Fear of flying, claustrophobia, fear of heights and just the good
old fear of losing control of a situation all get taken out for a
ride, or a flight to be more exact in Anchor Bay's release of
ALTITUDE.
As you settle in to join the five young passengers as they journey
to a concert things go from great to creepy to life threatening once
they are in the air. The story line is unusual and quirky but you
should find that it works for you.
A quick outline.
As the film opens we are in a small personal aircraft. It appears
to be a family – mom, dad, siblings. Suddenly the little boy sees
something that frightens him and moments later another plan hits
them.
Flash forward to present day and a group of friends are preparing
to take off on a short flight in a rented plane to attend a concert.
One of the females, Sarah is piloting. Her father is a pilot in the
Air Force and she has been around planes all her life and been
flying since old enough to get behind the controls. Sarah is played
by raven heard beauty Jessica Lowndes who is as talented as she is
easy to look at.
There is a sense of unease and underlying dread right from the get
go in ALTITUDE something that the scripters took great care to
construct and they did it quite well. The first third of the film is
primarily character development as we meet the group of five who are
about to fly directly into a hell that they can't imagine.
Shortly after take off things begin to go awry. A minor
mechanical issue leads to big time problems as the plane begins to
ascend and can't be stopped. They have flown into some kind of weird
storm and the instruments go all crazy and fuel begins to run low and
panic begins to set in. As always seems to be the case anytime you
put a group of folks in a pressure situation, things just go oh so
wrong. No different here. One dude ends up tied up to keep him
under control and the calmer minds attempt to find a solution to
their dire situation.
Of course desperate times call for desperate measures and the
decision is made that one of them needs to climb outside the plane
and try to un-stick whatever is causing them to constantly climb.
The segment that follows is both hair-raising and terrifying if not
some what implausible. In the end, it don't matter cause it's great
fun to watch unfold.
While the plan does work on some level it does have horrific
consequences and at about this point the true weirdness kicks in. It
appears that the plane is being stalked by some kind of tentacled
monster that seems intent on knocking them from the sky. Just how
does it all get resolved? Sorry, don't want to ruin that one for you
but it is one of the most original and unique twists to visit the
genre in a a while. In the end the story goes full circle and we
end up back where we started and you're kind of left staring at the
screen going “now, that was cool!â€
Staring a whole cast of young up and comers led by the
aforementioned Jessica Lowndes we are also treated to the talents of
Julianna Guill, Ryan Donowho, Landon Liboiron and Jake Weary. They
end up carrying the full wait of the flick as it almost entirely
takes place in the cabin of the small plane. If you didn't like or
care for the characters then this one would die fast and hard, but it
don't.
Good writing, good directing and good acting leads to a better
than average genre romp that at the very least deserves a rental if
not a sacred place in your growing collection.
The feature is available in both Blu-ray and standard DVD. Special feature wise you get your commentary track a making of featurette and a nice behind the scenes segment.
All in all a nice little package that is well worth a couple hours of your time.