Soul Survivors Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)October 25th, 2001
SOUL SURVIVORS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
SOUL SURVIVORS, written and directed by Steve Carpenter, the writer of BLUE STREAK and the upcoming OCEAN'S ELEVEN remake, is a by-the-numbers horror movie whose only real scare comes from the sudden blast of a starter's pistol at a swim meet. The story is one of those in which it's never clear, until the end, who is alive and who is dead and what is a dream and what isn't. Even the ending explanation leaves plenty of plot holes to ponder. Well, it would if the movie weren't so instantly forgettable.
Melissa Sagemiller (GET OVER IT), Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY), Eliza Dushku (BRING IT ON) and Casey Affleck (AMERICAN PIE 2) play young lovers Cassie, Matt, Annabel and Sean. Students at Middleton College in the town of Middleton, undoubtedly smack dab in the middle of America, the four kids form two love triangles. One night, when an ominous full moon gives way to a torrential downpour, the kids drive and argue along a slippery and twisting mountain road. Not looking properly, they careen into another car of kids, and one or more of them are killed. After that we have numerous flashbacks to the events surrounding the accident as well as imaginary sightings of dead people and lots of non-existent blood.
Along the way people say trite little things to encourage the survivors. As Father Jude, Luke Wilson comforts one by saying, "It's difficult to be a survivor, but it's up to God who lives and who dies."
About the only reason to see SOUL SURVIVORS is if you are desperate for a guilty pleasure. Carpenter tosses in a few erotic scenes, but ones that are in no danger of threatening his film's PG-13 rating. The most explicit of these has two girls taking a shower together. Don't worry. They stay fully clothed at all times.
Question number eight on one of the student's quizzes contains the phrase, "Abandon all hope ye who enter in." This would be good advice for those who decide to see this movie.
SOUL SURVIVORS runs 1:25. It is rated PG-13 for "terror/violence, sexuality and some substance abuse," and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
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