Frank: She’s gumming me to death!

No, this is not a rip off of “Snakes on a Plane” since allegedly this was being developed before it, and Yes, it’s that zombie movie with a plethora of different titles, all of which are utterly stupid. I rather preferred “Plane Dead,” because it has a few meanings to it. It’s a dead plane, and the folks on it or just plain dead, get it? “Plane Dead” or whatever you want to call it, has that unfortunate distinction of being in the hands of a studio that doesn’t know what to do with it. They can’t decide what to do with it, so it’s one of those great horror movies that are just on the shelf. So, yes, it’s getting a home release, sadly, and its being given a horrible title, and really it’s not that bad. Much like “Zombie Honeymoon,” and do not judge it on the title alone, please. Please? Just tired of zombie movies, you say? Well, you’re not the only one, but these days much like the zombies in Romero’s “Dawn,” no matter how hard you try, zombie movies will not stop coming.

The cargo at hand is all in thanks to three scientists engaging in special experiments that can bring the dead back to life. It’s always the damn scientists, isn’t it?  What happened to agriculture, or global warming? Just like “Snakes on a Plane” the targets are set up from the first ten minutes, and you can just see the bullseye’s coming from miles away. We have the hot stewardesses, the tough cop who has a very heroic attitude, the slimy heel, the inept scientists, the pilots, and of course, your comic relief passengers in the forms of whiny women, buff men, and the lot, all set to be munched on. Thomas’ film has a definite grim mood about it that works in its favor quite often.

Even though “Snakes on a Plane” had a much sleeker approach, the plane here just seems much more claustrophobic, along with the jet black sky peering down on an otherwise packed house of zombies and blood splatter. The setting is utterly desolate providing a successfully delivered mounting tension that eventually blows the film apart. The gore is rather cumbersome, and often times just non-stop. The zombies themselves are creepy, but the methods in which they extinguish their victims, and the way they trap them is rather creative, and the writers set up the scenario to where there seems to be no hope, as we witnessed in a similar film “Demons.” Thomas’ film has a decent sense of humor about itself, and for that “Plane Dead” is an entertaining little ditty, with gut munchers, and human targets that just deserve to die, and I rather enjoyed it in the end.

In order to buy half of the things you see during this film, you’d best put your logic machine on hold, because “Plane Dead” tests your commitment to having common sense quite often. You assume a top secret cargo holding a potentially disastrous product would be better protected for turbulence, explosions, and almost anything else coming its way to keep it from busting open. They can afford an experiment involving life and death, but not tough casing for it? And there are also the tidbits you learn: Anything can bring down a military jet, even a chair from a plane, most times zombies will just stand there while you yell at them, large commercial planes can dodge military missiles in mid-air, something can be jammed into someone’s head without causing a splatter or spray, and there are the attempts at comedy that most times just fall flat. The umbrella sequence, the climax, and basically most of the one-liners are painful clunkers that never elevate the film beyond mild camp.

In the end “Plane Dead” reminded me more of “Demons” than it did an actual zombie movie; it really has all the markings of the movie theater monster mash that makes “Plane Dead” such a great little zombie flick. It’s hardly perfect, but I enjoyed it, and I hope you look for it.

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