Soul Survivors (2001) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

[ad_1] The Black Sheep sequence seems to be again on the 2001 movie Soul Survivors, starring Melissa Sagemiller, Eliza Dushku, and Wes Bentley

Theres all the time that unusual transition interval in horror motion pictures the place issues can get misplaced within the shuffle. The 70s and its nihilism broke late within the decade to swerve into masked killers and the slasher style. That heyday was far shorter than individuals keep in mind however the late 80s did one thing related in transitioning to straight to video smash successes and a loopy variety of sequels and diversifications. That properly, too, would dry up, and when Wes Craven launched Scream in 1996, the panorama would shift to sensible slashers after which discovered footage. The teenager slasher period was first with issues like City Legend, Scream sequels, Disturbing Habits, I Know What You Did Final Summer season, and hell, even Remaining Vacation spot posits literal loss of life as a slasher villain. These are extra alongside the strains of the highest shelf instance however one that would qualify for a finest horror film you by no means noticed AND a Black Sheep is Soul Survivors from 2001. Let me let you know why Soul Survivors is the teenager horror Black Sheep that deserves your consideration.

What is that this film anyway? Properly, for those who take a look at the DVD or occur to purchase the particular “Killer Lower”, it's possible you'll anticipate this film to be a teen slasher film like those talked about beforehand. On the floor stage that’s what it's. After you watch it although, it's a unusual combination of Jacob’s Ladder and Carnival of Souls. That sounds so much heavier than most critics have been most likely prepared to offer the film credit score for however that’s what I acquired out of it. Is it nearly as good as both of these? Properly, no. Its not the taut, emotional, well-acted, or horrifying film that Ladder is neither is it the cornerstone of American impartial horror movies that Carnival is. Its script from author/director Stephen Carpenter is rather more considerate than you’d anticipate. Aside from the film not being an important flick to start with, apparently, we even gave it a 4/10 when it first got here out, it has different points as properly.

The primary one depends on what reduce you watch. The one which was theatrically launched was reduce for the teenager viewers however most of the cuts have been precisely what that age demographic seems to be for and what they left in, the model you possibly can watch on Tubi, is the extra religious and metaphysical model. Its funds was 17 million which little question included the funds to the star energy in addition to the bidding struggle that Artisan received in opposition to Paramount and Fox. Sadly, that 17 million would solely deliver again lower than 5 million, making it a monumental failure. Now a part of that was definitely that A. Once more, this isn’t an all time basic and B. it actually wasn’t marketed properly however it additionally had the excellence of being launched 4 days earlier than the terrorist assaults on 9/11. Even when this have been an important movie, it could have been exhausting to bounce again from that nationwide tragedy.

Going again to a lighter subject, and please actually something however 9/11, the script was fought over by studios for a motive, or no less than that’s what I’d wish to let you know anyway. Stephen Carpenter isn’t an enormous title and actually this might be the final film he directed. He additionally wrote and directed The Dorm That Dripped Blood from 1982, The Energy from 1984, and one in all my favourite Finest Horrors You By no means Noticed, The Kindred from 1987 as one of many like 20 writers on that final one too. Whereas the duvet of the DVD and poster for the film are generic as heck, even trying virtually precisely the identical as a 1998 film known as The Curve and lots of different teen motion pictures of this time, they did the solid proper. 4 large names from the time seem in main roles with Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Elisa Dushku, and Luke Wilson all including to the attraction and occurring to various levels of success.

Bentley has these days landed on large TV reveals like Yellowstone and American Horror Story however was additionally acclaimed two years earlier than this film with a big position in American Magnificence. His different important horror credit score is in P2 as a stellar villain. Dushku was large in Buffy and has carried out a ton of voiceover work however was additionally in Flawed Flip a pair years later within the lead and that film nonetheless holds up. Affleck was capable of escape the style with this being his solely entry and he says that is his least favourite film that he’s ever carried out. Wilson has additionally carried out just one different horror film with Emptiness, and I suppose the principle factor all these actors have in widespread is that Soul Survivors soured them on the style. The most important shock is the principle character Cassie performed by Melissa Sagemiller. She ought to have been an even bigger star however principally stayed on TV with reveals like Sleeper Cell, Regulation and Order, and Elevating the Bar. She might have been a very good ultimate lady or proven up in additional comedies, however it simply wasn’t to be.

The plot of the film dives into 4 buddies performed by Bentley, Dushku, Sagemiller, and Affleck that even have some love threads occurring between them. It begins with the buddies going to a celebration in an previous church the place they see a pair males in odd masks who attempt to take Cassie away from the dance flooring. The group leaves and after some shenanigans involving hidden love and mistaken kisses, they go away with an air of anger and suspicion about them. Cassie is driving and finally ends up not paying consideration which will get them in a nasty automotive wreck involving one other automotive. When the mud has settled, Cassie together with Annabel and Matt, performed by Bentley and Dusku, are left to choose up the items whereas Affleck’s Sean was killed immediately. That is the primary a part of the Ladder similarities as an inciting incident finally ends up having branching realities the place what we see is usually a what may very well be blended with a calling from actuality.

Cassie is type of a loner now with goals of Sean in addition to persevering with to see the masked males she noticed the evening of the get together and accident. She runs into Matt and Annabelle, however they're totally different in ways in which she will be able to’t keep in mind or clarify. Matt claims Cassie wished to sleep along with her whereas Annabelle appears very suspicious and as much as one thing. Even the masked males chase her now and again or present up at locations like her swim meet, however her former buddies guarantee right here that its all in her thoughts. She finally seeks shelter and assist inside the church the place we meet Luke Wilsons’s father Jude. He's the Danny Aiello chiropractor character that provides a contact of faith to the proceedings. Whereas the character is a guardian angel of kinds in Ladder and it’s fully doable he doesn’t exist in the true world, Wilsons character was a person of God who we discover out handed away a few years in the past.

The misinformation and close to gaslighting that her buddies give her aren’t fully tied to 1 film or the opposite however the masked males chasing Cassie really feel so much like Herk Harvey himself from Carnival of Souls as they're menacing and mysterious. That is taken to the following stage although because the hazard is actual and bodily as a substitute of simply ominous and constrained to the background. The paranoia and hazard go hand in hand to the purpose the place Cassie even fights again and seemingly kills one in all them with a fluorescent gentle however in fact when she brings somebody again to point out them the physique and gore are gone. She asks Matt to take her residence to her household however as a substitute he takes her again to the place every part started.

Occasions, minus Sean, start to materialize once more from the evening of the crash however when Matt needs to kiss her, she says goodbye to him with a bottle to the noggin. She then leaves and sees Annabelle die in an eerily related crash. She will get out of the automotive like a dummy and will get hit by one other automotive earlier than the spirit of Father Luke approaches her and finally waking up in a hospital mattress. We do get scenes of her taken by Gurney in a lower than PG 13 model of Tim Robbins ordeal in Jacob’s Ladder. It seems that Matt and Annabelle died within the authentic crash whereas Sean survived, and Cassie was put right into a coma. The opposite automotive that they crashed into contained the would-be stalkers in masks and the alt lady Raven who was seducing Annabelle and tried to do the identical to Cassie. That is the place it branches off from each Ladder and Souls.

Apologies on spoilers for motion pictures which are 34 and 62 years previous respectively however Carnival of Souls ends with its important character revealed to be killed in an auto accident that's the inciting incident for that film. Jacob’s Ladder equally has all the occasions seen after his Vietnam harm as a coma like fever dream of what might have been blended with some severely terrifying stuff. There’s heaps to love right here and I've to offer plenty of credit score to Carpenter right here. He was capable of combine two apparent influences on him right into a teen horror film with all the similar messages about guilt, forgiveness, letting go, and shifting on that each earlier movies put on the market. Each movies are rather more beloved and well-known however Soul Survivors shouldn’t simply be pushed apart with different recognized dreck from its period.

With two totally different variations, alternate endings, and a singular premise and solid, I do know there was a strong if not nice film to be present in there sooner or later. Its not going to win you over within the first viewing or overtake a few of the classics, from contemporaries to originals, however Soul Survivors is a black sheep that yearns for extra and simply occurs to, as Robert Browning would say, have its attain exceed its grasp. Give it a shot after which watch what impressed it to actually see what it wished to perform.

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