Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely brilliant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Director David hemming worked with dario argento on deep red one of dario's masterpiece's. you can see his influence all over this movie. all though this is no argento classic if your like his work you really should check this out. it contains the creepy mood, the scatological narrative and very good use of sound that is unsettlingly.even though it.s over long and a bit of a let down in the end, i enjoyed the journey much like a argento films, it not the end but getting there that counts.you would not no this was an Aussie movie but i suppose it does not matter for the story is universal. dean seale was cinematographer on this and he did a master job creating a mood for this ghost story.as a piece of Aussie history in cinema when we made a wide variety of genre movies unlike today. plus i had forgot how lovely jenny agutter was i think its time to watch an American werewolf in London again.

747-airliner crashes just outside a little town but of the 400 people aboard, one man (the pilot) miraculously walks out of the disaster alive…Even more so, he walks out completely unharmed! Does this basic premise sound familiar to anyone? No, it's not M. Night Shyamalan's overrated blockbuster "Unbreakable"! This is a shamefully underrated Australian thriller, directed by David Hemmings and based on a novel by shlock-expert James Herbert. The story continues being supernatural when the confused survivor (a very convincing Robert Powell) is approached by a female eyewitness (the cherubic Jenny Agutter) who serves as some sort of medium for the unfortunate passengers that want to get in contact with their pilot. David Hemmings is mostly known for some terrific acting roles ("Blow-Up", "Profondo Rosso") but he handles directing very well, too, and builds up a chilling tension using only a limited amount of set pieces. The actual plane crash, for example, is filmed at night and in flashes, but still it comes across as quite realistic since Hemmings splendidly focuses on the panicky reactions of the people on the ground. The film also contains a couple efficient shock-moments, notably the sequence in which a noisy journalist is lured into death by the appearance of a young girl that died in the air disaster. "The Survivor" suffers from more and bigger plot holes near the end, but the eventual climax will surely satisfy fans of paranormal and freaky horror films. The atmospheric music by Brian May makes the wholesome even spookier and the remote Australian location guarantees some really beautiful images. Horror veteran Joseph Cotton ("Baron Blood", "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", "Lady Frankenstein") has a small but intriguing role as the town's priest. "The Survivor" is much scarier and involving than "Harlequin", which was another supernatural horror film, made by pretty much the same cast & crew one year earlier. Recommended!

Saw this movie while in the USA in the eighties. Much better and more believable than any of the later run-of-the-mill films I've seen, Stephen King and the like. It might be said that The Survivor is a forerunner to Carrie, also an excellent and scary movie. I remember vividly a scene where a paparazzi photographer is developing a shot of a totally burnt face, and where gradually a pair of large, staring eyes appear, driving the scoundrel out of his mind. I believe that I remember this scene as well as anything from that period of my life, although it's twenty years ago. There's no happy ending to the story, so the spectator ends up with an uncomfortable knowledge of evil and a feeling of tragedy. This film ought to be given another chance with the public.This film really was an eyeopener, and subsequently I've tried never to miss a new Aussie movie.

For some reason this film never won the affection of either its peers or the viewing audience at the time. It played to half empty theaters, barely covered its production cost and was unceremoniously tossed out of everyone's subconscious. Yet its not even a bad film, I would venture to suggest a most interesting study of the paranormal and well directed by former BLOW UP star David Hemmings.Robert Powell is Captain Keller who's 747 suffers a bomb explosion just before take-off and 300 odd passengers are incinerated as the plane explodes in flames. A short time later Keller is found wandering from the burning wreckage unharmed and quite unable to fathom how he has survived. The mystery deepens when a rapidly convened investigation concludes that there is no possible way ANYONE could have survived the explosion and heat blast, wherever they were in the plane.As Keller embarks on his fateful odyssey, he and the audience are taken down lanes that both THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE may have trodden..and this was almost a generation earlier! The viewer needs to suspend belief and take things for what he sees (or thinks he sees) A really intelligent Aussie flick that you will get as much out of as you are prepared to put in. Always good to see Joseph Cotton and Jenny Agutter!