Movie Review: Flight 7500 (2014)

Synopsis: A flight enroute from Los Angeles to Tokyo hits unexpected turbulence that causes one of the passengers to have a panic attack and die. Shortly after, the plane begins to have a series of strange occurences ranging from the cabin depressurizing to passengers disappearing.

Who's in it? The movie stars Ryan Kwanten, Amy Smart, Leslie Bibb, Scout Taylor-Compton, Nicky Whelan and Christian Serratos.

Review: I came across this movie a few weeks ago and added it to my library, partly because it sounded somewhat interesting and partly because I recognized a couple of the names. My wife and I had some free time yesterday evening and finally took the time to watch the film. Overall, I thought it was entertaining.

I think the thing I liked most about this film is the mystery surrounding the deceased passenger (Rick Kelly). From the moment he is introduced, it is apparent there is something a little off about him, especially the way he is carefully transporting a wooden box. Then, after his sudden, unexplained, death, it also becomes apparent he is behind everything that happens next but the movie does a decent-enough job keeping the details about why a secret, at least until the box was opened and I was able to guess at the ending.

Another thing I found I liked about this movie is the way it does a good job of creating a genuinely creepy setting. As someone who hates to fly, the fact this was taking place on an airplane was bad enough. And, that is before the plane had mechanical issues and a dead body on board. It was as good of a horror movie setting as you can get considering the passengers couldn't escape and the plane had nowhere it could land.

One thing that surprised me about this movie was the way it managed to give the various airline passengers some personality without bogging everything down with backstories. This is something a lot of horror movies struggle to do and, because of that, they typically have one-dimensional characters that are hard to care about. I'm not going to say this movie gave any of the characters any significant depth, but it did reveal just enough of their individual personalities to still make them feel somewhat unique. At minimum, it made it a little harder to tell who would survive the movie by removing the obvious victims.

Final Opinion: I wouldn't add it to my list of favorite horror movies/thrillers but, overall, I thought it was a halfway decent movie with a good setting and interesting plot. It's worth taking the time to watch.

My Grade: B