Forgotten Horror - Soul Survivors (2001)

 
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After barely surviving an auto accident which killed her boyfriend, a college student recovers only to eventually find herself in a sort of limbo state of being between both the living and the spirit worlds in which the ghosts of the afterlife want to collect her, or even worse, use her body in its transition state to enter our world.

Soul Survivors is a different horror movie. It’s weird, but always exciting and interesting. It is a movie I have huge nostalgia for but also I feel it was unfairly given a complete blacklisting. Most people who attempt to watch this movie as just another casual watch come out feeling that “it was all a dream” which is not the case. The plot doesn’t necessarily take place in reality but it for sure isn’t a complete dream.

The story requires viewers to think on several levels from a regular movie to the treatment of death and how people grieve and symbolism of an afterlife. I will say that the movie suffers when it tries to fill some horror cliches such as scary characters and chase scenes randomly spread throughout.

The movie has always gotten a really bad rap due to issues when it was being made. The producers of this movie cut/edited this movie into shreds to get a PG-13 rating even though the original director’s cut also known as “The Killer Cut” was rated R and is made for adults. Another issue many had was the promo/marketing for it, we get the movie packaged as something along the lines of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” or “Scream” while it really feels like a ghost story.

Ultimately it is a movie that is grossly misunderstood and forgotten since it’s release. Despite the unfortunate events surrounding it, the movie draws the audience into the story and never makes it easy to figure out or fully understand. While that may sound frustrating, if you really watch the movie it enriches the story and for sure brings it above many other mindless movies.

When you check out the movie make sure you watch “The Killer Cut” which is as close as we can get to the movies true intended form.

Great little movie with the late 90s/early 00s feeling from the start.

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