I'll tell you why so serious

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Instead of snakes, it's "malicious druid-spirit on a Plane" in this overall pitiable, sluggish and dreary attempt at supernatural horror/thriller. I'm usually ecstatic when stumbling across made-for-TV thriller from the blessed year 1973, because this period brought forward some of the absolute best and most atmospheric horror stories in history (like "The Night Stalker", "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", "Scream Pretty Peggy"), but "The Horror at 37,000 Feet" clearly doesn't belong in the same list of honor. Instead, it's a poor attempt to cash in on two contemporary popular film genres at once, with a cast that is full of famous faces but a screenplay that is even more full of imbecilic content. Director David Rowell Rich and his crew simultaneously try to benefit from the successful disaster-movie formula ("Airport 1970" is the obvious role model) as well as from the hype of demonic/satanic possession chillers (like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist"; - although I'm not entirely sure the latter one was already released). They seemingly forget, however, that they are working with a TV-movie budget and the inevitable TV-movie restrictions. The result is a totally anti-spectacular disaster movie, with laughable images of a plane supposedly "stuck" in the air and stewardesses desperately trying to look hysterical, mixed with an embarrassingly lame horror picture with ordinary play dolls being sacrificed to the evil demon and allegedly possessed women babbling words in Latin. An obnoxious architect has chartered a plane from London to New York to transport pieces of an abbey - including an ancient altar - that belongs to his wife's family heritage. There's also a small dozen of other passengers on board, including a former priest turned drunkard (the one and only William Shatner), a religious freak, a young model and a black doctor. Oops, the altar apparently homes the vengeful spirit of a druid! The invisible demon attempts to possess one specific passenger while the plane is stalled in the sky and largely covered in frost. Shatner's performance as the foul-mouthed ex-priest is hilarious! I'm not sure if he depicts the arrogant drunkard perfectly because he's so naturally talented or because he also thought the script was sheer rubbish and got drunk for real. The script is a mess and clearly nobody had any bright ideas for the climax. The ending is a vague hodgepodge of miserable special effects and a ridiculously random self-sacrifice. Oh well, at least it deserves two extra points for Shatner's wonderfully hokey performance and the cool DVD-cover.

***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.

I suppose it helps to remember when one first saw a movie, how it made them feel then, to be able to appreciate it when they see it again years later. For me, when I first saw this movie, it was late night TV, usually Friday night. It made a great way to welcome the weekend. How could it not for it was situated at night, it had its tense moments, and then it ended greeting the sun, the new day. A wonderful transition from Friday and the week to Saturday.For the time period when I first saw it, it was the latter part of the 70's. My first 747 ride had only been 3-4 years before. Chuck Connors was still the Rifleman. William Shatner was still an unknown name (Doug McClure was more popular to me in the Barbary Coast). Russel Johnson was an occasional recognized face of "hey, wasn't he on...", but nothing more. Buddy Ebsen was barely seen as familiar since the Jed makeup was such a change (and we often did homework instead of watching TV on school nights). Roy Thinnes might have been recognized but probably more for "Black Noon". Paul Winfield would be an unknown to me for at least another seven years.It was a time when cable only consisted of the local channels in your and other cities, so what syndication one did see was in the off hours of major network broadcasting. There was a thin slot in the afternoon, movies occupied the late night, stations only had a certain number hours to be on the air, and the massive bombardment of "ancient" shows wasn't happening yet. It was before the Star Trek 2nd coming and it was long before Airplane. It was a time when I knew that flying on an airliner was fun and exciting as oppose to the dread one might feel now.I saw this movie for the story it told, for how the cast portrayed it, and not because of who they had been in previous productions, what they were known for. I watched the movie today to feel again the world I knew when I was a teen, to enjoy some time in another world, and not with an eye to criticize and slash with all I know and have experienced now.If one comes from a time back then, then they may indeed enjoy this movie. If on the other hand, one knows of the world only in the present, then this will probably be their toy to abuse for 70 minutes or so.

A familiar cast of TV veterans star in this entertaining, reasonably effective TV movie that stars Roy Thinnes("The Invaders") as an architect transporting an old Abbey altar on an airplane from London to L.A. that comes to demonic life, threatening all aboard, like William Shatner("Star Trek") as a former priest called back into action to defeat the evil, and Chuck Conners("The Rifleman") as the pilot. Buddy Ebsen("Barnaby Jones") and Russell Johnson("Gilligan's Island") costar.Interesting coincidences here: both Shatner and Johnson starred together on an excellent episode of "Thriller" called 'The Hungry Glass', and Shatner also memorably appeared on "The Twilight Zone" as a similarly tormented man('Nightmare At 20,000 Feet') Both Shatner and Conners would later costar in spoof "Airplane II: The Sequel" Just out on DVD, and worth a look.