Sole Survivor (1984)

Fantastic!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

A young woman who survives a plane crash is hunted by nightmares and dead people, coming to collect her. A decent, typical 80s horror film, to enjoy on a lonely friday/saturday night.

Annoyed by all the attention thrown her way, the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash tries to get on with her life, however, it appears that Death still has a plan to take her in this intriguing horror thriller. The film's best asset is the dialogue with several fascinating notions tossed around as "survivor's syndrome", referring to guilt often experienced by sole survivors, and curious statistics, such as the majority of sole survivors dying within 24 months of their accident, often as a result of carelessness or subconsciously placing themselves in dangerous situations. The protagonist also offers an interesting tale of a dress that she was not charged for, commenting that she experienced similar elation upon surviving the crash, before then remarking "they eventually find" any mistake. 'Sole Survivor' is not, however, the psychological horror film that one might expect from such intelligent dialogue. There is never any doubt that it is not in her mind and that there are really forces out to get her. Also, creepy as the blankly staring zombies are, their lack of urgency in getting her never quite rings true. The plot is further drawn out with an extraneous strip poker game that only seems to exist to meet a nudity quota and most perhaps disappointing of all, both the lead actress and her boyfriend are bland. This is, however, a film to watch for its small delights: an ominous elevator ride, a foreboding bug-eyed clock, a young girl zombie, etc. The premise is also highly original and undeniably thought-provoking depending on how much one believes in chance, fate and coincidence.

Almost incoherent but atmospheric, would best describe "Sole Survivor". The film opens effectively creepy with the lone survivor of a horrific but unseen plane crash, having an ever present feeling that she is in danger. She befriends and eventually becomes involved with an interning physician, who slowly uncovers a theory of the walking dead seeking the survivor who cheated death. The middle portion of this movie is extremely slow, muddled, and uninteresting, with flashes in time, unexplained characters, and general confusion. There is also a totally gratuitous nude scene involving strip poker. The film almost redeems itself with an ending that is downbeat yet effective. - MERK

Denise Watson (Anita Skinner) is a TV reporter who's the lone survivor of an airplane crash, thing is she wasn't supposed to. Now with dead people after her and cryptic warnings from her actress friend (whom happens to be a psychic), she's getting more and more unsettled. I enjoyed this little film, it's slow-moving and low key, but at the same time has an effectively unnerving atmosphere and pretty cool ending.Eye Candy: Scream queen Brinke Stevens gets topless and Anita Skinner shows her left boob briefly My Grade: B- Deep red DVD Extras: An intro by producer/actress Caren Larkey; Commentary with Larkey, executive producer Sal Romeo, film historian Jeff McKay, and director Jeff Burr; 8 & a half minute Interview with Larkey and Romeo; theatrical trailer; and trailers for "the Unseen", "the Farmer", "the Dead pit", "the Silent Scream", & "Human experiments"