Soul Survivors Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
The World of the Dead and the World of the Living... are About to Collide.
College freshman Cassandra "Cassie" (Melissa Sagemiller) steps into a nightmare of otherworldly visitations after surviving a devastating car accident. Haunted by a grim reaper of a far different kind, her only hope is to cling to chance encounters with her lost love Sean (Casey Affleck) and the aid of a mysterious young priest named Father Jude (Luke Wilson). It is the spirit of Sean, her soul mate, who guides her to love, but it is her friends Matt (Wes Bentley), Annabel (Eliza Dushku) and Annabel's morose friend Raven (Angela Featherstone) who try to draw her to the dark side.
| Casey Affleck | Sean |
| Luke Wilson | Jude |
| Eliza Dushku | Annabel |
| Angela Robinson | |
| Wes Bentley | Matt |
| Angela Featherstone | Raven |
| Melissa Sagemiller | Cassie |
| Allen Hamilton | Dr. Haverston |
| Ken Moreno | Hideous Dancer |
| Carl Paoli | Deathmask |
| Barbara E. Robertson | Margaret |
| Richard Pickren | Ben |
| Candace Kroslak | Cool Blond |
| Ryan Kitley | Young Cop |
| Rick Snyder | Father McManus |
| Danny Goldberg | Campus Cop |
| Stephen Carpenter |
3.40 out of 10 (3727 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Hey Jude!
posted on 10 Aug 2009**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!
Are There Really Survivors?
posted on 04 Aug 2009You are a survivor if you actually can watch the whole film. A truly confusing film that tries to play psycho games with your head. After the car accident did anyone really survive? Are the events after the accident just a bad dream? Are the events true life for Cassie or a result of brain damage? Is Cassie just on a "guilt trip" about the accident? These are all questions that are never really answered. At one point when Cassie is on an operating table you wonder: just what is the point of this film? If you want to waste time or have insomnia then watch this film. If you need to give a gift to someone that you don't like then why not give this film to them
NOT A TEEN HORROR FLICK
posted on 09 Jul 2009I liked both "Jacob's Ladder" and "The Sixth Sense" altho the latter was very easy to guess and the former should still give everyone problemsMaybe I saw the wrong movie or maybe I was stoned when I saw Jacob's Ladder. Maybe you can compare coma or near death flashback dreams to drug induced memories of war but having done them both I wouldn't try. This is a well acted pretty frightening movie but the popularity of "The Sixth Sense" makes for other bad comparisons.This is a different film and the loose ends are pretty well tied together at the ending but I think many viewers were making the above comparisons while watching and didn't fully appreciate this on its own.The cinematography is very good and the film is well paced. I think if more people view it with an open mind and don't try too hard to figure out the ending, it can stand on its own.
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
posted on 03 Jul 2009~Spoiler~I was expecting a bad movie from everything I had heard about Soul Survivors. That being said, I wasn't shocked by the crappiness of the film. Luckily I didn't spend any money on it. I had a free rental coupon and it was Soul Survivors or nothing. So, I got home and popped it in. The DVD menu was great, unfortunately it's the highlight of the movie. Soul Survivors is entirely too predictable. I knew exactly what was going to happen within ten minutes. As soon as the car crash takes place I knew where it was headed. If you've ever seen Carnival of Souls, you know what's going on. Soul Survivors is simply a bad retread of old ground that's already been covered brilliantly. Teen is involved in a car accident, she spends most of the movie running around trying to figure out what's going on, then she wakes up to find that she was in a coma the whole time as a result of the accident. Seen it before. The one thing I actually enjoyed was the scene of the heroine running through the hospital intercut with her escaping the car crash. I loved that part, small as it was. Sadly, it doesn't make me forget how terrible the rest of the movie is. The moral of the story is, you can pass on Soul Survivors, even if you have a free coupon.
Great movie
posted on 30 May 2009Great movie! A bit hard to understand sometimes though, but overall good. A little bit more lesbian sex in the shower scene would also have been nice :) I reccomend this for all people that like a bit odd films! I definatly say this film is worth buying or renting on DVD. Check it out!
Odd Movie, Tissue Thin Plot
posted on 20 May 2009SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!The oddest thing about this film is that most of the cast, with the exception of Luke Wilson and the heroine, seems to be cloned from Casey Affleck, a repellent notion in and of itself. Sometimes it was bewildering merely to try to figure out who is doing what to whom because the characters all look alike. Since only a dunce would be unable to figure out that we are seeing dead people, it makes the audience's task a tad more arduous by forcing them to use their body language and wardrobe choices to tell the ghosties and ghoulies apart. All in all, a very silly movie, that is internally inconsistent and no credit to anyone involved.By the way, does anyone have any idea WHEN Casey Affleck's voice is going to change? In this film, he sounds like a soprano bullfrog with an in-built yodel.
great
posted on 10 Apr 2009this movie is great. absolutely great. well, as long as you don't... you know... watch it. i just finished watching it after hearing all the reviews of how bad it was, and i didnt believe them. well, i should have. at least partly. it isnt all bad, i mean there is some eye candy in there, and not all the acting is terrible, but the story blows. it just blows. its confusing. and this is coming from a guy who understood Mulholland Drive and Memento. its just weird. i kinda understand what was going on, but it was overly mixed up. it did have potential though. its worth it to rent, but dont buy it.
Why does everyone hate this movie?!
posted on 21 Mar 2009Ok... well I admit, my opinion maybe a little bias because I am a huge CaseyAffleck fan. But the movie had it's twist. I mean in the begining, you, well at least I didn't see the ending coming. Though i do admit, it was not scary, not really even suspence. But it did scare my friend. So i think people should give it a chance. Especially just to hear Casey Affleck's voice.
It's a bad omen when the title is a pun.
posted on 07 Mar 2009***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Does anyone else notice that the first scene in this film is never explained, and makes no sense? Just curious.Much that it might want to be, this is not a David Lynch film. It doesn't have the imagination. Near-death trauma causes hallucinations (or ARE they?) and the most exciting thing they can come up with is some weird-looking guys chasing you up various halls and alleys?The box copy is rather deceptive, too, claiming this is the version that "couldn't be seen in theaters." It's simply the version that WASN'T seen in theaters; there's nothing extreme in this film at all, especially compared to the slasher films of the 70s and 80s. While the filmmakers seemed to be trying to get all artsy rather than gory, it doesn't really pay off in either way. Plus Eliza Dushku doesn't get the least bit naked in this film, so be forewarned (though she does dance nicely, if the camera would just slow down and let us watch her doing so.)SPOILER COMING: What kind of a twist ending is it to have the character simply mistaken about which of her friends actually died? So you get two deaths instead of one...I guess that's worse in real life, but hardly what I'd call dramatic. And can you count the times a "horror" film has ended with the sudden reappearance of the villian, which suddenly turns out to be "Whew! Just a dream!" No, I expect you probably can't.
David Lynch might get away with it… but this film doesn't
posted on 07 Mar 2009When I rent films such as Mulholland Drive I expect to be confused, and realize that I have to enjoy the film from an artistic point of view, rather then story line. This rather unknown Writer/Director, Stephen Carpenter, which most known job to date are writing credits for the comedy Blue Streak, has taken on too big of a task her. Soul Survivors is not badly acted, nor in the cinematography that bad. And with some added scenes, maybe the story line wasn't that bad. But the end result is a disaster. The film is only confusing and never pulls of being interestingly confusing. Scenes are mixed, with the audience never having any clue as to what is real and what isn't. Even the ending leaves you hanging, wondering what on earth the film was about. When we compare it to films such as Mulholland Drive which is also very confusing, we have suspense, great dialog and unbelievable cinematography. Soul Survivors doesn't have that, it is like a horror teen flick set mixed with bad David Lynch story line. Maybe some of you out there can make some sense of the story, and if so, you might enjoy this film. Like I said, it wasn't really the actors that did badly; it was the flow of the story – or even a lack of A story. 3/10
a great movie
posted on 11 Feb 2009this was a great movie. the movie was a little choppy but the storyline was great. it gets you thinking its going to turn out one way then it totally changes the direction. awesome movie everyone should see it. Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, Mellisa Sagemiller, Luke Wilson and Eliza Dushku did a great job. they all are great actors and actresses. the movie reminds me a tiny bit of i know what you did last summer with the whole murder plot idea. the directors did a great job with this move Soul Survivors. the cast was great, the directing and storyline was awesome. It's one of my favorite movies by far, at first i didn't think i would like it because it seemed like a scary murder movie. it turned out to be great, very suspenseful but good. the ending is great i loved the way the movie turned out.
Simply awful!
posted on 09 Feb 2009CASSIE is a college student, whom one year prior, lost her boyfriend in a horrible accident, what made matters even worse was the fact that she now has to deal with the fact that, besides not being able to ever see him again, they didn't part with each other on good terms (He saw her kissing her ex-boyfriend) you see while Cassie trying to reason with him, she wasn't watching where she was going & her, her boyfriend & two of their other friends (One of course happened to be the ex) got into an accident, now not only is she seeing his ghost, but other specters as well that for some odd reason, seems intent on doing her in. If film makers could be jailed for presenting the audiences with what seems to be a never ending, non-scary & confusing bore fest, than the people who made this film would be serving a life sentence right now! this movie was simply awful, I couldn't understand most of it as it was to confusing, there is no suspense, there is no scares, the characters are unlikable, the writing is bad, the acting & directing is mediocre & well the list goes on & on. Seriously it was painful to sit & watch this movie & I highly doubt any of this was intentional & that's even worse! the film had so many endings too (None of which made sense mind you) Even die hard horror buffs may have trouble trying to stomach this mess! 0 stars
Well, That Was Confusing...
posted on 14 Jan 2009"Soul Survivors" seems to me to be a ripoff of "Carnival of Souls" remake, which is also a really bad movie, although I found this one to be slightly better. This film centers around a student, Cassie, who leaves for college in the fall with her friends. On their last night of freedom, she and some friends go clubbing at a strange dance club in an old cathedral-type building. Having a strange feeling that someone is following her, Cassie decides she wants to leave so she and her friends head out. But after leaving the club, a bad car wreck takes place, killing Cassie's boyfriend, Matt. Her life is then turned upside down as she tries to balance her studies with the mourning of her boyfriend. Things get even weirder when she starts having visions of him, her friends begin to act stranger and stranger, and she begins being stalked and attacked by people she recognizes from the club that night. Is her boyfriend really dead? Or is she going crazy? Well, "Soul Survivors" has trouble deciding that itself. Obviously inspired by "Carnival of Souls", this film started off alright, but it got increasingly confusing and it lessened the total impact of it all. By the middle of this movie, you have no idea what's going on at all. What's real and what isn't? The abrupt ending of the movie doesn't really come full circle either, and it has the viewer questioning whether any of the events that took place in the film actually happened. I understand that the writers want you to be confused, but I think it got a little too confusing if you ask me. There are strong points to the film, however, it is done with good style and has some really well done chase sequences between Cassie and a masked man from the club which I enjoyed. The cast was actually pretty good, and Melissa Sagemiller was excellent in her first leading role. Some others you'll probably recognize are Eliza Dushku (who plays Cassie's friend), Casey Affleck (Cassie's boyfriend), and Luke Wilson (a priest who Cassie asks for guidance).Overall, "Soul Survivors" is a tangled, all-over-the-place little horror flick. It tried to be like "Carnival Of Souls" but failed. It is done with good style though, and it has some good scenes. The biggest problem though is how confusing it was, and that it has been done in many other films. It's about half and half if you ask me. 5/10.
Sadly misunderstood
posted on 12 Jan 2009This is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, and it's a shame that it exists in ignominy, with most people under the vast misapprehension that it's another movie where "it was all a dream," when this is not the case. Most of the movie does not take place in reality as we know it, but it is not a dream. This is a movie that requires its audience to think, and works on several levels ... as a regular horror movie, as a treatment of death and the afterlife and how people deal with it, including a lot of symbolism and some subtle dialogue to accompany this, and as an allegory for the transitory nature of human relationships and experiences.The movie suffers most when it tries too hard to cleave to horror archetypes, such as scary characters, chase scenes, and the rewritten ending (the original ending, on the DVD as an alternate scene, is much more appropriate). Despite these shortcomings, however, the movie draws the viewer into the story and never makes it easy to understand. This can be frustrating in some cases, but here it enriches the movie and elevates it above most of its brainless ilk.
It's BAD! BAD!
posted on 12 Jan 2009It's really hard to imagine a movie being worse than `Soul Survivors'. I could be motivated to write a complete dissertation on its worthlessness but refuse isn't deserving of such. The biggest mystery is how Hollywood executives didn't pull the plug after viewing a single frame.I rented this DVD because I was impressed with Wes Bentley's unique qualities in `American Beauty' in his portrayal of a disturbed peeping tom.
However, judging from his appearance in this film I'm left to wonder whether Mr. Bentley is at all right upstairs. There isn't much else to say except DON'T WASTE ANY OF YOUR LIFE SEEING THIS MOVIE. It doesn't matter whether you're stoned or sober, sane or loony, it's a miserably BAD flick.
**********This is an amazing movie, that requires you to think...**********
posted on 10 Jan 2009First off... Id like to point out that for a movie to be good for me.. I want to have to think a bit.. I don't want to sit there and see a movie I've seen 5000 other times rehashed in a new location with new actors....This movie is unique... the plot doesn't follow a straight line.. in fact for a good portion of the movie you have NOOOOOO idea whats going on.. and that is what makes it so UNIQUE and GOOD.... When the film is over.. your still THINKING about it... piecing together the elements that are beautifully laid out... But folks... this is no simple A,B,C Puzzle... This is CERTAINLY NOT a graphic horror movie... the is no people getting sliced up, or guts coming out someones nose... but the state of confusion... is what gives it the erie feel... All in all.. i was disappointed in the lack of positive reviews... If you like movies like In the mouth of madness, sixth sense, mulholland drive... this movie is right up your alley! 11 outta 10 for a UNIQUE idea************
Weird Doesn't Equal Cool - SPOILERS
posted on 10 Jan 2009I spent this whole movie praying that something cool would happen.....but it didn't. They were trying to be weird or maybe psychological but not in a cool (David Lynch) way. Then, at the end, they did the worst thing ever, they had the thing where someone wakes up and it's like "maybe it was a dream". If you're going to make a weird movie, commit to it, don't cop out at the end. The most amazing thing about this movie is the fact that Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck and Eliza Dushku agreed to be part of it.
Need To Fall Asleep?..... Watch This Movie
posted on 06 Jan 2009What 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!!
terrible
posted on 09 Dec 2008this movie was just awful. Wes Bentley and Eliza Dushku were all that attracted me to this film, but all i can say to those two talented actors is "what were you thinking?" This movie is, to say the least, predictable and boring. The cover of the movie has the blonde girl in the back but she's actually the main character - she cannot act. every time she saw another freak reject from buffy the vampire slayer and she had to be consoled by one of her wacko friends she would just crinkle up her forehead and whimper - hello! don't you think you'd be a tad more upset if you were about to be killed. Oh, and how many times was that idiot walking by herself alone at night on the streets? for god's sake - please! This film was physically painful to watch and the end just reminded me of those terrible stories i used to write when i was 8 - "and then she woke up, and it was all a dream". I'd be overly generous if i gave this film a 2 out of 10 - so i didn't.. 1 star out of 10 for this pile of crud.
Horrible Movie....Terribly Boring.
posted on 18 Aug 2009This movie was very terrible, it was so confusing! The only reason i rated it a 2 is because of Eliza Dushku, she rocked, even though i hated her character! This movie....just don't watch it, it's the biggest waste of time, trust me! If you don't believe, go rent it or buy it, I Dare You! I cannot believe i actually Sat through the whole thing, like this was so bad, it was actually a waste of film. Like seriously, was this the directors first movie? was he blindfolded when he made this? because i cannot SEE how anyone could make such a horrible and boring film like this. No matter what horrible movie you watch, put it next to this, and it will seem like a masterpiece. Because i do not think that any movie is as garbage as this. Oh, and don't let the cover fool you, it is NOT a slasher film!!! Anyways if you want to rent it, i cannot stop all you, all i can say is - Good Luck trying to stay awake!