I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

In THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET, a typical flight from London, England to Los Angeles California, USA is transformed into a supernatural nightmare. It seems that, aside from the passengers, there's something quite different in the cargo hold. A man (Roy Thinnes) is transporting an altar from an ancient abbey. An eeevil abbey! Odd occurrences begin almost immediately, like sudden cold, and female flight attendants wearing go-go boots and jockey helmets! The passengers, including a pseudo-cowboy, a Cindy Brady clone, a cranky zillionaire (Buddy Ebson), and a disillusioned ex-priest (William T. Shatner), are unaware of the brewing mayhem. Thankfully, Captain Chuck Connors and his crew, including Professor Russell Johnson are in the cockpit. What the... ? The jet stops dead in the air, floating in place! Could it be that spooky abbey? The creepy Mrs. Pinder (Tammy Grimes)? Or, is it the fact that Bill Shatner is aboard? After all, he just might have seen something on the wing of the plane! THE BIGGER QUESTION IS: Are airline tickets refundable if the flight engineer has been quick-frozen, or if pea soup begins bubbling up through the floor of the aircraft? THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS ARE: Can anything, even the sacrifice of Mrs. Beasley, possibly assuage these dark forces? Could there be any hope left, once ex-Father, T.J. Kirk begins sanctimoniously pontificating? HA37KF is what early 1970's made-for-TV cheeeze was all about: An all-star cast in peril, with Captain Kirk as a clergyman! The thought of him flying into the heavens shall stay w/ me forever...

What do you get when you combine an airline, a slew of TV stars (including Captain Kirk himself!), and ancient, cursed Druid temple foundations all in one film? 1973's "The Horror at 37,000 Feet"! Starring the likes of Chuck Connors, William Shatner, Buddy Ebsen, Tammy Grimes, Frances Nuyen, Jane Merrow, Lynn Loring, Paul Winfield and Roy Thinnes, it's a wonderful mash up of the supernatural and 70's airline flicks. When architect Roy Thinnes transfers the remains of an abbey long owned by his wife's family, he unknowingly angers the old druid gods who have been attached to the old abbey before Christianity. Faced with impending disaster if the old gods are not appeased or defeated, the passengers and crew scramble to find a way out before everyone descends into a mob and gives the gods what they want: the sacrifice of the architect's wife Jane Merrow! Enter hard drinking, superstition mocking defrocked ex-priest William Shatner (Even writing that sentence makes laugh uncontrollably)! Can the former priest sum up his faith and courage or will everything go down in flames?I absolutely love this movie due to, if for nothing else, just the creativity of it. I mean, for crying out loud, you have an ancient cursed Druid temple being transferred to the states on an airliner by an arrogant, rich architect and William Shatner as a wise cracking, drunk, former priest as the hero to save them. That's more creative than 90% of the films that get made today! But as silly and hokey as the plot line sounds, everyone here gives their best foot forward, from Shatner to Thinnes. Director David Lowell Rich keeps the direction tight and never allows the story to get dull, and the writing is superb with a little message about faith and hope in the darkest of times. This is a type of movie that proves you don't need elaborate special effects or gore to make a good horror flick; sometimes good acting, a decent story, and a little message are all you need, a lesson that has unfortunately been lost on Hollywood these days! If you are in the mood for a creative little horror film from back in the day, I recommend "The Horror at 37,000 Feet" as a good way to spend your time. P.S. It's on youtube.

***SPOILERS*** You can't accuse the movie "Horror at 37,000 feet" of being an "Exorcist" rip off since it was released some 10 months earlier but it's plot was along the same lines of that head turning and pea soup spitting classic. In it we have defrocked pries Paul Kovalik, William Shatner, end up seeing the light in him saving a plane load of mostly non believers-like himself- in the powers of Satan and the occult by offering up his life-like the priest in the movie "The Exorcist" -to save them. This all stems for the remains of a 500 year old Druid sacrificial stone that was put on the plane by greedy architect and real estate mogul Alan O'Neill, Roy Tinnes, who want's it to be the cornerstone of his new high rise development.With the 747 stuck in a 600 mph tailwind and the passengers and crew members getting knocked off one by one from the evil that the Druid stone has unleaded it's former priest Kovalik, after gulping down at least a bottle of whiskey, who figures out what's the problem and plans to do battle with it before the plane and all it's passenger and crew crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. That's by creating a bonfire and keeping it going until the sun rises and finally puts the evil, like a vampire, to rest. There's also the what seems like Oxford educated, with a pronounced British accent, African brain surgeon, much like the real life Dr. Ben Carson, Doctor Enkalla, Paul Winfield, who provides Kavalik assistance in fighting the forces of evil loose on the plane.A good cast makes this really off the wall disaster movie worth a watch with the heroic captain of the plane played by former TV "Rifelman" and Brooklyn Dodger 1st baseman Chuck Conners as Capt. Ernie Blade together with Buddy Ebsen, of "Beverly Hillbilly" fame, as millionaire oil-man and former WWII fighter pilot Glenn Farlee who's trying to take control of the 747 and land it almost, until he was stopped by Capt. Blade, lead to disaster.

The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4)AIRPORT with demons is the best way to sum up this made-for-TV flick that isn't one of the best out there but thankfully there's a terrific cast that helps make it entertaining. What we've basically got is a flight from London to Los Angeles where a couple bring on board an ancient abbey. Half way through the flight an invisible demon breaks free and goes after the passengers. THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but if you enjoy these TV movies and you like the genre then you should be able to at least get a few kicks out of it. We get a pretty impressive cast that includes Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, William Shatner and Paul Winfield and there's no question that these familiar faces help keep the film moving at times. I think out of all of them Winfield comes across the best as a good-hearted doctor trying to help people. Shatner is fun to watch as the former priest who has turned to alcohol instead of God. The screenplay offers up several interesting ideas, although not too much can be done with such a short running time of 74-minutes. I really liked how the demon was using the cold to work its magic as this here is something I've never seen before. There are some major problems in the picture and one is the incredibly bad and campy sound effects that play whenever the demon is at work. These things are never scary and quite often they kill whatever the film had working up. The shots of the plane flying are also quite laughable in how cheap they are but this here doesn't kill the film too much. THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET is short enough and contains enough fun to make it worth viewing.