Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This spooky little film is full of the supernatural imagery familiar to us from other good ghostly films (such as DON'T LOOK NOW). Filmed in Australia, the story of the man surviving the plane crash and being plagued by ghosts is both intriguing and dramatic. Director David Hemmings is adept at serving up disturbing images, from the burned young girl to the photographs of the dead. I have read the James Herbert novel on which this film is based before and from what I can remember it sticks pretty well to the source material.Robert Powell is on top form as the haunted (and in the end, haunting) pilot and he is given solid support from Jenny Agutter as the psychic he teams up with. Expect lots of shivers and chills instead of in your face horror and you'll find yourself enjoying this little mystery, which copes well with a low budget and is well worth your time. Not one for watching alone late at night!

"The Survivor" is a bizarre, incomprehensible attempt at a horror story that barely registers as that or anything at all.The bits that one assumes are meant to be scary are merely confusing and come out of nowhere. The soundtrack pummels you with frantic music but this is merely irritating since you can't understand what, if anything, you are supposed to be scared by.The plot is fairly simple, so why is it so confusing? It's about a pilot who survives a plane crash that kills everyone else on board. He is visited by some kind of clairvoyant or something, played by Jenny Agutter, who is about as mystical in this role as the CEO of Wendy's. Her role in the plot is obvious on paper (how else is the movie going to get the supernatural bent going?), but when handled this badly, becomes confusing and you may wonder what she is there for.The ending, I admit, was clever. It's just everything that led up to it was so bad that it was completely wasted, like the rest of the movie.

Director David hemming worked with dario argento on deep red one of dario's masterpiece's. you can see his influence all over this movie. all though this is no argento classic if your like his work you really should check this out. it contains the creepy mood, the scatological narrative and very good use of sound that is unsettlingly.even though it.s over long and a bit of a let down in the end, i enjoyed the journey much like a argento films, it not the end but getting there that counts.you would not no this was an Aussie movie but i suppose it does not matter for the story is universal. dean seale was cinematographer on this and he did a master job creating a mood for this ghost story.as a piece of Aussie history in cinema when we made a wide variety of genre movies unlike today. plus i had forgot how lovely jenny agutter was i think its time to watch an American werewolf in London again.

747-airliner crashes just outside a little town but of the 400 people aboard, one man (the pilot) miraculously walks out of the disaster alive…Even more so, he walks out completely unharmed! Does this basic premise sound familiar to anyone? No, it's not M. Night Shyamalan's overrated blockbuster "Unbreakable"! This is a shamefully underrated Australian thriller, directed by David Hemmings and based on a novel by shlock-expert James Herbert. The story continues being supernatural when the confused survivor (a very convincing Robert Powell) is approached by a female eyewitness (the cherubic Jenny Agutter) who serves as some sort of medium for the unfortunate passengers that want to get in contact with their pilot. David Hemmings is mostly known for some terrific acting roles ("Blow-Up", "Profondo Rosso") but he handles directing very well, too, and builds up a chilling tension using only a limited amount of set pieces. The actual plane crash, for example, is filmed at night and in flashes, but still it comes across as quite realistic since Hemmings splendidly focuses on the panicky reactions of the people on the ground. The film also contains a couple efficient shock-moments, notably the sequence in which a noisy journalist is lured into death by the appearance of a young girl that died in the air disaster. "The Survivor" suffers from more and bigger plot holes near the end, but the eventual climax will surely satisfy fans of paranormal and freaky horror films. The atmospheric music by Brian May makes the wholesome even spookier and the remote Australian location guarantees some really beautiful images. Horror veteran Joseph Cotton ("Baron Blood", "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", "Lady Frankenstein") has a small but intriguing role as the town's priest. "The Survivor" is much scarier and involving than "Harlequin", which was another supernatural horror film, made by pretty much the same cast & crew one year earlier. Recommended!