I don't often travel on international airline flights that are attacked by pre-Christian, ancient Druid evil spirits, but when I do, I make sure that it's with a group of passengers who immediately accept what's happening and resort to lighting fires and human sacrifice!
Clocking in at a blazing 73-minute runtime, THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET (or TH@37k as it's called in the 'hood) says "Eat a bowl of fuck!" to a slow build-up and gets right to it. A small group of passengers board a commercial airplane and immediately get to what normal people do on long airplane flights: playing a guitar out of tune, smoking cigarettes and openly drinking out of a private flask. The Druid ghost (or ghosts), trapped in a sacrificial altar down the lonely cargo hold, doesn't take kindly to not being invited to the party and start bringing the ruckus. And by "ruckus", I mean, lowering the air conditioner temp down a little bit and ripping a hole in the carpet. There's also a monk dude wandering around in the galley, but don't mind him much. He's just looking for some Doritos.
Lame jokes aside, THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET was a lot of fun. I love old made-for-TV movies (and airplane-themed disaster movies) and had a blast watching this one. Extremely quick pace, awesome lighting, really cool sound effects, dope as fuck cast, plot holes and reality just kicked right in the balls and sacrificed to the gods of entertainment, a frozen dog, demonic mold growing on the walls, a large Louis Vuitton bag with the letters upside-down on one side (I was curious about that, so I Googled it and it's due to them using one continuous piece of leather), a possessed woman talking shit in Latin, Jed Clampett yelling at people, a phantom clerical collar popping up for a few seconds. Anybody who loves cheesy vintage horror movies should check it out. I'd watch it again in a heartbeat.
It's kinda strange thinking that this film actually aired 10 months (Feb.13, 1973) before THE EXORCIST hit theaters (Dec. 26, 1973)...but, of course, long after the novel became a best seller in 1971. AIRPORT was also #2 at the U.S. box office in 1970.
[Comment outside of the review: in one scene, one of the pilots states "In the last VOR, we're covering ground about like a lady bicycle rider." In the scene, they're talking about how the plane isn't traveling as fast as they had expected so I understand that's just a way of saying "slow", but still...what a bizarre, shitty and sexist way to phrase it!]
