The Black Sheep sequence appears to be like again on the 2001 movie Soul Survivors, starring Melissa Sagemiller, Eliza Dushku, and Wes Bentley
Theres at all times that unusual transition interval in horror motion pictures the place issues can get misplaced within the shuffle. The 70s and its nihilism broke late within the decade to swerve into masked killers and the slasher style. That heyday was far shorter than folks bear in mind however the late 80s did one thing comparable in transitioning to straight to video smash successes and a loopy variety of sequels and variations. That nicely, too, would dry up, and when Wes Craven launched Scream in 1996, the panorama would shift to good slashers after which discovered footage. The teenager slasher period was first with issues like City Legend, Scream sequels, Disturbing Habits, I Know What You Did Final Summer time, and hell, even Ultimate Vacation spot posits literal loss of life as a slasher villain. These are extra alongside the strains of the highest shelf instance however one that might qualify for a greatest horror film you by no means noticed AND a Black Sheep is Soul Survivors from 2001. Let me inform you why Soul Survivors is the teenager horror Black Sheep that deserves your consideration.
What is that this film anyway? Properly, if you happen to take a look at the DVD or occur to purchase the particular “Killer Minimize”, it’s possible you’ll anticipate this film to be a teen slasher film like those talked about beforehand. On the floor degree that’s what it’s. After you watch it although, it’s a unusual combination of Jacob’s Ladder and Carnival of Souls. That sounds rather a lot heavier than most critics had been most likely prepared to provide the film credit score for however that’s what I received out of it. Is it pretty much as good as both of these? Properly, no. Its not the taut, emotional, well-acted, or horrifying film that Ladder is neither is it the cornerstone of American unbiased horror movies that Carnival is. Its script from author/director Stephen Carpenter is rather more considerate than you’d anticipate. Aside from the film not being an excellent flick to start with, apparently, we even gave it a 4/10 when it first got here out, it has different points as nicely.
The primary one depends on what minimize you watch. The one which was theatrically launched was minimize for the teenager viewers however most of the cuts had been precisely what that age demographic appears to be like for and what they left in, the model you’ll be able to watch on Tubi, is the extra religious and metaphysical model. Its price range was 17 million which little question included the funds to the star energy in addition to the bidding conflict that Artisan gained in opposition to Paramount and Fox. Sadly, that 17 million would solely deliver again lower than 5 million, making it a monumental failure. Now a part of that was definitely that A. Once more, this isn’t an all time basic and B. it actually wasn’t marketed nicely however it additionally had the excellence of being launched 4 days earlier than the terrorist assaults on 9/11. Even when this had been an excellent movie, it could have been laborious to bounce again from that nationwide tragedy.
Going again to a lighter subject, and please actually something however 9/11, the script was fought over by studios for a purpose, or at the very least that’s what I’d prefer to inform you anyway. Stephen Carpenter isn’t an enormous identify and actually this could be the final film he directed. He additionally wrote and directed The Dorm That Dripped Blood from 1982, The Energy from 1984, and considered one of my favourite Greatest Horrors You By no means Noticed, The Kindred from 1987 as one of many like 20 writers on that final one too. Whereas the duvet of the DVD and poster for the film are generic as heck, even trying nearly precisely the identical as a 1998 film known as The Curve and plenty of different teen motion pictures of this time, they did the solid proper. 4 massive names from the time seem in main roles with Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Elisa Dushku, and Luke Wilson all including to the enchantment and happening to various levels of success.
Bentley has currently landed on massive TV reveals like Yellowstone and American Horror Story however was additionally acclaimed two years earlier than this film with a big function in American Magnificence. His different most important horror credit score is in P2 as a stellar villain. Dushku was enormous in Buffy and has performed a ton of voiceover work however was additionally in Fallacious Flip a pair years later within the lead and that film nonetheless holds up. Affleck was in a position to escape the style with this being his solely entry and he says that is his least favourite film that he’s ever performed. Wilson has additionally performed just one different horror film with Emptiness, and I suppose the principle factor all these actors have in frequent is that Soul Survivors soured them on the style. The largest shock is the principle character Cassie performed by Melissa Sagemiller. She ought to have been a much bigger star however principally stayed on TV with reveals like Sleeper Cell, Legislation and Order, and Elevating the Bar. She may have been a great last lady or proven up in additional comedies, however it simply wasn’t to be.
The plot of the film dives into 4 mates performed by Bentley, Dushku, Sagemiller, and Affleck that even have some love threads happening between them. It begins with the chums going to a celebration in an previous church the place they see a pair males in odd masks who attempt to take Cassie away from the dance flooring. The group leaves and after some shenanigans involving hidden love and mistaken kisses, they go away with an air of anger and suspicion about them. Cassie is driving and finally ends up not paying consideration which will get them in a nasty automotive wreck involving one other automotive. When the mud has settled, Cassie together with Annabel and Matt, performed by Bentley and Dusku, are left to select up the items whereas Affleck’s Sean was killed immediately. That is the primary a part of the Ladder similarities as an inciting incident finally ends up having branching realities the place what we see is usually a what could possibly be blended with a calling from actuality.
Cassie is form of a loner now with goals of Sean in addition to persevering with to see the masked males she noticed the evening of the get together and accident. She runs into Matt and Annabelle, however they’re totally different in ways in which she will be able to’t bear in mind or clarify. Matt claims Cassie needed to sleep along with her whereas Annabelle appears very suspicious and as much as one thing. Even the masked males chase her on occasion or present up at locations like her swim meet, however her former mates guarantee right here that its all in her thoughts. She ultimately seeks shelter and assist throughout the church the place we meet Luke Wilsons’s father Jude. He’s the Danny Aiello chiropractor character that provides a contact of faith to the proceedings. Whereas the character is a guardian angel of kinds in Ladder and it’s fully attainable he doesn’t exist in the true world, Wilsons character was a person of God who we discover out handed away a few years in the past.
The misinformation and close to gaslighting that her mates give her aren’t fully tied to 1 film or the opposite however the masked males chasing Cassie really feel rather a lot like Herk Harvey himself from Carnival of Souls as they’re menacing and mysterious. That is taken to the following degree although because the hazard is actual and bodily as a substitute of simply ominous and constrained to the background. The paranoia and hazard go hand in hand to the purpose the place Cassie even fights again and seemingly kills considered one of them with a fluorescent gentle however in fact when she brings somebody again to point out them the physique and gore are gone. She asks Matt to take her house to her household however as a substitute he takes her again to the place every little thing started.
Occasions, minus Sean, start to materialize once more from the evening of the crash however when Matt desires to kiss her, she says goodbye to him with a bottle to the noggin. She then leaves and sees Annabelle die in an eerily comparable crash. She will get out of the automotive like a dummy and will get hit by one other automotive earlier than the spirit of Father Luke approaches her and ultimately waking up in a hospital mattress. We do get scenes of her taken by Gurney in a lower than PG 13 model of Tim Robbins ordeal in Jacob’s Ladder. It seems that Matt and Annabelle died within the unique crash whereas Sean survived, and Cassie was put right into a coma. The opposite automotive that they crashed into contained the would-be stalkers in masks and the alt lady Raven who was seducing Annabelle and tried to do the identical to Cassie. That is the place it branches off from each Ladder and Souls.
Apologies on spoilers for motion pictures which can be 34 and 62 years previous respectively however Carnival of Souls ends with its most important character revealed to be killed in an auto accident that’s the inciting incident for that film. Jacob’s Ladder equally has all the occasions seen after his Vietnam harm as a coma like fever dream of what may have been blended with some critically terrifying stuff. There’s tons to love right here and I’ve to provide plenty of credit score to Carpenter right here. He was in a position to combine two apparent influences on him right into a teen horror film with all the identical messages about guilt, forgiveness, letting go, and shifting on that each earlier movies put on the market. Each movies are rather more beloved and well-known however Soul Survivors shouldn’t simply be pushed apart with different recognized dreck from its period.
With two totally different variations, alternate endings, and a singular premise and solid, I do know there was a strong if not nice film to be present in there sooner or later. Its not going to win you over within the first viewing or overtake among the classics, from contemporaries to originals, however Soul Survivors is a black sheep that yearns for extra and simply occurs to, as Robert Browning would say, have its attain exceed its grasp. Give it a shot after which watch what impressed it to essentially see what it needed to perform.
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