The Survivor (1981 film)
A pilot survives a crash only to be haunted by its victims.
The Survivor is a 1981 Australian supernatural horror film directed by David Hemmings. It stars Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, and Joseph Cotten, and is based on the 1976 novel of the same name by James Herbert. The film marks Cotten's final feature film appearance.
Quick Facts
- Screenplay
- David Ambrose
- Based on
- The Survivor, James Herbert
- Starring
- Robert Powell
- Jenny Agutter
- Angela Punch McGregor
- Peter Sumner
- Joseph Cotten
- Director
- David Hemmings
- Producer
- Antony I. Ginnane
- Studio
- Tuesday Films
- Riaci Investments
- Pact Productions
- Distributor
- GUO Film Distributors
- Released
- 9 July 1981, Australia
Facts from the source article.
Plot
In Adelaide, airline pilot David Keller survives the crash of his Boeing 747-200 unharmed, while all 300 passengers die. Suffering amnesia about the accident, he experiences strange supernatural visions that lead him to suspect the crash was not an accident. At home, photographers harass him for pictures; one photographer, after being assaulted by Keller, returns home and sees a young girl in his yard. The girl, revealed by burn scars to be a crash victim, leads him to a cemetery and then to train tracks, where he is killed by a passing railcar. At a vigil at the crash site, a clairvoyant named Hobbs, who witnessed the crash, approaches Keller and claims to be contacted by the victims' spirits. Keller visits Hobbs but rebuffs her; she attacks him, and both experience the victims' untethered emotions. Hobbs later goes to the photographer's home, where the photographer's girlfriend develops photographs that become disturbing portraits of burned victims; she is killed by a large paper cutter. Hobbs brings Keller to a Catholic priest, then back to the crash site. Inside the intact cockpit, Keller regresses and remembers a passenger finding a bomb that detonated, causing the crash. They flee, and a peer named Tewson arrives and is stabbed to death by an unseen figure.
Production
The South Australian Film Corporation invested $350,000 of the budget, with a similar amount from English investors; the remainder came from Greater Union, a TV sale, and private investment. Before filming, David Hemmings and Antony I. Ginnane debated whether to make the film gory or more cerebral like The Innocents (1961), choosing the latter—a decision Ginnane later called a mistake. Ginnane had Brian Trenchard-Smith cut a ten-minute promotional reel for the Milan Film Market before the film was finished; because Jenny Agutter had not yet begun filming, Trenchard-Smith shot his own material with her for the reel, and later cut the actual film's trailer.
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