Wes Bentley in Soul Survivors
© 2001 Artisan Entertainment

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SOUL SURVIVORS

With THE SIXTH SENSE marking a new era of horror filmmaking where the twist is sometimes more dramatic and important than the movie itself (see THE OTHERS for further proof), it wasn't long before low budget movies started to get into the act.

Hence, SOUL SURVIVORS is the beginning of the low-end SIXTH SENSE knock-offs and the result is just like every SCREAM clone that followed in the wake of that successful film it's absolutely painful.

To be fair, SOUL SURVIVORS does seem to want to be more of a modern day re-telling of CARNIVAL OF SOULS (though that too was remade into an unwatchable film a few years ago). However, in order to pull off these ethereal "between life and death" movies, you need to have a good grasp on the material, characters you truly care about and some genuine shocks. Not surprising, SOUL SURVIVORS has none of that.

Sitting on a shelf for at least a year, the film follows four college bound students who get into a horrible car crash where one of them dies. Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) is the most distraught since it was her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck) who was killed and, of course, she didn't tell him "I love you" before he died, so she's in dire need of a great therapist. Her other two friends the creepy Matt (Wes Bentley) who still carries a torch for her and his new girlfriend Annabel (Eliza Dushku) try to help her through the hard times, but she soon starts to question their loyalties when they're hanging around some of the survivors of the other car that originally caused the accident.

Before long, Cassie is being visited by Sean back from the dead with an important message and a mysterious priest named Jude (Luke Wilson) who pops up every now and again just to throw unsuspecting moviegoers off track of the all-too-obvious twist that lies ahead.

Though the movie attempts to create some style during its opening frames, the poor scripting by director Steve Carpenter and bland characters drag the film down. Of the actors, none of them can salvage the thin material, though former BUFFY villainess Dushku gives her usually energetic performance to no avail.

The big question mark is in the film is Wes Bentley. His career was headed for greatness after AMERICAN BEAUTY put his mug on the map, but the only explanation for his appearance in such z-grade material is that this movie had to have been a prior obligation scheduled before BEAUTY hit.

This is a direct-to-video movie all the way and at least in that situation you would have the option of fast-forwarding through its slow parts (which is pretty much the entire film). Trust me, I tried making the film fast-forward holding my hand up and clicking my fingers together. It didn't work, but for some reason it made the only other person sitting in the theater with me real nervous.

What's even more frustrating about the movie is how deadly dull it is. This is nothing more than a TWILIGHT ZONE episode stretched to 90 minutes. Once you know the twist, it's all over and you want the movie to finally catch up with it.

In the end, there really is no appeal to SOUL SURVIVORS outside of seeing how a production company can waste the talents of so many good actors. This is one of the year's most unwatchable messes rightfully not screened for critics and likely to end this "twist ending" cycle of movies right here and now.

Somehow being trapped in the Australian outback with Jeri from CBS' SURVIVOR looks like a dream vacation compared to this.