Flight 7500 [Review]

When a film gets dumped onto a straight to home release, it tends to indicate a lack of confidence.  Sometimes, though, it’s not a statement about the quality of the film but a myriad of behind the scenes reasons that may hold a completed project in limbo for years until there’s no other option but a swift DVD release.  For Takashi Shimizu’s latest supernatural horror, the journey has been a strange one, and its passenger jet setting probably didn’t help its marketability.  The concept of a supernatural force terrorizing passengers on a plane does inspire skepticism.

The titular flight departs from Los Angeles for Tokyo, and an early bout of severe turbulence is punctuated with the unexpected death of one of the plane’s passengers.  The event unleashes a supernatural force threatening to overtake the rest of the passengers for the remainder of the 10-hour, overnight flight unless they find a way to stop it. See? Even writing out the premise makes me raise my eyebrow.

Yet, the ensemble cast is comprised of relatively well knowns.  The film takes its time introducing us to both the passengers and the flight crew, though never fully fleshes any of them out.  We meet experienced flight attendants Laura (Leslie Bibb) and Suzy (Jamie Chung), who deftly handle their job duties in between venting to each other about their rocky love lives. Captain Haining (Johnathon Schaech) shows up long enough to establish that not only does the plane have a pilot, but he’s involved with Laura.  Then we meet stereotypical goth girl Jacinta (Scout Taylor-Compton), ever obnoxious newlywed Liz (Nicky Whelan), her doormat of a husband (Jerry Ferrara), nice yet troubled Raquel (Christian Serratos), and kleptomaniac Jake (Alex Frost). If anyone were to be our central protagonists, however, it would likely be Brad and Pia Martin (Ryan Kwanten and Amy Smart) as the couple clearly still in love but given up on their marriage.  It’s a bloated ensemble that doesn’t allow room to elevate them beyond their clichés.  It’s due to the caliber of the cast that we’re interested in any of them at all.

Written by Craig Rosenberg (The Quiet Ones) and directed by Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge), the film earns points for not taking the expected route. There are no long haired Japanese ghosts here, and the film takes its time before revealing what’s exactly is happening.  Shimizu does employ a familiar style and camera tricks from previous works, though.  Dark corners, out of focus specters lurking in the background, and effective use of sound cues that proves Shimizu’s technical proficiency at suspense building, even if a bit typical.

Rosenberg drew heavy inspiration from an actual flight tragedy that occurred just years prior to production, and the event provides a solid foundation for the script.  It’s the character work and the ending that proves the weak leak.  International bound flights are crowded, and the death count reflects that. The problem is that there’s not central focus for the audience to grab onto.  We don’t know who we want to see survive this ordeal because Rosenberg expects us to care about all of them, well, save for maybe two.  The script is set up so that we know just enough about the characters to know that almost all of them are good people, but we never know enough to really care. The script also sets up interesting plot points that it never fully explores, and the reveal at the climax doesn’t have the impact intended.

It’s a well shot film with an interesting concept at its core, and it’s bolstered by the talented group of faces recognizable to the horror crowd. Yet it’s too spread thin and undone by a disappointing, been-there-before type of finale.  It’s a flawed film that doesn’t really explore anything new, but it did exceed my expectations.  I’ve seen much worse at the theater.

Flight 7500 will be available Tuesday, April 12^th, on DVD.