User reviews

Like a relative that gives you a bad gift, Soul Survivors has its heart in the right place but trips up with a bad execution. Stephen Carpenter's writing/directing effort borrows freely from other, better films, such as Jacob's Ladder and Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). For those who haven't seen either of these films, I won't give the premise away; suffice to say it's not nearly as well handled here than in those two superior films.

Melissa Sagemiller stars as Cassie, about to go away to college. Her current boyfriend Sean (Ben Affleck) and ex-boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley), both friends, and Annabel (acerbic Eliza Dushku) are in a car accident after being pursued by two killers (?) in transparent masks. She survives the wreck, but while attending college has visions of the hospital ordeal and dead people reappear and disappear, leaving her in a state of total confusion: who is dead? Who's alive? What's real?

Soul Survivors has the look of a bad been-there, done-that, gore-filled, blood-splattered, body-stacking teen exploitation flick. True, it has its share of killer-stalking-the-victim scenes (plentiful, repetitive, and mind-numbing), but at least it attempts to build suspense through ideas rather than cliches, unfortunately rather unsuccessfully. It breeds confusion much more often than cohesion, as the story becomes jumbled, messy and incoherent near key points of the mystery (predictable as it is.)

Horror fans who pick up a copy will have no idea they are in for a film that is more concerned with building an uneasy facade of reality than delivering a body count. Credit goes to Carpenter for attempting to create something beyond a derivative teen horror flick; too bad he's created a derivative psychological thriller. Sagemiller also deserves kudos for showing strength in the central performance, actually developing her character and evoking some sense of emotion as the unraveling Cassie. It's great the filmmakers try something different, but the film ends up a mixed bag and failed experiment.

4 out of 10

Count how many times you hear them repeat Cassie to the character, might be a record. This movie makes no sense! "Hey bro since we're all drunk, stay with my girlfriend in the rain while I go inside and get your girlfriend so you can make out with mine! " this movie adds stupid occurrences to get two characters alone multiple times... Whoever wrote this and directed it were probably on a huge drinking binge since they first though of this movie, and post production... LIKE WHY ARE THE CHARACTERS SUCH GOOD FRIENDS WHEN THEY'RE ALL EXES AND DATING EACH OTHER ? Sloppy.

OK, I'll be frank. This movie sucked. It played out like a really long music video with more holes in the plot than...something with a lot of holes in it, I guess. It's basically just this Gwyneth Paltrow-lookalike walking around in the dark city all by herself all the time, the wasted use of talents like Wes Bentley and Casey Affleck, and a real pain-in-the-ass Eliza Dushku screeching "Cass! Cass!" the whole time. I thought this was going to be a good one, but I couldn't wait for it to be over. And I could have done without the Hallmark ending.

Four hot college friends drive off for a night of partying at an abandoned church. Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) and Sean (Casey Affleck) are getting more serious. They and their friends, Matt (Wes Bentley) and Annabel (Eliza Dushku), leave the party. Another car blocks the road causing a deadly crash. Sean is killed. Cassie is haunted by guilt but darker forces are closing in.

These are hot young people. There is a spooky atmosphere. It's hinting at something dark. It is set up for a solid if somewhat derivative horror. It's no sin to be unoriginal. It is however a sin to reveal that the movie's middle means nothing. In the end, there is no point to half of this movie. It's a campfire ghost story that pulls its punch at the last minute. It suggests something sinister with the people in the other car but they end with nothingness. It's disappointing.

An incoherent mess with a gratingly deafening sound track, "Soul Survivors" is the latest entry in the "who's dead and who's alive" genre of horror films. Two teenaged couples, Sean and Cassie and Matt and Annabel, prepare to go off to different colleges, but before they part until Thanksgiving Break, they attend one last fling at a rave-type party in some burnt-out church at the suggestion of lusciously slutty Annabel (Eliza Dushku, a.k.a. Faith, the other vampire slayer). Motiveless creepy guys start paying far too much attention to Cassie (the generic Melissa Sagemiller) for reasons that are never explained, and before long, the quartet leave the party. Driving away in their SUV, they are pursued and then passed by the motiveless creepy guys, who promptly and inexplicably do an intentional 180 in the middle of the highway, causing a nasty and fatal accident as the SUV flips over an embankment and plunges into a river. Sean is killed (or is he?), and Cassie spends the rest of the movie coping with loneliness and guilt (she was driving) when she's not being haunted by Sean's ghost or chased by those motiveless creepy guys. Much unexplained incoherence follows as Cassie's mental state degenerates further, until we reach the predictable conclusion. So, who is dead and who is alive? After ninety minutes of this purgatory, who actually cares?

**MAJOR SPOILERS** The movie "Soul Survivor" comes across like a cross between "Caranvil of Souls" and "Jacob's Ladder" without the both surprising and shocking endings of the two ghostly thrillers.

Cassie, Melissa Sagermiller, in trying to break off her relationship with her boyfriend Matt, Wes Bentley, gives him a good-by kiss which her now boyfriend and, what turned out to be, soul-mate Sean, Casey Affleck, notices. Mad at Cassie for two-timing him which Sean suspect her of doing he refuse to have anything to do with, or even talk to, her on the drive back to their dorms at Middletown Collage.

With Matt and his new girlfriend Anna,Eliza Dushku, in the back seat Cassie loses control of the car and goes off the road killing her disgruntled boyfriend Sean. Recovering from both the accident and Sean's death Cassie soon starts to have hallucinations of Sean manifesting himself to her as a ghostly spirit somehow directing her to came back to him in the world of the dead! While all this is going on Cassie is constantly being stalked and terrorized by this masked lunatic, Carl Paoli, that only she and one else sees!

Going to see the collage's Catholic Priest Father Jude, Luke Wilson, Cassie is told to keep the faith and let things just happen and the truth of what's happening to her will guide Cassie back to both God and sanity. It later turns out that Father Jude is anything but who he says he is in that he hasn't worked at Middletown Collage, much less lived there, since 1981!

It's not that much of a secret to what Cassie find herself in since it's been done, in movies like "Carnival of Souls" and "Jacob's Ladder", many times before. It's the syrupy feel-good ending that blows you away in its trying to make everything right in the film which in fact screws everything up instead!

Totally clueless to what's happening all around her Cassie starts to lose her mind feeling that she's somehow suffering from server brain damage resulting from the car accident that she's a survivor of. It's takes almost the entire movie for Cassie with the help of Matt & Anna, as well as Father Jude, to finally "get it"! But by then all she, as well as us watching the film, got was a confusing triple-twist ending and slitting migraine headache.

Not much of a horror suspense movie "Soul Survivor" telegraphers every surprise and twist, with the exception of its final ending, in it far in advance before it ever even starts. As for the dead and ghostly Sean he comes across with his rosy cheeks and surf-boy tan more alive then anyone that's actually alive in the movie!

This is a terrific movie. The cast is strong, the story is strong, it is a thoughtful, interesting examination of death and remorse. I knew that with Luke Wilson in it, and Casey Affleck it had to be a decent movie, with good acting, at the very least. Wasn't disappointed. If you're an adult, or with an adult perspective, and not expecting some kind of horror/slasher movie, you'll be ready to enjoy it :) *sigh* It helps if you've lost people dear to you, gotta say that.

This movie is highly UNDERrated....why? It has teen stars and was therefore promoted to a teen audience that was expecting another "Scream" or "I Know What You Did.." movie. This was one of the biggest studio marketing mistakes ever because this movie is WAY TOO DEEP for a teen audience. The symbolism and theology coupled with a complex storyline was geared for adult moviegoers in the fashion of "Memento" or "The Sixth Sense". No, this movie doesn't compare to either of those, but in no way is this movie as bad as the young reviewers will have you believe. Some moron studio exec thought they could make more money by taking the movie down to a PG13 rating and selling it to teenagers. Those teenagers were overwhelmed by this flick and weren't expecting a thoughtful suspense movie, they wanted another "Jason" thrasher gorefest, which this isn't. So they trashed it because they don't GET it. The editing could have been better and the very final scene stinks, but overall this is a well filmed, slightly erotic, captivating film that will make you think. 7 stars out of 10.

This wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. I found myself being very confused at some moments but on the other hand it was very predictable it was obvious how it was gonna end. It needed a better execution in order to turn out good enough. Felt like it was repetitive and it got tiring at some point. The good thing is that it made you interested to see what will eventually happen and the characters were likable as well.

This was a terrible film that made itself far too complicated. The whole film goes on and you dont have a clue what is going on. Only when it ends you are pleased because you have found out what the whole film was about. Far to complicated for a 12 rated film. I have watched many films and this one was out of its league. It was trying to be something it is not. Not my favourite film.

By the poster, you maybe thinking it's be slasher movie as

cash from scream time but it was not.

The movie start with bunch of teens been to party, As getting into car, Boy girlfriend ending kissing best friends, who is boy to her best Friend .

Then they end up crashing, As movie tries to be very clever but there give you far to many hints of what is not real and not real at all.

So you know story as soon as the crash happened and it's worth with tense moments, it okay to watch.

The acting was not bad at all, very decent from cast,

5 out 10 This movie some-what predicable , As seem done be and much better

I watched the trailer of this movie on video while seeing "Route 666" and it looked kind of cool. Unfortunately the trailer is the only good thing about the movie. I can't imagine how this horrible film got released in theaters. The plot is awful and predictable and the end is frustrating. Even the shower scene is lame. Two girls taking a shower WITH THEIR CLOTHES ON ? Come on ! I can't remember when was the last time I gave a 0 to a movie, but this one got a double zero, from myself and my wife.

What a bad, bad movie! I tried watching without fast forwarding...That failed. After about 30 minutes I stopped the movie, went on-line to see how many minutes this disaster was. (Only 84 minutes, Whew!) It was a confusing, boring movie. I don't think anyone can get knocked down by getting hit with a fluorescent bulb much less gutted by one!! The one funny thing is that I watched "The Killer Cut" version of the movie. The box boldly states "More Blood!" "More Sex!" "More Terror than the theatrical release!" Yikes! If this movie was horrible with all those claims I wonder just how lame the "UN-Killer Cut" was??? If you want to see a great movie about the world of the living & the world of the dead watch any of The Night of the Living Dead series!!

Soul Survivors was re-edited by the studio over a good amount of time to get a PG-13 rating. And for what reason? Do the studio heads think that if they chop a few minutes here and there and delete some breasts it'll make audiences want to see these actors in the movie any more so than before? However, that is just the start of the big mistakes in this movie. A girl riding with some friends, gets in a car crash killing her boyfriend (Casey Affleck) and this then puts her into a state of mind where she constantly thinks she sees him, and much more. It doesn't work though because the audience very quickly figures out the living and dead crossover thing doesn't go right and she is just crazy (overly I might add). Wes Bentley, who was really good in American Beauty, shows he still has some talent, but the film doesn't do anything to make us care about the characters, or the situations they get in. Luke Wilson co-stars as a priest (though from the previews last year it almost conveyed him to be the villain). D

A group of friends consisting of Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) and her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck), as well as Cassie's ex-boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley) and good friend Annabel (Eliza Dushku), enjoy a night of partying before the four start their freshman years of college. On the ride home from a rave at an abandoned church, Cassie distracted by the drama between her jealous ex-boyfriend Matt resulting in a rift between Cassie and Sean, leads to a vehicular collision between the group and another car filled with intoxicated ravers. Sometime later Cassie, Matt, and Annabel are the only survivors with Cassie still dealing with grief and finding solace in the kind words of local priest Father Jude (Luke Wilson). Cassie experiences vivid hallucinations of not only Sean, but also blood and the intoxicated ravers leading her to doubt her sanity.

Released in 2001, Soul Survivors marked yet another film produced by up and coming producer Neal H. Moritz who'd exploded onto the scene with teen skewing films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions, and Urban Legends riding the coattails of the Scream series of slasher films that initiated this wave. Written and directed by Stephen Carpenter, carpenter had made a series of middle of the road mostly forgotten horror films with The Dorm that Dripped Blood, The Power, and The Kindred and this marked Carpenter's first directorial effort since 1987 (though he did have some sporadic writing credits notably on Moritz' Blue Streak). Soul Survivors opened in the dump month of September well outside the top 10 at Number 15 being beaten out by a number of Summer films on their last legs, and burn offs from major studios like The Musketeer and Rock Star. Soul Survivors marked one of Moritz' final Teen films before transitioning his company's primary output to larger action films like Fast and the Furious and xXx, and along with flops like Valentine definitely had a hand in ending the era of "Scream-like" horror films that would die off and make way for the gorno/torture era.

Soul Survivors as it starts out is less concerned with establishing characters than types. The establishment of character is so paper thin with Cassie as the "good girl", Annabel as the hard partying best friend and Matt as the frustrated "nice guy" that it feels like we're setting up slasher fodder, except for Casey Affleck who has no real personality to speak of. The thing is though, Soul Survivors isn't a dead teenager movie even though it's written and acted like one, rather this is a psychological thriller where nothing is what it seems and reality can break or bend at one moment with our protagonist unsure as to what's going on. This isn't a bad premise for a horror film as Jacob's Ladder showed us or even stuff not on the same level like Flatliners. But Soul Survivors doesn't have the character or writing needed to pull off this approach because there's so little to the characters you can't play with them psychologically (or at least not in any meaningful manner). Cassie is such a blank throughout the movie and there's so little establishment before we and her end up getting jerked around by the "is it real is it unreal" nonsense that there's nothing for the audience to grab on to so we can give the events we see weight, meaning, or context.

The only good element I can say about the movie is Luke Wilson is well cast as Father Jude and is probably the one actor in the movie who gives a good performance, you feel his sincerity and goodness emanate from the role and even though the explanation to his character is mind rottingly stupid you can tell he's trying to give his role something and he does succeed on that front, even if it's in service of a movie that doesn't have the substance needed to pull it off. The movie also has angsty Teen Rock music hardcoded into the soundtrack making the film feel more like a teen drama pilot for The WB than a thriller, and unlike films like The Faculty, Scream, or even something as messy as Disturbing Behavior there's no humor in the film as it takes itself very seriously from frame one so it expects us to take its bland empty narrative with complete earnestness.

Soul Survivors is just bad, it's an attempt at taking a psychological approach to the "post Scream" mold of teenager fronted horror flicks without actually adding any psychological meat for the story to chew on leaving the whole affair lifeless and inert. Luke Wilson does well in a supporting performance as Father Jude, but everything else feels so tired and empty you end up remembering the films from which this movie cut and pasted instead of getting thrilled or tense.

I loved the concept of the film, and the script is probably a fantastic read. But I have not read it, so I will not be so fatuous to cast praise or aspersion.

The main flaw in this film is the ease with which it confuses people. From reading reviews many people seem totally clueless as to what the film is about.

The journey that Cassie takes from denial with subconscious guilt to acceptance and despair is well thought out and interesting. Unfortunately there is a lot of rubbish thrown in to contribute to Cassie's confused state of mind. This only serves to confuse the viewer. And these are major plot red herrings too. Like thinking this is a horror film. If you are a sharp cookie and can hold multiple thoughts in parallel you will be able to decipher the film and get something from it... most likely you will like it. If you do not concentrate however, you will drown in a sea of confusion and feel you have just wasted and hour and a half.

Oh, and the first ending was sufficient... what that last bit was supposed to achieve I have no idea, but after a tough mental challenge the last thing you need is a tacked on, serves no useful purpose, post shoot, I'm gonna make you think this film is stupid, ending. Have they any idea how difficult it is to explain to a friend what the film is actually about and how they have completely missed the plot?

Soul Survivors reminded me a lot of Jacob's Ladder, but it doesn't have the foreboding mood or the suspense of the latter. A girl gets in a car accident and suffers a brain hemorrhage of sorts, which results in her going through some nightmarish experiences. Is she dead? Is she alive? We don't know until the end, and despite some artistic visual flourishes, Soul Survivors never seems to really take off. It doesn't generate any real suspense or give us any real scares. But it is not a total failure, either. Director Steve Carpenter has given us a film that seems to play the notes of psychological horror, but doesn't quite manage to play its music.