Some quick thoughts on Flight of the Living Dead (2007)

Quite simply, these thoughts were inevitable. If there's one recent small-time undead entry I see ad nauseum in my swap meet travels--by far it's "FOLD". This flick's proliferation seems so great I thought it was a few years older than just '07 since it appears to land in every fourth DVD stack I look through. Also somewhere along the line I garnered the impression it's not worth my time. Being released from New Line, I figured this was merely dumped after the Intranet hype failed Snakes on a Plane.

After giving in last night to a Blockbuster ex-rental, FOLD certainly isn't a necessity or priority in your flesheater diet, but it is one to stick in the back of your head for a rainy day. The premise is all there in its title. After some rocky turbulence releases an infected researcher from a deep freeze in the cargo hold of a bound-for-Paris flight, the dumbass of a guard shoots the woman dead. She rises up a ravenous shrieking zombie, attacks her assassin, and thus begins the eventual airborne chaos as an increasing number of hungry dead find their way to the passengers above.

Episodic TV actor David Chisum is the hero lead, but who gives a damn, as his supporters are much more interesting. Kevin J. O'Connor (best known as Beni in The Mummy) shows up as a smarmy conman being transported for trial by Chisum. Erick Avari (another Mummy alumnus, Evelyn's boss/professor) is the scientist behind the creation of the zombie virus and gets a kick ass "end" and "return". My favorite is Richard Tyson, the complete asshole/criminal father in Kindergarten Cop, who strolls in as a very dudeish and unlikely TSA officer. These three really help to further enliven what's already a brainless romp into zombiedom.

Does it deliver on its promise? To be honest, I was getting worried there for awhile. At forty minutes in of set-up, the pinkish flesh still hadn't quite hit the rotting lips, but once it does...boy does it ever. Even though not exceptionally gory, a surprising blood-drenched onslaught of loud 30 Days of Night-styled zombies swarm the interior's cabin and are met with bullets and umbrellas (seriously). On this basis alone, the filmmakers should be commended for obviously trying to pack-in as much what you came to see in the remaining fourty-five or so minutes. Yes, the CG confined to the exterior shots of the jumbo jet is painfully obvious, but the chunky gung-ho gusto to the proceedings is hard to deny.

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