Soul Survivors (2001) User Reviews

Derivative Psychological Thriller Posing as Teen Horror

[darkjosh · 4/10 · 11 April 2002]

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

no point

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 14 September 2021]

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.

Cassie?

[Overtheredskies · 4/10 · 8 December 2019]

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.

Attractive young people, a lovers' triangle, and motiveless creepy guys

[JoeyBro · 1/10 · 9 September 2001]

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?

Got time to squander?

[Sugar Bun · 1/10 · 11 September 2001]

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.

Okay movie at best, seen much worse!

[atinder · 5/10 · 15 June 2014]

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

So glad I went with the positive reviews and watched this!

[asage19 · 8/10 · 29 August 2020]

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.

Not for teen horror movie lovers!

[dkevinleroy · 7/10 · 27 November 2002]

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.

Incredible piece of crap

[goremaster · 1/10 · 29 April 2003]

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.

Soul Survivors

[marinaant-36217 · 5/10 · 23 March 2022]

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.

Appalling

[westable · 2/10 · 21 January 2002]

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.

Hey Jude!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 22 May 2008]

**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!

Whew....What a Stinker!!

[huggy_bear · 1/10 · 29 January 2005]

First off let me say that this has to be on the top of my list of boring movies. Nothing, and I mean nothing in this movie is even remotely thrilling. Most of it is very confusing and as it progresses you just wish it would end!! Some people want a movie that makes them "think" through the entire thing, to which I say..."More power to you"!! I on the other hand just want to be entertained. Which brings me back to this stinker, entertainment it is not. This movie is stupid and a complete waste of time. Seems that most here agree also. Most of this didn't make any sense, and by the time you think you have one scene figured out another lame scene comes around and....well I guess you see where this is going. Avoid, this one sucks....bad!!

It's not horror, it might not even be psychological. But it certainly is bad

[Quinoa1984 · 3/10 · 29 September 2001]

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

The World of the DUMB and the Living... are About to Collide.

[tcdarkness · 1/10 · 8 February 2003]

I didn't have HUGE expectations for this film when renting it for $1 at the video store, but the box at least showed a little promise with its "killer cut" of "more gore! more sex!" Can't go wrong there! Well... needless to say, the box is a fraud. How in the hades did actors and actresses of this caliber sign on for a film this low?

It all opens with a drunken college girl walking out of a frat house or some other building like that and saying some useless crap to her boyfriend (?) as a camera on a bad steadicam follows her. Then she gets chased by some dude in a clear plastic mask and grabbed by another. They slit her wrists for no real reason and you can see when they "cut" her that someone drew the cuts with what looks like a crayon.

From there, repeat the same theme of the girl getting chased/killed unbrutally by two guys for about 84 more minutes. Add in one tit shot. That is Soul Survivors.

I wouldn't have had a problem with this film had the box not frauded me into renting the flick. If I rent a bad film that claims to have more violence and sex.... I want more violence and sex! One full frontal shot in 85 minutes from a chick who is clearly androginous and gore that would not scare a child does not cut it. If this is the Killer Cut, what is the Theatrical Cut?! Of course, I doubt this garbage was actually put into theaters in the first place. Shame on the actors in this film. I could see them making their screen debuts in here because they have not done anything before, but they were all established before this was released. I don't know if it was filmed before they had all been established and the studio sat on the film until they were semi-big names or not. But what i want to know is.... they really spent $14 million on this film?!

This movie was better than I expected

[ab-2 · 8/10 · 8 September 2001]

Soul Survivors is actual a great psychological horror/thriller. The movie focuses around four friends, Cassie, Matt, Annabel, and Sean get into a car accident. Sean dies as result of the accident and Cassie is being haunted by his ghost. This movie was actually scary in my opinion. Maybe not as scary as The Others, but scary. There are a few parts that are weird and that I don't get. Older audiences may not like it. It is definitely aimed at a teen audience. So I'll recommend this movie to only teens who like horror/thriller movies.

8/10

"Jacob's Ladder" lite

[seandchoi · 6/10 · 8 September 2001]

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.

Need To Fall Asleep?..... Watch This Movie

[fuzzyfacefreak · 1/10 · 4 September 2007]

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!!

Was this a dream?

[MLDinTN · 4 December 2002]

I sure wish this movie was a dream, so I wouldn't have wasted 90 minutes of my life. It is way too confusing for the viewer. And I didn't like how it was edited together. The story, what you could make of it, was way too choppy. I guess part of the problem was I thought this was a scary movie with ghosts or something. But, it is supposed to be more suspenseful than scary. And last, I got to say this had the stupidest scene with 2 girls in the shower. What was the point of that?

FINAL VERDICT: I guess they were trying to make a 6th sense type film, but missed the mark. It'll hurt your head trying to keep up with what is going on since it jumps around so much, so don't waste your time with this one.

Incredibly bland and worthless effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 1/10 · 25 February 2012]

After a car accident involving her and her friends, a young woman becomes increasingly unhinged with the belief that someone is stalking her as everyone else around her fails to understand her situation.

An absolute piece of junk, which has so many flaws it's hard to know where to start. First off, the twist ending at the end is so blatantly obvious that there's no surprise at all when it's revealed, the tame rating never allows it to do anything and the fact that there's no deaths, no kills or anything at all beyond her acting scared of her shadow makes this one just so boring and dull that it's hard to get excited about anything. Even the fact that the lifestyle that they live out isn't exactly all that interesting is another factor to overcome. Even more depressing, it doesn't have a positive aspect beyond a professional sheen, so overall, this one isn't worth it at all.

Rated PG-13: Violence

A No-Brainer

[Quicksand · 4/10 · 1 October 2001]

A spectacularly bad film, in which strange occurrences plague the victim of a car crash. What writer/director Steve Carpenter fails to realize is, whatever this main character is trying to figure out, I guessed in the first 30 seconds. I spent the rest of the movie thinking, "That can't be it. That's WAY too obvious." Well, Obvious is Steve's middle name. You can't build suspense if you don't care about your characters, and I only cared about the usually-fantastic Eliza Dushku, who is wasted here-- as is Wes Bentley ("American Beauty"), who must have signed on for this movie under heavy duress, or medication.

However, this movie DOES draw comparison to another of its ilk-- a little-seen 1986 film called "Nomads" starring Pierce Brosnan and Adam Ant. It was spectacularly bad in the same way (costumes and music that dates instantly; a plot that was impossible to follow, if indeed one existed), and was written and directed by John McTiernan, who would go on to direct scripts written by much more talented writers, among them "Die Hard," "Predator," and "The Hunt for Red October."

Avoid this one at all costs. But let the optimist in you keep an eye on those responsible.

What's wrong with this film?

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 1/10 · 25 January 2005]

What's wrong with this film? Many, many things. The editing tries too hard to look good, and does nothing but confuse the viewer whilst also supplying him/her with a powerful headache. The plot is muddled and obviously prolonged from what started as a short (story or film). The plot only makes for less than ten minutes of good story, and this is just stretched out painfully until it reached the minimum length for a feature film. We all know what happens to things when we stretch them, right? Exactly. They get thinner. In the end, the plot is just so paper-thin that you might even miss it, if you aren't paying attention, which is hard to do when watching this movie. The acting is not even slightly impressive. The characters are poorly written and dull, uninteresting. One of the worst things that are wrong with this film is that apparently, whoever was in charge of the score/soundtrack had no idea what the movie was, or what it was supposed to be about(not that I blame him, I couldn't figure it out either). As a result, half of the music in the film doesn't fit the scenes at all. Also, what was with all the sexual undertones between Eliza Dushku and the main character? Naturally, this was in order to attract young males, but it was just so cheaply done. And did the first scene have anything to do with the rest of the film? On any conceivable level? At all? The two creepy guys didn't seem to have anything to do with the film at all, they were just there in order to have some chase scenes. I doubt anyone would really enjoy a film so poorly put together and such a shameless and awful Hollywood-like attempt at a somewhat interesting idea. But I digress. I recommend this to teenagers with low attention spans who don't mind a really bad horror-thriller as long as there's some sex and gore in it(although that may only be true for the Killer Cut, which I saw). 1/10

Been there, done that...

[bobfingerman · 2/10 · 13 September 2003]

If you're looking for a dumbed down, watered down, A.D.D.-addled rip-off of `Jacob's Ladder', this is your flick. Borrowing (stealing) from many sources, this `is it real or only in my mind' collegiate stroll down Confusion Lane is one not worth taking. The cast isn't to blame. They grapple bravely with their lighter than air archetypal cliché-riddled roles, but the writing is awful and the direction is severely lacking. The `surprise' ending should come of no surprise to anyone with more than a dozen functioning brain cells.

Tries to hard to be clever

[aramo1 · 5/10 · 28 April 2002]

Based on R1 DVD 86 min

If your determined to watch this movie I will not spoil it for you - however you should know that though the acting is not terrible the plot and presentation leave a lot to be desired. I found myself checking the time every ten minutes or so after the first hour and then the ending finally unfolded I couldn't have cared less about who lived or died.

I was tempted to give it a 4/10 but the production values are average.

5/10 watch if bored or very keen fan of genre.

O' go back to the Adams Family

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 23 February 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Much like the 1962 horror classic "Carnival of Souls" the film "Soul Survivor" has to do with young Cassie, Melissa Sagemiller, who survived a car accident where her boyfriend Sean, Casey Affleck, died from severe brain trauma. It's later that Sean pops up alive and well at the gazebo that the two lover used to hang out in telling the shocked Cassie that he's quite all right, in the world beyond, and for her to go on with her life. What makes things difficult for Cassie is that these two weirdos who she met at a Halloween party before the accident show up as well making her life, or what's left of it, a living hell.

Looking for help Cassie gets in touch with Father Jude played by Luke Wilson, The lovable Golden Gate Bridge toll collector in "You Kill Me", who tries to set her straight by telling her to just roll with the punches and let nature take its course or else she'll end up in a loony bin. What Father Jude keeps from Cassie***MAJOR SPOILER*** is that he's in the same place that she mow finds herself in. Cassie goes in and out of reality throughout the entire movie until the final few minutes where she finally finds out the truth about what she's been going through and in that finally finds peace for both her body & mind.

What's considered by its star Casey Afflect the worst movie he ever was in "Soul Survivor" never quite makes any sense in its confusing story line as well as it having absolutely no shocks or trills at all in it. The film even falls flat in its T&A department with what was to be the big sex scene in it with Cassie and her girlfriend Annabel, Eliza Dushku, taking a shower together but not in the nude but fully clothed in their skimpy like bathing suites! We also get to see that man hungry Annabel leave her cheating boyfriend Matt, Wes Bently, who's having it on with what looks like a comatose Cassie and become a switch hitter-From both sides of the bed- and take a swing or roll in the hey with her lesbian lover Raven, Angela Featherstone, who's one of the survivors of the car accident she was in.