The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973 film)
Summary
In this made-for-TV film, a commercial-jet captain finds Druid ghosts on board, haunting the stones of an English abbey being shipped overseas.
Details
- Release Date: 1973
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror, Fantasy, Suspense, made-for-TV
- Runtime: 1 hr 13 min
- Starring: Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, Tammy Grimes, William Shatner, Roy Thinnes, Lynn Loring
- Director: David Lowell Rich
- Writer: V.X. Appleton (story), Ronald Austin (as Ron Austin) and James D. Buchanan (as Jim Buchanan) (teleplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
- View Film: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (unrated) (perhaps equivalent to a G or PG for mostly off-screen 1970s TV-friendly Violence)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; could be a very loose adaptation)
Cursed pagan altar stones, ancient ghosts, demonic voices, killer frozen slime, and William Shatner getting sucked out of an airplane? That's worth at least two tentacles, right?
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Scott Ashlin at 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting (-2.5/5) (link) - " In Hollywood parlance, a “high concept” property is one where the premise itself is the main selling point... and on occasion a high concept movie has a concept you’d have to be high to dream up. The Horror at 37,000 Feet is awfully impressive in that regard. It is, for all practical purposes, Airport meets The Exorcist... a stealth anti-classic, a film as bottomlessly ridiculous as anything dreamed up by Ted V. Mikels or Jesus Franco, but with enough surface polish that you don’t recognize what you’re seeing until after the fact."
- Graeme Clark at The Spinning Image (5/10) (link) - "There are certain shared memories that make an impact on people's minds far outweighing the actual quality of the subject being recalled, and The Horror at 37,000 Feet is one of them. ... No, this wasn't classic by any means, but if you caught it at the right age you wouldn't forget it."
- Gillian Jacob at RealWeegieMidget Reviews (link) - "...one of the more infamous 1970s Made for TV horror movies... This film is a guilty pleasure to watch... ...ending scenes are more than a bit bizarre with the last scene a bit of an annoyance as the terror is confronted. But in the end – like cast member Russell Johnson as the millionaire must have been relieved on reading his script – you are that it was not a fellow character’s nightmare..."
- Gary R. Peterson at Lo, The Humanities! (link) - "But the most important thing about Horror at 37,000 Feet is that it's just a lot of fun to watch and watch again."
- Richard Scheib at the Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (2/5 Stars) (link) - "...a silly film, although to its credit it and most of the principals do maintain a degree of intent gravity and at least treat the exercise seriously. ...passable atmosphere – there is a certain creepiness to the scene where the characters dress a voodoo doll in the clothes and with hair clippings from one of the victims as a sacrificial substitute to the druidic stones. ... The main other problem might be that the film is primed with much in the way of cliché spooky goings-on – coldness emanating from the hold, mysterious deaths, creeping goo and mist, ominous music, a possessed woman muttering in Latin – but never builds to the unveiling of anything."
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
A commercial-jet captain finds ghosts on board, haunting the stones of an English abbey being shipped overseas.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
Associated Mythos Elements
- TO DO
Keeper Notes
- Compare to The Stone Tape (1972 film)...
