The Survivor (1981)

[Boots1985]

I noticed that The Survivor didn't have its own thread, and I figured this deserves some more recognition.

I just got done watching this movie, and it was a pleasant surprise. I had known about The Survivor for a long time, seeing as I'm a huge fan of Sole Survivor (1983), which is pretty much a remake of The Survivor.

It was fun comparing both movies, and it is cool to see two different takes on a similar story. Each movie has its strengths and weaknesses. The Survivor obviously had the bigger budget, and the plane crash is done very effectively for a movie made before the CGI era. The body count seems to be higher in this, than in Sole Survivor, even though The Survivor seems to be more of a thriller than a straight-up horror movie.

I would say, story wise, Sole Survivor is better simply because it is more effective, and less bogged-down in the procedural/mystery of the plane crash. I wish they could've focused more on the horror aspect in The Survivor, because those scenes were very well done. Obviously David Hemmings was a fan of Let's Scare Jessica to Death, since there is a scene straight out of that movie.

The transfer is amazing. It has some really nice early-'80s soft-focus cinematography, and beautiful Australian locations. I'm a huge fan of anything filmed in Australia, and New Zealand, as well. There is just something about movies filmed there that are so unique and unlike most other movies. Razorback, Roadgames (1981), and Strange Behavior are just a few of the other classic movies that were filmed in those countries.

I recommend this to any fans of '80s horror or atmospheric horror movies in general.

[The Great Owl]

This movie most certainly deserves its own thread. Thanks! It's one of those films that I figured nobody else in the world remembered except for me, so it's always great to see these personal treasures on Blu-ray.

I'll double-post my review of this film from the Severin thread...

I first saw The Survivor on HBO during the summer of 1982, when I was 10 years old. I didn't make it all the way through on my first viewing, because the film scared me so badly. I made it a little farther into the film during my second viewing, but I was still too scared to finish it. I soon toughed it out, though, and watched the film in its entirety during my third viewing, and I even enjoyed seeing it a couple more times that month.

The Survivor, which is based on a novel by the late English horror novelist James Herbert, tells the story of a pilot (Robert Powell) who, somewhat miraculously, is the sole survivor of a horrific 747 passenger jet crash on the outskirts of a city. A series of terrifying events soon begin to occur as ghosts of the dead passengers appear in visions to shed light on the true cause of the crash. Joseph Cotton (The Third Man, Citizen Kane) makes his final film appearance here as a priest who is sympathetic to the plight of the pilot. Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London) was a high priestess of hotness during this era, so it's great to see her in this film as a woman who is having strange supernatural experiences related to the crash.

The scene that really scared the hell out of me when I was a kid involves a photographer who has a chilling encounter with the ghost of a young girl who died in the crash. The sight of the girl's burned face and her burned plastic doll was quite traumatic for me at the time, although I also thought that it was quite awesome.

I was a huge fan of James Herbert's novels when I was younger. In fact, his first novel, The Rats, which was adapted into the film, Deadly Eyes, was a childhood favorite of mine. I later read The Survivor, The Fog, The Dark, Moon, and several others. Herbert died in 2013, but he made me and quite a few kids my age really happy.

This Severin Films Blu-ray is a dream come true, because the film is shown in its original widescreen glory at long last, and the picture quality is fantastic. The audio presentation is quite nice as well. I'm glad that the special features pay homage to the late great James Herbert, and I love the Aussie interview segments with the cast and crew.

[saltysam]

I just watched this for the first time in decades,not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it has a strange, dream like haunting atmosphere going for it a lot of the time. Nice to see this forgotten 80's movie get a nice disc release,with a fair few extras as well!