There's no "Snakes On A Plane" in this film. There's not even an airplane malfunction or terrorist attack like in the 'Airport' movies from the 1970s. It all has to do with the supernatural and fairly succeeds on that level. A wicked thunderstorm, of course, enhances the eerie setting where the passengers act nervous about the turbulence while the flight attendants comfort them. It's a tense situation where some of the passengers seemingly start to go "mad" about what they're seeing in the washroom and out the windows. There are grotesque visions afoot and it's all brushed off at first as panic about the thunderstorm, but later on, there's a realization that something sinister is going on.
I thought the military beefcake known as Austin would take a handle on the uncontrollable spooks that were happening. He seemed to easily take control whenever the passengers reached a hysteria, but it was the equally beefy police detective known as Thad who took command of things. Austin wasn't really given much to do even though he carried the potential. I thought he should have. It was like having Arnold Schwarzenegger standing idly by while the action reaches a zenith.
It eventually plays out like an Agatha Christie-who-done-it with the realization that two murdered women were haunting the plane and were trying to reveal who it was that murdered them. This movie was clever, I thought I had the identity of the killer pegged, but was proven totally wrong afterwards. You just have to follow along until the answer comes towards the end.
I admit I've always liked these "panic in the skies" type of flicks and this one delivers though it definitely isn't high caliber regarding a true airline disaster. It's more or less a ghost story in the same vein as "The Amityville Horror", but takes place on a jet instead of a haunted house. This movie isn't the best, but it delivers on dishing out shocks and thrills in the horror genre. I just wish Austin was the hero out of it all. He was so HOT.
