Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23522 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-21
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Special Features
16:9 Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Deleted Scenes
Alternative Ending
Production Notes
Animated Storyboard Sequence
Making Of Featurette
Harvey Danger Featurette
English

Synopsis
After surviving a car crash that killed her boyfriend (Casey Affleck), Cassandra (Melissa Sagemiller) finds herself haunted by his ghost. A priest (Luke Wilson) tries to exorcize these frightful visions from Cassandra's mind, but her college friends see her vulnerability as the perfect outlet for their malicious plans. She tries to carry on her life like all the other college freshmen, but it unravels when she begins to believe she is being stalked. Then Cassandra has horrifying hallucinations; during a midterm, she bleeds profusely all over her desk, and the drain in her shower explodes with blood. Gradually, Cassandra understands what is happening to her, but will she be able to survive

Customer Reviews

Too surreal for its own good
I have mixed feelings about Soul Survivors, especially this self-proclaimed “The Killer Cut” version. This movie oversells itself, and it tries much too hard to be confusing, providing so many last-minute twists that it ruined some of my appreciation for it. I think the moviemakers are also wrong in thinking it explains itself fully in the end; surely, one figures out the whole gist of the thing, but some of the nuances really don’t resonate that well. Having watched the movie and the limited commentary included with it, I still must question several scenes that either do not make sense in the proper context or seem to have nothing to do with the actual story.

I won’t dwell too much on plot here for fear of giving something away. Basically, this is a story of four friends: Cassie (played wonderfully by newcomer Melissa Sagemiller), her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck), her best friend Annie (Eliza Dushku), and Annie’s boyfriend/Cassie’s former boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley). The gang goes to a rave on the eve of starting college, where a bunch of weirdoes wearing featureless masks keep popping up. Then Cassie and Sean have a misunderstanding after Matt talks Cassie into giving him a goodbye kiss. On the way home, a car full of masked people swings around the front of the group’s vehicle and causes a hellacious accident. Cassie survives, but she is emotionally traumatized by Sean’s death. Matt and Annie somehow come out unscathed. Cassie goes on to college and begins to lose her grip on reality. She keeps seeing the weirdoes from the club following her, and on several occasions they attempt to kill her. Matt stays to take care of her, but as time goes on Cassie becomes suspicious of her friends, relying on the comfort of Sean (whose ghostly presence appears to her on a number of occasions) and a young priest at the school. There is an element of suspense here, one which builds up as the movie progresses, but I found myself preoccupied trying to figure out just who was actually dead here and what the final twist of the movie would be.

Soul Survivors is basically a psychological thriller. The “killer cut” promises more blood, sex, and terror than the theatrical version; there is some blood, particularly in one scene, but there is basically no sex to be found anywhere here, nor can I say I felt a lump of anything resembling terror building up in my stomach. Suspense-wise, the movie shoots itself in the foot; by the time you get past the surreal marathon of images, flashbacks, and dreams at the end, all you really care about is seeing the movie end. The basic idea of the film is good, the actors are very good indeed, but there’s just something missing in the whole atmosphere.

It’s interesting to note that Eliza Dushku is featured most prominently on the movie case, while the real star, Melissa Sagemiller, is almost lost in the background. Dushku fans will definitely want to see this movie, but her role is basically that of a supporting actress. I liked the commentary by Sagemiller included on the DVD. She explains about half a dozen scenes (there is no movie-length commentary) and offers some insight on the film that I was interested in hearing. The behind-the-scenes featurette was short and interesting but nothing special. The featurette on Harvey Danger basically has nothing to do with the film, but it was certainly unusual and slightly comical. The extra features on the DVD are much appreciated, but they can’t make up for the flaws in the actual movie.

Well made but an OK film
This is quite a dark film about 4 students heading off to a new college, it seems very weird in places but it should all make sence by the end of the film (I dont want to give away the ending).

The film is well put together but events during the story may appear weird at the time of seeing them, once you get to the end of the film these events are explained.

If you liked films like "The sixth sence" and "the others" you will most likely enjoy this film.

Not stunning but OK 3/5

Does little to raise it from Teen Horror Flick pap
Soul Survivors tends to have a reputation for being above and beyond Teen Horror Flicks, but frankly it's overrated. The cast is familiar, and average, Casey Affleck and Elisa Dushku are poor as ever, playing the exact same characters in every film I see them in, especially Dushku, who is so hammy it's unbelievable, leaving Sagemuller to carry the film.
The storyline is nothing original, and attempts to rise above the 'killer on the loose' vibe by becoming an existential tale of mortality, visions, flashbacks and dreams. It's easy to be led astray by what is distraction and padding to an otherwise empty exercise in teenage horror. Maybe horror is the wrong word, because it has no tension, build up and psychological effect. The direction is acceptable and the plot desperately tries to twist and turn and in doing so loses the audience, removing all power from an otherwise unsatisfactory ending.
Films like this irritate me when you have pictures like the Pang brothers 'The Eye' or Guillermo Del Toros 'Devils Backbone' going relatively unnotcied and this gets a buzz around it. Fundamentally it does very little to distant itself from it's cheap slasher movie cousins, and while obviously superior, it does not make it a good film in its own right with such visible flaws.