Soul Survivors

[camino_real]

This 12 rated horror flick was released without fanfare and without the presence of Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy and Angel) would probably have gone straight to video. I'll not bother with explaining the plot as it's a rip off from a number of sources principally Jacobs Ladder and Carnival of Souls.

Given such potentially interesting sources it's a shame that writer and director Stephen Carpenter does so little with them. Carpenter seems to have little understanding of how to create suspense. Scene after scene passes without any build up of tension, events happening without any reason at all. And without tension there are no shocks.

I saw this film with an audience composed mostly of kids (some younger than 12) who were restless and remained unscared throughout the 84 minute running time.

It was surprising to see Dushku and Wes Bentley (American Beauty) in such a poor movie. According to the IMDB the film was going to be R rated but was cut by the studio to get a PG-13 (this reduces the sight of blood and also some vulgar language has been looped to make it more teen friendly). Unless the cut footage contains some masterful material this film will probably be in my top ten turkeys of the year come December. However I probably shouldn't speak so soon, there's still a long way to go.

[Jimmyboy]

Its rumoured that the DVD release will be the R-cut.

[Ol' Blue Eyes]

I did quite like the ending myself and it went off in a slightly different direction from where I thought it was headed, but the rest of the film is just rubbish - the director should learn from M Night Shyamalan that if your whole film depends on a twist late in the game, it helps to have interesting characters to keep the audience's attention until you spring it.

[Mr Perfect]

I was disappointed with it, even though my expectation where low to start with. Also if you're going to have the lovely Dushku kissing another woman, would it have killed them to have someone really attractive :D

Also given the ending the rest of the movie didn't make sense

[SilverLiner]

Originally posted by Mr Perfect
Also if you're going to have the lovely Dushku kissing another woman...

Fantastic, I'm off to see this film then :D

[Gordon]

Did anyone else notice the dubbed bit when the two girls & the guy (can't remember their names) were sitting at the table having a drink? One of the girls said *****, but her mouth blatantly said *****.

Not a good film at all, although the ending was quite good.

[Cowboyjas]

Agreed, I thought the film was abysmal. Definately the worst film I have seen in ages (and I went to see Legally Blonde!). Apart from Eliza Dushku, there were no redeeming features at all, and I was very tempted to walk out, but I don't really like doing that, always hope that the film will improve - this just got worse!