The Survivor (1981)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

David Hemmings

Writers:

David Ambrose (screenplay)
James Herbert (novel)

Release Date:

9 July 1981 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

A tale of death, and of an evil which transcends death

Plot Keywords:

Plane Crash | Airline | Jumbo Jet | Airline Pilot | Amnesia

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Robert Powell	...	Keller
Jenny Agutter	...	Hobbs
Joseph Cotten	...	Priest
Angela Punch McGregor	...	Beth (as Angela Punch-McGregor)
Peter Sumner	...	Tewson
Lorna Lesley	...	Susan
Ralph Cotterill	...	Slater
Adrian Wright	...	Goodwin
Tyler Coppin	...	Boy
Kirk Alexander	...	Dr. Martindale
Jon Nicholls	...	Jackson
Roger Cardwell	...	Flight Engineer
Jenufa Scott-Roberts	...	Stewardess
John Edmund	...	Goswell
Denzil Howson	...	Rogers

Runtime:

87 min | Australia:99 min (original release)

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Adelaide Hills, South Australia, Australia

Company:

Crystal Films

Trivia:

This was the first Australian movie to cost more than $1 million (Aust) to make.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

THE SURVIVOR (David Hemmings, 1981) {Edited Version} **

David Hemmings is perhaps best-known for starring in Michelangelo Antonioni's BLOW-UP (1966) and Dario Argento's DEEP RED (1975), so it's rather unsurprising that elements from these two movies find themselves in his fifth directorial stint shot entirely in Australia.

Robert Powell plays the title role - the pilot of a plane which crashlands but who managed to evade an even greater tragedy by bringing it down in a field (which occasionally serves as a children's playground); Jenny Agutter is an enigmatic medium and eyewitness to the crash who uneasily teams with an amnesiac Powell to find the real cause of the accident; and, in a mere couple of scenes, Joseph Cotten adds a modicum of dignity to the proceedings as the local priest.

Being adapted from a James Herbert novel, it can't help but involve the supernatural as everything is definitely not as it seems on the surface: the investigating officials are being killed off by the vengeful spirits of the dead passengers, a high-ranking airline official is somehow involved in the crash and Robert Powell is shown at the very end to have not survived the disaster after all! Intriguing? Definitely. Confusing? You bet. Exciting? Not really. Unfortunately, the right ingredients are there but the soufflé obstinately fails to rise, as it were. For what it's worth, Brian May's electronic score (not the Queen guitarist, mind you) is quite effective and the version I watched was edited down to 87 minutes from an original length of 99 or 110, depending on which sources you believe!