Father Romero (Robert Miano) is a priest with a knack for performing lead-based exorcisms, in that he blows holes in the possessed with his pistol.
After one such incident, our petulant padre hops on a plane (piloted by the legendary Lance Henriksen as Captain Houdee) headed down Vietnam way. Well, it turns out that our hero could have boarded a rocket to the sun and it wouldn’t have stopped evil from taggin’ along for the revoltin’ ride, as soon lightning strikes and folks are becoming all possessed-like six ways to Sunday! It’s tight quarters for a battle with unspeakable evil, so how many of those passengers will stick the landing is forever in doubt!
Now look, this isn’t Airplane! by any means, but Exorcism at 60,000 Feet has plenty of fun to offer while treading similar ground. This is a send up of ’70s disaster movies, and possession flicks (also a huge part of ’70s genre cinema), and the end result is a blast of wrong-as-all-fuck fun that manages to tickle the funny bone as you roll your eerie eyeballs.
Along with the laughs there are some pretty solid practical effects on hand including a sweet-ass body melt the kind of which we seldom get in this day and arcane age, plenty o’ puke, and a cast comprised of some greats including the aforementioned Henriksen, Bai Ling (The Crow), Bill Moseley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Adrienne Barbeau (Creepshow, The Fog, Swamp Thing), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet, Chopping Mall)… so the talent is obviously there, and thankfully everyone involved is more than game for whatever nonsense the script courtesy of Robert Rhine and Daniel Benton throws their way.
Adding to the ghoulish goodness is a fantastic score provided by none other than Richard Band (Re-animator, Puppet Master, From Beyond, and like a billion fuckin’ more), that sounds like any score you’d find in the disaster movies of yore!
Silly and loaded with plenty of familiar faces from our beloved horror biz, Exorcism at 60,000 Feet is exactly what it sets out to be; a deft send-up of popular ’70s cinema genres with a huge dollop of humor almost the farthest from politically correct as you can get! An off-kilter diversion that’s worth a wicked whirl!
