The Big Picture
The ’80s are widely seen as one of horror’s best decades, but given the amount of classics that came out, many are bound to be left in the dust and lost to time. That’s what makes 1984’s Sole Survivor such a fascinating watch. Where most of this decade’s horror films vowed to gross audiences out with blood and gore, this one opts to build a nice chilly atmosphere, one ripe for a fantastic ghost story, and that’s exactly what it accomplishes. If you’re looking for an eerie ’80s viewing that combines old-school ’60s supernatural elements, the slick visual sensibilities of ’80s horror movies, and some of the tragedy that you might find in a Stephen King novel, then Sole Survivor is the ultimate chiller for you.
By the time the mid-80s had come around, the horror genre had already been through many different phases. The early years were plagued with ghost stories, supernatural monsters, re-animated corpses, and one literary adaptation after the next. Once audiences had grown tired of Dracula and Frankenstein movies, filmmakers turned the horrors of the real world into giant, atomic, bug-eyed monsters and explored every avenue of alien invaders possible. Those fears didn’t last long, though. The 1970s saw audiences facing the very real nightmares of suburbia, catching news updates about serial killers and child abductions more often than they would find themselves traveling to the movie theater. Hollywood knew this too, and from the late ’70s to the mid-90s, they turned the genre’s landscape into a slasher-filled bloodbath. Horror is a constantly evolving genre. People’s fears are never fixed on one thing for long, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t also eventually circle back.
What Is ‘Sole Survivor’ About?
That’s where Sole Survivor comes into the equation. On one hand, this is a classic, throwback ghost story in every sense of the subgenre. The film follows Denise Watson (Anita Skinner), the titular sole survivor of a cataclysmic plane crash. She emerges from the wreckage, and at first, appears to be feeling survivor’s guilt. It doesn’t take long for these feelings to prove themselves as something far more sinister. Denise begins to notice that quiet, ominous people are coming for her, forces who seem to have a supernatural, ghostly air about them. Things are made once she realizes that, until they can finally catch Denise and take her life, they will kill the people around her. Denise has to find a way to continue cheating death or give in to her never-ending waves of violent stalkers.
‘Sole Survivor’ is the Perfect Mix of Ghost Stories and ’80s Horror
The ’80s rarely saw low-budget horror movies get made with this little of an interest in on-screen violence. Sole Survivor does have kills in it, and good ones at that, but you aren’t here to watch a figure like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers walk around and shoot arrows through people’s eyes, or ram a shotgun through somebody’s chest (yes, Halloween went there). This is a film that’s way more interested in getting its audience invested in Denise Watson’s survival. She’s a likable female protagonist who was met with devastating trauma, and that’s not even the worst part! Her life is now threatened by the undead! Where most ’80s horror movies were interested in having a central villain for audiences to return to, this one had a central hero, one whose safety was your number one concern.
That being said, the supernatural threats of this movie are a pretty fun mix of old and new spooky elements. The movie mostly presents your typical ghostly villains that stare at or creep up on Denise from afar, with a plot that’s eerily reminiscent of Carnival of Souls. It’s an approach that shoots to build up tension and atmosphere more than anything, but when the filmmakers do want to go for a good kill, they definitely don’t shy away. Don’t expect a bloodbath, but make sure you aren’t expecting pure atmosphere, either. This was the ’80s after all, you had to fit in a brutal slash here and there. The real terror here lies in our mistrust of who is and isn’t one of the undead. Think of the recent classic It Follows and the way that film’s leads isolate themselves from those outside of their group, and fear anyone approaching their circle.
Fans of Stephen King Will Love ‘Sole Survivor’
Sole Survivor also feels quite a bit like its contemporaries. It has a low-budget horror look to it but never feels cheap necessarily. Instead, there’s a visual sensibility to it that proves the filmmakers’ intent on creating an atmosphere-heavy film. Think of the early works of John Carpenter, where streetlights barely illuminate the streets on foggy nights, and the inside of hospitals and people’s homes are dark and quiet. While synthesizers are busy working up your goosebumps, you’ll find yourself feeling that something is lurking just around every corner or off in the shadows. Not a single place feels safe.
If you’re a Stephen King fan, you’re bound to enjoy Sole Survivor. King has always been great at writing horror stories, but his tragedies are often unmatched. This movie has a real Shining feel to a lot of it, with its creeping, patient cinematography, and mastery in giving almost every location a haunted quality. Not only that, its lead feels a whole lot like The Dead Zone’s Johnny Smith, who, like Denise Watson, is met with a tragedy that led to him being greatly burdened by the supernatural. For good measure, you could even throw in a bit of Pet Semetary, with the film having loads of unsettling scenes where the undead stalk and kill several innocent people.
‘Sole Survivor’ Deserves More Attention
It’s a shame that Sole Survivor hasn’t exactly had the legs of a true-blue horror classic. Director Thom Eberhardt would continue working in film, making movies like Night of the Comet and Without a Clue, and would write Honey, I Blew Up the Kid but never had a smash hit on his hands. A lot of the cast wouldn’t skyrocket into the mainstream either. Thankfully, the film’s cinematographer, Russell Carpenter, who should be given half the credit for its atmosphere, went on to shoot loads of classics. He’d win the Oscar for Best Cinematography for his work on Titanic, and would even go on to shoot Avatar: The Way of Water.
All of that being said, Sole Survivor is clearly a “horror fan’s horror movie.” This one has flown under most audience’s radars, but continually finds its way to and satisfies those who care about uncovering the genre’s deep cuts. There’s a reason that you can feel its DNA in movies like Final Destination and It Follows. Like the undead, Sole Survivor is an entry in the ghost story subgenre that might not have lived long at the box office, but it has continued to follow horror fans for decades and inspire them to pull from its cold, wet corpse.
