Altitude is a Canadian horror direct-to-video film directed by Canadian comic book writer and artist Kaare Andrews. Anchor Bay Entertainment distributed the film in North America, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Plot

In the prologue, the mother of Sara (Jessica Lowndes) is transporting a family of three (two parents and their son) in a small aircraft. The child is extremely nervous and starts hyperventilating. Wondering why he is so afraid, the parents suddenly see an out-of-control aircraft that crashes into them, and everyone plummets to the ground.

Years later, Sara, who has recently received her pilot s license, is planning to fly to a concert with her friends: her boyfriend Bruce Parker (Landon Liboiron), her cousin Cory (Ryan Donowho), her best friend Mel (Julianna Guill) and Mel s boyfriend Sal (Jake Weary). While in the air, Bruce s nerves draw ridicule from the others and Sara invites him to take the controls. They hit some turbulence and Bruce loses control, taking them into a steep climb.

Sara tries to regain control, but a loose bolt has jammed the elevator. Only able to climb, they fly into a storm and lose radio contact. Sara explains that with the elevator jammed, they will keep climbing until they run out of fuel or reach the aircraft s ceiling. They have less than an hour s worth of fuel left; Bruce has a panic attack and is put to sleep with a choke hold by Sal. In an effort to save fuel, they jettison everything overboard. The only way to unjam the tail is to climb outside and manually remove the obstacle. Cory, who has experience as a climber, volunteers. He has climbing gear with him and a rope for use as an anchor. Sal wraps the rope around himself and after some difficulty, Cory makes it to the tail and removes the errant bolt. Sal then sees a horrifyingly giant tentacle among the clouds and loses control of the rope. Cory slips and Sal is almost pulled out of the aircraft. Panicking, he cuts the rope and Cory falls, only to be caught by the monster tentacle.

When Bruce awakens, he finds he has been tied up and learns Cory is dead, along with a monster outside. Bruce tells Sara that he was in the crash that killed her mother and his parents. Sara tries the radio again and hears a strange noise. Sal recognizes it as the monster that took Cory. Suddenly, the aircraft crashes into the monster s open mouth. Bruce looks at a page of his comic which shows a blond woman being grabbed by tentacles. Immediately, a large tentacle grabs Mel and kills her. Bruce starts flicking through the comic book, as if he has discovered something. Sal threatens to kill Bruce for causing Mel s death and tries to throw him out, but Sara intervenes and in the ensuing confusion, Sal falls out the door and plummets to his death.

Bruce tells Sara he is causing all this; that his mind is recreating the comic book, something that happens when he gets very scared. The creature starts attacking the aircraft, and Sara demands that Bruce prove he is doing it by ending it all. His attempts just make things worse, until Sara kisses him, but is grabbed by the monster. She tells him that if he can do all this, then he can bring his parents back. After a struggle, the monster suddenly disappears and she falls back into the aircraft. As they fly out of the storm, they see another aircraft heading straight for them, carrying Bruce, his parents and Sara s mother. They manage to take control of their aircraft, and don t crash into the other.

In the altered past Sara s mother and Bruce s family have arrived at their destination intact. Sara s mother says Everybody gets one near miss, right? , and Bruce s mom asks, Do you think they made it? to which Sara s mother replies I hope so. The young Sara and Bruce are introduced to one another, holding hands and looking out into the sky.

Cast

• Jessica Lowndes as Sara
• Julianna Guill as Mel
• Ryan Donowho as Cory
• Landon Liboiron as Bruce Parker
• Jake Weary as Sal
• Mike Dopud as The Colonel
• Ryan Grantham as Young Boy
• Chelah Horsdal as Mrs. Taylor

Production

Originally Kaare Andrews teamed up with producer Ian Birkett, and his brother, writer Paul A. Birkett, who had a preliminary script. After spending a day at a small airfield outside of Vancouver, the trio shot …a fake trailer for no money, you know, like Machete , to raise some money and it immediately got interest. With a micro-budget secured, further financing came from Darclight and Telefilm to raise an operating budget to over $3.5 million, enough to make a credible product. The concept of a sky-creature was part of an homage to the imagery evoked by H. P. Lovecraft.

Altitude was filmed in part at the Langley, British Columbia airport. The small light twin Piper Chieftain (C-MYZX) aircraft that was the main setting of the film was originally a salvaged airframe, but it served the purpose well as a movie set, with panels and sections that could be easily removed for shooting into the cabin. The majority of the aerial sequences involved CGI work.

Reception

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2018)

Many praised the overall interesting structure, the consistent pace of the movie and the unexpected twist at the end of the movie, with many stating how its originality and thoughtfulness elevated the movie s overall experience and enjoyability. In addition, numerous critics praised how the movie created an abundance of tension through numerous camera and film techniques. Furthermore, another positive of the movie was its interesting film and camera technique and special effects despite its substantially low budget for a horror movie of this scale. They stated that the blending of the computer-generated imagery and the camera shots used in such a tight and cramped location was quite impressive and better than many big budget movies. They also praised the actors ability to naturally move, fight, jump etc. despite the cramped environment they were in. However, reviewers were quick to fault the badly written script and the lack of characterisation throughout the film, decreasing the overall enjoyability of the movie. One critic wrote that the script seem(ed) hell-bent on dragging (the movie) down . Other critics had a serious problem with the first act of the movie, with many stating it was hard to keep watching.

Release

The trailer for Altitude premiered at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.

Altitude was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26, 2010. Alliance Films is to release Altitude in Canada. The film has been screened also at the 28th Turin Film Festival (from November 26 – December 4, 2011).

On February 2, 2020, Dread Central confirmed that filming was due to begin on a sequel, currently titled Altitude 2 – Altitudier. Auditions will take place at an undisclosed location in Brighton, UK.

Year	2010
ReleaseDate	2010-10-10
RuntimeMins	90
RuntimeStr	1h 30min
Plot	After a mysterious malfunction sends their small plane climbing out of control, a rookie pilot and her four teenage friends find themselves trapped in a deadly showdown with a supernatural f… Read all
Awards	Awards, 4 nominations
Directors	Kaare Andrews
Writers	Paul A. Birkett
Stars	Jessica Lowndes, Julianna Guill, Ryan Donowho
Produced by	Ian Birkett,Mike Gabrawy,Gary Hamilton,Rob Merilees,Noah Segal,David Valleau
Music by	Jeff Tymoschuk
Cinematography by	Norm Li
Film Editing by	Chris Bizzocchi
Production Design by	Eric Norlin
Art Direction by	Stephen Wright
Costume Design by	Riva Pollard
Makeup Department	Hayley Miller,Angela Nair,Holly Von Meyenfeldt,Nicole Wise
Production Management	Emanuel Pereira,Darcy Wild
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Paul A. Birkett,Dale Bredeson,Jeff Mosuk,Gary Blair Smith,Annabelle Wilczur
Art Department	Carlos Bolbrugge,Craig Brisker,Arlene Craig,Ed Deboer,Blair Edlund,Brian Elderkin,Richard J. Evans,Albert Shaun Franks,Karolina Grant,Philip Jean,Adam Lambert,Ronan Nanning-Watson,Jeff Simpson,Michael Watson,Daniel Weiss,Nina Wright,Stephen Wright
Sound Department	Anke Bakker,Jeff Davis,Blair Dykes,Peter Eliuk,Amy Giammarco,Dean Giammarco,Gord Hillier,Rylan Kerbes,Matt Kunau,Robert McDonagh,Millar Montgomery,Maureen Murphy,Bill Sheppard,Gordon Sproule,Elaine Stef,Graham Timmer,Colin Rogers,Bill Sheppard
Special Effects by	Paul Brown,Amanda Paller,David Paller,Robert Paller,Tom Price
Visual Effects by	Anton Agerbo,Chris Bremble,Ping Cao,Hao Chen,Xiaotian Chen,Lu Cheng,Ahdee Chiu,Yanan Ding,Mei Dong,Mingxing Dong,Shujiang Fan,Xuebin Fan,Zhenyu Fan,Xuebin Fang,Jamie Franklin,Guo Fu,Feng Gao,Han Gao,Xiaokang Geng,Yuanjie Gong,Zhaohe Gong,Yue Gu,Shan Hao,Jay Harada,Nancy Heller,Chi Heng,William Higgins,Nick Hsieh,Qianxi Hu,Zhou Hui,Ryan Hurd,Honglong Jia,Weicheng Jiang,Fu Jing,Lun Kai,Yong Kai,Liu Lan,Chen Li,Fangfei Li,Geng Li,Dexin Lin,Hui Liu,Xin Liu,Zhiping Liu,Xiangyu Meng,Biao Pan,Zhang Peng,Kun Qian,Shuyi Qiao,Wei Qin,Yao Qin,Jibo Ren,Ming Shi,Yuan Shuo,Liuyang Song,Yu Su,Shuang Sun,Xiaoxuan Sun,Yicun Sun,Tolly Swallow,Bingbing Tang,Bin Wan,Haisu Wang,Haixing Wang,Ran Wang,Shaoshuai Wang,Wenjuan Wang,Xiaoting Wang,Yikai Wang,Zhen Wang,Luo Weixi,Shane Wilm,Tong Wu,Felix Xu,Li Xu,Wang Yang,Yong Yin,Song Zeng,Beipeng Zhang,Chaofeng Zhang,Fan Zhang,Ranhao Zhang,Shoufeng Zhang,Ting Zhang,Jinyi Zhao,Xing Zhao,Sha Zhu,Moises Flores
Stunts	Dave Alexander,Paul Becker,Byron Brisco,Rikki Gagne,Kirk McMeekan,Dan Redford,Owen Walstrom
Camera and Electrical Department	Brittany D. Allan,Dusty Anderson,Mike Arnason,Paul Arnel,Vince Arvidson,Mark Aviss,Dane Bjerno,Monty Black,Peter Carty,Chris Cristobal,Rob Crone,Jim Filippone,Chad Galloway,Miguel Gelinas,Ariane Jonassen,Darren Joseph,Alex Kuchera,Norm Li,Larry Marwick,Nathan McTague,Will Parrot,Wil Parrott,Vince Phillips,Pieter Reyneke,Tony Richardson,Sean Rooney,Kyle Ruiterman,Christian Schauz,Ryan Skeete,Pieter Stathis,John Trapman,Jessica Uribe,Mahlon Todd Williams,David Yeung,Katie Yu
Casting Department	Stuart Aikins,Sean Cossey,L.A. Hilts,Rick Montgomery,J.J. Ogilvy,Wilson Tai
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Rachael Clark,Claudia Da Ponte,Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh,Karen Munnis,Sara Rakhshandeh,Stace Synkiw
Editorial Department	David Armstrong,Aynsley Baldwin,James Cowan,Chad Galloway,Jay Harada,Andrew Jha,Ken MacKenzie,Adam Rogers,Claudio Sepulveda,Michael Shapcotte,Jaan Spirka
Location Management	Oliver Rappard
Music Department	John Rodd,Shaun Thingvold
Script and Continuity Department	Ana Oparnica Sebal
Transportation Department	Ziri Aiteur,Anton Ali-Moffat,Suki Ardawa,Bishop Bluin,Leslie Chimko,Amanda Coletsis,Kam Dhesi,Larry Fedyk,Dean Fitzpatrick,Dave Harris,Robert Hinds,Joe Lemasurier,Samuel A. Mcdonald,Manfred Muller,Al Parisien,Nirmal S. Rai,David Reis,Brent Simpson,Mia Wong
Additional Crew	Nora Baterdok,Trevor Boughey,Sandra Cinelli,Denny Dias,Heather Dorosh,Justin Endresen,Mike Gallagher,Ingrid Hallaert,David W. Hamilton,Sean Hanlin,Gary Heichert,David K. Henry,Terry Hildebrand,Douglas Holliston,Alan Homma,Luke Howard,Dylan Jenkinson,Michael Lien,Mark R. Lindsay,John Lovelace,James Luscombe,Randall Macmillan,Kirk McMeekan,Chad S. Moore,Claudette Patry,Kathryn Perkins,Allan Plante,Virginia Prasad,Raeleen Ranger,Amber Ripley,David Robinson,Daniel Ross,Alison Stephen,Jim Sternberg,Doris Thomas,Jairo Alberto Urrea,Dory Vanderkuip,Nicole Vaughan,Michael Venn,Kiah Warren,Laurie Watt,Paul Websdale,Krista Johnston
Thanks	Tex Antonucci,Harry Avramidis,Austin Balfour,Steve Bates,Nick Blasko,Randy Che,Olivia Cheng,Katherine Collins,Scooter Corkle,Agam Darshi,John Dippong,Ian Gibbins,Leigh Giske,Michelle Grady,Greg Hannas,Piers Henwood,Kelly Herron,Michelle Hunter,Bill Hurst,Andrew Jha,Tyler Johnston,Sandra Karr,Nicole Kern,John Kim,Randy Lee,Lindsay MacAdam,Amber Makar,Viviane McConkey,C. Kim Miles,Miki Nishimura,Parajanya,Jason Pielak,Colin Robson,Fred Sheremeta,Sebastian Stewart,Tegan and Sara,Jessica Uribe,Gerrit Van Woudenberg,Matthew Walkley,Patrick Weir,Jonas Young,Knesha Yu,Victor Zinck Jr.
Genres	Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Companies	Escape Factory, Foundation Features, Téléfilm Canada
Countries	Canada, USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	4.8
ImDbRatingVotes	10259
Keywords	time travel,tentacle,supernatural power,psychotronic film,man tied up