Sole Survivor

If slow paced, intelligent horror films along the lines of Let's Scare Jessica to Death or Carnival of Souls are your speed, you'll find a lot to love in Sole Survivor.

Predating Final Destination by nearly 20 years, Sole Survivor tells the story of Denise, a TV producer, who ends up being the sole survivor of a plane crash. Soon after, she starts seeing people following her and, well,...I don't want to spoil anything else.

Sole Survivor is a perfect example of "less is more." Things are never quite clear or explained, which makes the entire film quite mysterious and creepy. Most of the performances are subdued and natural and a large cloud of doom hangs over the entire film. It's impressively creepy, honestly.

If you're a gore hound or looking for cheap jump scares, Sole Survivor might not be your cup of tea, but those who appreciate a nice slow burn will probably love it.

Writer / director / editor Thom Eberhardts' feature directing debut is a nicely realized, grim and spooky little shocker worth viewing for horror aficionados hoping to find good lesser known films from decades past. It's got plenty of atmosphere, a never ending feeling of uneasiness, a good spin on "living dead" cinema, and its themes and ideas are interesting. As genre junkies will realize, it's similar in some ways to the more famous "Final Destination", which came along 17 years *later*. Eberhardts' script is often witty and offers good roles to a capable cast.

Star Anita Skinner is impressive enough in the role of plane crash survivor Denise Watson that one may wish we'd seen more of her in films over the years. She displays just the right amount of vulnerability and confusion. Denise was the *only* survivor of this crash, and she tries to resume her normal life, but weird things begin happening. Unspeaking, creepy strangers start to appear to her and she wonders what it all could mean.

Also in the cast are handsome Kurt Johnson as a kindly doctor, Robin Davidson as Denise's spunky neighbour, Caren Larkey as a washed up actress with unwanted psychic abilities, and William Snare as a frustrated coroner. Be on the lookout for foxy B movie actress Brinke Stevens as a player in a strip poker game who takes off her top and Leon (Robinson) as a gang leader.

David F. Anthony composed the eerie music and cinematographer Russell Carpenter, who went on to really big things such as "True Lies" and "Titanic", does a really good job in helping to set the mood.

The movie also educates us some on the subject of "survivor syndrome", wherein people who live through catastrophic accidents expire themselves within 24 months, possibly through a sense of guilt and feeling of unworthiness.

All in all, "Sole Survivor" is one of those films that deserves a wider audience. It's too good to remain obscure.

Eight out of 10.

"Sole Survivor" is a horror movie which opens with a palpable sense of dread and some effective moments but squanders them all in a final act which reveals it has no idea what to do with the points it's earnt.

The plot is about a plain looking woman who is the titular "sole survivor" of an airplane crash. She appears to suffer hallucinations of those who died in the crash following her around.

But are they hallucinations or are they... REAL?! You probably won't care. I know I didn't.

The spectres of the deceased, who look like extras wandered over from whatever zombie movie George Romero was shooting that year, are at first spooky but soon become boring since they mostly just stand there. The movie doesn't really develop the idea it starts with, until a rushed conclusion at the end which is entirely unsatisfying.

It was an independent endeavor lead by Don Barkemeyer, Caren L. Larkey among others producers that have a good reputation on rental VHS on domestic marketplace and overseas as well, sadly the newbies producers sold it almost by the real cost around 300 thousand dollars plus profits raised later, sad mistake such alleged profits were spent in a creative accountancy misleading the own filmmakers for good, on DVD's release they didn't win a dime for it, an absolute crying shame.

The story is rather compelling if the viewers be aware on low budge production and the unknown casting for instance, in other hand it has a kind of uniqueness on the narrative aside some usual and trivial mismatches over this thematic horror offering also many free-of-charge nude sequences as usually in this genre addressed for teenager audience, let it see easily!!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2025 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5.

Some friends of mine had been raving about this one and it had just been released on Blu-Ray, so I figured I'd give it a try and I'm really glad that I did. Sole Survivor packs a wallop.

The story centers around Denise, the sole survivor of a freak plane crash, who starts seeing strange, dead-eyed people stalking her every move. In many ways, one could say this is a zombie movie, but that'd be too simple. Yes, these "zombies" are corpses being used by "death" to settle the score and kill Denise once and for all since someone made a mistake and left her alive.

There are elements of Carnival of Souls, Final Destination, and the recent It Follows, but Sole Survivor is very much its own beast and it's all the better for it. Some might not like the very dreary, downbeat storytelling Sole Survivor dabbles in, but there's so much suspense, atmosphere, and scares that I have a hard time believing that any serious horror fan couldn't find something to like in this movie.

It must also be mentioned that leading actress, Anita Skinner, is a dead ringer for Chloe Sevingy.