Sole Survivor

Year: 1982

Director: Thom Eberhardt

Written by: Thom Eberhardt

Threat: Death

Weapon of Choice: Knife

Based upon: Original

IMDb page: IMDb link

      Sole Survivor

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
Stories like this are just plain creepy. And they're creepier than a normal slasher (not that this is anywhere near a slasher) because the relentless villain is even harder to see. I guess that is what really gets me about movies like this. The fact that anyone, anywhere could be the bad guy.
If you've seen Final Destination then you've seen most of this movie. Even though this movie came out 18 years earlier, I'm sure that most people won't have seen this one but will have seen the other.
So a woman travelling on business survives a plane crash. A bad one. Things are actually looking up though, because she meets a handsome doctor and manages to start a relationship. Soon, though, things start going wrong and mysterious strangers start to appear. Weird things happen. Could it be that she was supposed to have died on that flight?
Sole Survivor works really well in spite of its limitations and it should have received more attention than it has. The plot, while not fast, is solid and leads to really interesting situations. The acting is pretty good and the dialogue is fair. The production values don't seem to have been that high, but it outpaces a lot of films that are just as old. Take my word for it and see this one, especially if you liked Final Destination for more than just the pretty faces.

Total Skulls: 11

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS skull
Girl unnecessarily gets naked skull
Wanton sex skull
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity skull
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start skull
Cat jumps out
Fake scare skull
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence skull
No one believes only witness skull
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Dark and stormy night skull
Killer doesn't stay dead skull
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?