Director: David Hemmings
Starring: Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, Joseph Cotten
When an airline pilot survives a crash that kills all 300 passengers, he works with a psychic and a priest to find the culprit behind the incident and pacify the souls of the victims.
‘The Survivor’ is not to be confused with 1984’s ‘Sole Survivor’, which is also about a plane crash leaving only one survivor.
I’ll start by saying ‘The Survivor’ had the potential to be so much better, but no thanks to the director’s vision of the film and choppy editing, I found the film difficult to follow at times. There literally were moments in the film where I had no idea what the hell was going on. To add to this, many scenes were so dark that one could hardly follow the action.
After a confusing start of various images edited together, a plane crashes, killing everyone on board except pilot David Keller (Robert Powerll). Not being able to remember anything since taking off, David is trying to find out what happened.
Clairvoyant Hobbs (Jenny Agutter) – a rather strange character in her own right – seems to have some sort of connection with the victims, and contacts David. She feels she was somehow involved with the accident. I didn’t fully understand this character, nor their quest for answers. At times the film seemed to have a supernatural edge, but when the reveal came it had nothing to do with supernatural powers. Speaking of which, I can’t say I agree with the twist ending.
‘The Survivor’ has a confusing premise and I won’t be surprised if I forget this in an instant.
Surprisingly, the film won an award for Best Screenplay. It also received award nominations for Best Lead Actress, Best Achievement in Sound, Best Achievement in Production Design, and Best Achievement in Cinematography. I think I must have missed something here…
‘The Survivor’ might be classified as a horror, but there’s no horror here. Thriller at best.
Would I watch it again? No.
Paul's Movie Reviews 