Not Another Teen Slasher. Despite all of the Marketing and promotion for this Film (see below for one example), this is not what it seems. This is Soul Survivors, a 2001 Horror (?) Film that is kind of a lie. From the way the Film was marketed, you'd think that they were being hunted by some sort of masked person/monster. Nope. I'll get into what happens in the actual Review, but, sufficed to say it ain't what they sold you. As I noted way back in 2013, there was a Poster trend for these kinds of Films. The Plot involves a group of young people who survive a car wreck, but one of them starts to be bothered by strange visions and seeing dead people. Wait- is this just another Soultaker? Yes and no. No Joe Estevez here (sadly?) and no Robert Z'Dar either. Instead, you get Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck and Luke Wilson. To see what happens when you make a confusingly-marketed Film and accidentally release it days before 9/11, read on...
A pair of Couples hang out for one last Party Night before some of them leave for College.
A normal College Party- boring.
A Rave at a Church- a real winner!
Some personal drama comes up as our Lead used to date her lady friend's Boyfriend and lets him have 'one last kiss'...which the current Boyfriend sees.
This combines with a bunch of Ravers spinning their car out to lead to a car accident that kills Affleck.
Our Lead tries to move on and go to College. Confusingly, she already has Mid-Terms.
While there, she starts to see weird things. For instance...
These 'dreams' where she is on the Operating Table and treated by Doctors.
Fun Fact: one of the EMTs is played by T. J. Jagodowski aka one of the two Guys from the Sonic Drive-In Commercials. I'm a font of useless knowledge.
She also keeps seeing Affleck randomly, despite him being dead.
He keeps saying stuff like 'don't give up' and encouraging her 'not to go with him.'
Hmm....
She also keeps talking to this Priest- Wilson- who encourages her not to give up.
To add to the 'like a Slasher, but not' vibe, I'm getting a real 'Nun from
Nightmare on Elm Street 3' vibe here. He's slightly-less useful though.
In the most 'this is still too early to handle this right' moment, she also sees her friend- Dushku- in a softcore lesbian tease that is supposed to 'prove' that everything she is seeing is starting to get 'freaky' and 'wrong.'
Yeah, this hasn't aged well.
Can our Heroine figure out the secret to her mysterious visions and the strange occurrences?
Yeah, duh.
She was in a coma. The people she was seeing from the Club were dead and trying to get her to stay.
The Priest who was helping her was also dead and pushed her to cling to life.
Well, it ended better for her than it did for this guy. The End.
It is rare that I compare a Movie to a very mundane experience. Watching this Movie for me was like waiting for the Bus. You know how it is going to end from the get-go. You aren't that interested in what is going to happen between then and now. To be fair, this is not a unique gripe with this Film. I had the same response to the Remake of
Carnival of Souls. Despite a good Director and some good visuals, I knew where it was going from the beginning, so the twists and turns did little to excite me. Like that Film, this one tries to give you weird, freaky moments. Unlike that Film, however, this Film tries to be less scary and more 'unsettling.' It is all about our Heroine being constantly off-guard between random hallucinations. Meh. They're fine. The Acting is fine. Other than the part I mentioned above that feels really weird to see as 'freaky' in 2020, the Film had aged alright. I just wish that things weren't so obvious. While it is not the Slasher Film that it was sold as, it's alright...but very dry due to obvious Plotting. Oh well- at least it got a plaque. No joke- this is real!
Next time, October begins with the Remake of a Film that is fairly-infamous. Is a more sane version a better one? Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment