This spooky little film is full of the supernatural imagery familiar to us from other good ghostly films (such as DON'T LOOK NOW). Filmed in Australia, the story of the man surviving the plane crash and being plagued by ghosts is both intriguing and dramatic. Director David Hemmings is adept at serving up disturbing images, from the burned young girl to the photographs of the dead. I have read the James Herbert novel on which this film is based before and from what I can remember it sticks pretty well to the source material.Robert Powell is on top form as the haunted (and in the end, haunting) pilot and he is given solid support from Jenny Agutter as the psychic he teams up with. Expect lots of shivers and chills instead of in your face horror and you'll find yourself enjoying this little mystery, which copes well with a low budget and is well worth your time. Not one for watching alone late at night!

"The Survivor" is a bizarre, incomprehensible attempt at a horror story that barely registers as that or anything at all.The bits that one assumes are meant to be scary are merely confusing and come out of nowhere. The soundtrack pummels you with frantic music but this is merely irritating since you can't understand what, if anything, you are supposed to be scared by.The plot is fairly simple, so why is it so confusing? It's about a pilot who survives a plane crash that kills everyone else on board. He is visited by some kind of clairvoyant or something, played by Jenny Agutter, who is about as mystical in this role as the CEO of Wendy's. Her role in the plot is obvious on paper (how else is the movie going to get the supernatural bent going?), but when handled this badly, becomes confusing and you may wonder what she is there for.The ending, I admit, was clever. It's just everything that led up to it was so bad that it was completely wasted, like the rest of the movie.

Robert Powell and Jenny Agutter star in this Australian production of a pilot and a medium who have need of each other after an air crash.Powell was the pilot of an airliner which crashed on coming in for a landing at an airport. Mysteriously he was the only survivor and he survived with barely a scratch, but with retrograde amnesia, he cannot remember any of the details of the crash.Agutter is a psychic who is having a bad time seeing visions of what happened and apparently communicating with those who died. What they discover about the crash the story for the rest of the film.This film marks the farewell appearance of Joseph Cotten who has a small role as a priest. Soon afterwards this most classy of leading men from the golden days of Hollywood suffered a stroke and was forcibly retired from the cinema.It's not a bad film, Survivor, but it plays like a blown up version of an episode of the TV series One Step Beyond. It might be worth a look if that's how your tastes run.

Just after taking off, a Jetliner goes into a emergency landing, but the pilots can't control the situation and the plane crashes and presumably everybody is dead because of the state of the disaster. That's until out of the wreckage and flames, out comes walking the only survivor the pilot. When asked what happened, the pilot has temporary memory loss and because of that he's tortured by the guilt of being the only survivor. A woman who believes to be part of this accident joins the pilot on trying to figure out this baffling mystery, which somehow involves the restless spirits of the plane crash pushing the two to seek out the truth.I remember when I came across the trailer for this flick on some rental video, and boy did it freak me out when I was kid, but that's going back and I just saw it for the first time now. And from what I saw, I got nothing but high praise for this Australian paranormal thriller. It isn't flawless, but there's something enthralling about the mystery of it all and it's a technically impressive production. 'The Survivor' which was adapted from James Herbert's novel was shot in Adelaide, Australia with some of the same crew of the previous film 'Harlequin' involved, but they managed to pull some international actors other then Robert Powell, but Jenny Agutter and Joseph Cotton too. And also some local faces Angela Punch-McGregor and Peter Summer who have small roles pop up. David Hemming takes the pivotal role of director here and paints a very moody picture that has a vastly quiet stillness and baffling nature to all of it. The supernatural factor of the plot exploits the fear of this startling subject by having short pockets of intense shocks and taut suspense along way to its breathtaking climax. The supernatural element is one that haunts the mind and evokes such terror in the face. To get this feel it's depressingly downbeat. The advantage of that is that it doesn't cross away from that central idea and it's hard to know what's coming around each corner. Hemming also stages some unsettling moments with such vision. First off would be when the jetliner is going down and we see it from a street bystander's viewpoint and that of the crash site and wreckage is so damn eerie. The climax also packs a massive punch, but if you've seen some recent films in the last couple of years it might not come as a bigger surprise, but I for one didn't see it coming. The plot works rather well with it ambiguous and slowly paced structure, where we are still left with some more questions at the end, but saying that 'mostly' everything starts to fit into the puzzle with precision, where you learn there's a whole lot more to it then what we began with. Just after watching a couple of the X-files seasons over the last week or two, this is something that wouldn't feel out of placed in an x-files episode. The mystery thrives here in the plot and only for those who enjoy a good and highly creepy mystery with supernatural overtones.Make sure you watch the film in wide screen to get John Seale's wide scope cinematography that was shot with such elegance and subtleness with a lot distinctive elements. It had a nice polished touch to it by working in every little detail with flashes of creativity and unsteadiness to proceedings. The choice of setting added even more to the unsettling nature with such beautiful backdrops that go hand-to-hand to mood of the characters and story. The score by Brian May succeeded too by really touching a nerve with its echoing emphasis on a air of creepiness, but to a soothing and innocent spell of suggestiveness. Also the highly effective sound effects creaked alertness. Exemplary performances are given from a top cast of talented internationals. Robert Powell is impressive as the stone-cold pilot Keller, Jenny Agutter is beautifully engaging as Hobbs who can get in touch with other-side and then there's Joseph Cotton putting in solid performance as The Priest. These believable characters you actually care for, especially because you join the two in their journey of discovery and torment to what really happened. Where you learn its fate between the connection of Keller and Hobbs. What keeps you gripped other than that of the great imagery, focused tension and fantastic performances is that of the heavy laced dialog, which drives the film into weird but compelling territory.After two decades the film still holds up rather well and left me with a cold shudder after being thrown right into it. Startlingly good entertainment!