Crew
Director – Ben Williams, Screenplay – Ben Daly, Producers – Tyler James & Ben J. Williams, Photography – Vince Knight, Music – Chris McCarter, Visual Effects – Steve Clark, Paul Knott & Luma Pixels, Special Effects – Darcy Baker. Production Company – Jagged Edge Productions.
Cast
Alexandra Decaluwe (Corinne), Lila Lasso (Gracie Thompson), Lauren Budd (Beth), Gaston Alexander (Zack), Danielle Scott (Elsa), Connor Powles (Kieran), Andrew Rolfe (Pilot), Jase Rivers (Pavel), Joe Warriner (Corinne’s Dad), Sam Thackwell (Co-Pilot), Jamie Langlands (Gusev)
Plot
A flight sets out from the UK to Colombia. Aboard is the Russian scientist Pavel who has been tortured and forced to transport the experimental spiders he developed to the USA. However, turbulence causes the crates containing the spiders to spill open. In short course, the spiders overrun the plane where they begin attacking and killing the passengers. A handful of survivors hold off as the stewardess Corinne, who has scanty knowledge of how to fly a plane, tries to bring them down to a safe landing.
Spiders on a Plane comes from the Jagged Edge production company of prolific British genre producer/director Scott Jeffrey/Scott Chambers, best known for Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) and a massive output of other horror films of all description.
We have had assorted planeboard thrillers since the late 1990s/early 2000s with the likes of Turbulence (1997), Red Eye (2005), Flightplan (2006) and others, before the genre was parodied with Snakes on a Plane (2006). The genre underwent a revival in the 2020s with the standout Blood Red Sky (2021) with vampires on a plane, which seemed to presage a new series of planeboard monsters with Monster on a Plane (2024) and Jagged Edge’s previous Sky Monster (2023).
Spiders on a Plane follows on from the formula established by Snakes on a Plane and these others – the resident menace loose aboard a plane; the fight among the passengers and crew to defend themselves; and the inevitable scene where the question is asked “Can someone fly this plane?” and someone with little skill is forced to take the controls. There is no real difference in any of the plotting here.
Spiders on a Plane plays itself with an admirable seriousness. However, there are points of bubbling absurdity within – like the idea of having a spider the size of a small car with legs as thick as firehoses and another about the size of a quadbike manoeuvring around the usually tightly cramped area of passenger seating of a commercial airliner.
There are some undeniable improbabilities involved in the film. Like the idea of Alexandra Decaluwe being able to call her father on a cellphone from a plane. Cellphone signals go up to a maximum of 10,000 feet in height; the average cruising height of a commercial airplane is 30,000-40,000 feet. The scene where Alexandra Decaluwe gets to actually land the plane also comes with a remarkable lack of complications – I don’t know anything about piloting commercial airliners, but the way it is depicted here, it seems to be a breeze as though anybody could do it.
Trailer here