| Soul Survivors (2001), Cert 15. Director - Stephen Carpenter. Writer - Stephen Carpenter. Starring - Melissa Sagemiller, Wes Bently, Casey Affleck, Eliza Dushku & Luke Wilson. |
Premise - Four college friends
are involved in a car accident travelling home from a night club. After the
accident Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) starts hallucinating, seeing not only
her dead boyfriend, but a masked killer who is stalking her.
Terrible.
That's about all you need to know about this film. It's a mess. If I was to
compare Soul Survivors to another film, it's closest relative would be the
Tim Robbins movie Jacob's Ladder. However Soul Survivors in so inferior to
Jacob's Ladder that any comparison would be criminal.
The plot is hackneyed, without an original bone in it's body. it borrows
shamelessly from practically any horror film you could mention. Then again,
that's if you can call it a plot. You see, nothing much happens. They crash,
the lead gets chased a couple of times and then we get the shocking 'twist'
ending. In reality the film has about half an hours worth of material in it.
The rest of the movie is took up by (not so) subtle hints as to what's going
on. After the crash the lead always wears light colours whilst all around
her people are wearing black. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure
out what the twist at the end of the film will be.
The direction is by the numbers. Nothing new or stylish to speak off.
Director Carpenter seems to be stuck in the 80's with the many foot chases
filmed at a slight angle, sigh.
The acting is 'all right' nothing to write home about. Casey Affleck though
looks like he's stuck between headlights. He just has this sort of glazed
expression all through the movie. Wes Bently and Eliza Dushka (which if I
was to be honest was the ONLY reason I hired this flick out in the first
place.) are the only stand out's. I really think she is a fine young actress
and should probably pick her projects a bit better. Luke Wilson doesn't get
enough screen time to do anything. He's there he's gone, badda-bing.
The twist ending (which it would appear every new teen film MUST have these
days) is so obvious that I had it pegged almost straight away. The film does
however throw you a SECOND twist which is just too ludicrous for words. It
almost seems like the test audiences didn't like the down beat ending and
they had to film a more up beat one. It feels incredibly 'tacked-on''.
A terrible, dire film that is no way worth any kind of money outlay. I would
probably even discourage watching it for free on TV. You might just want the
80 minutes of your life back........
| 2/10 for Soul Survivors. Poster Quote - Soul Destroying. |