, "Altitude" is a very solid horror film with a claustrophobic setting, startling special effects, some good performances from its two principle cast members, and a wicked pay off for fans of giant monster movies looking for some awe inspiring imagery by way of Cthulhu.