Soul Survivors starts as teenager Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) moves out of her home to attend Middleton University in Chicago, there her current boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck), her ex-boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley) & his current girlfriend Annie (Eliza Dushku) all decide to go out clubbing together. However emotions run high & while driving back to the campus they are involved in a serious car accident in which Sean is killed. Three weeks later after the funeral & Cassie is trying to get on with her life but she starts to see Sean, she starts to see people chasing her who she thinks are out to kill her, she experiences hallucinations & her life begins to fall apart as she tries to understand what is happening to her...
Written & directed by Stephen Carpenter a lot of people seem to hate Soul Survivors which is fair enough, there's absolutely nothing that says anyone has to like it in any way shape or form but I have to say I did actually like it to a degree. Originally made as an 'R' rated film Soul Survivors was cut down to get a 'PG-13' & thus appeal to a larger audience with the obligatory uncut version (called the 'The Killer Cut') being released on DVD shortly after, I will be basing my comments on the original shorter theatrical cut. The script has a few interesting ideas that I liked, I never quite knew what the makers were aiming for as it seems to switch between a psychological supernatural horror & a plain teen slasher (it starts off like a carbon copy of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) with a car accident involving drunk teens) & I quite liked the unpredictability of it. At just over eighty odd minutes at least it's short, it's not the quickest film ever or even the most incident packed but it kept me interested throughout. I liked the character's & the mystery based plot had me fairly intrigued & I definitely wanted to know how it was going to finish. While watching Soul Survivors I suspect many people just thought it was various unconnected subplots that go nowhere & make no sense but I thought the ending was great & while it's a bit silly & maybe a bit of a cop out I thought it explained all the mysterious events neatly & tidily enough. I was going to say that Soul Survivors stole it's twist ending from Dead End (2003) but then I realised Soul Survivors was made two years prior, in fact both twist endings are basically exactly the same but since Soul Survivors came first I have to give this film the credit for it.
Director Carpenter does alright, there could have been a few more scares & more gore (even 'The Killer Cut' is supposedly pretty tame & bloodless) but it sure does look good with some great cinematography. Although having said that I brought a new High Definition Sony telly yesterday & Soul Survivors was the first film I had seen on it so maybe it was just the sheer quality of the picture that impressed me, it did look bloody good though. There are some lesbian overtones but like the gore they are played down & very tame.
With a supposed budget of about $14,000,000 Soul Survivors flopped at the box-office but it has good production values & is very well made. Filmed largely in Cicago in Illinois. The acting is alright, I quite liked all the character's & the young teen actors are suitably good looking.
Soul Survivors is a film that most people seem to dislike, I wasn't expecting much at all with it's bad reputation but I actually ended up rather liking it for some strange reason I can't quite put my finger on.
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