Customer Reviews

Survival

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Anyone familiar with my reviews should know that I'm a big supporter of low-budget, independent films, particularly of the horror variety, and I can only hope that a few of my reviews help get the word out about unknown productions deserving a wider audience. Unfortunately, some of these types of films just aren't very good, and I'm afraid Survival falls in that latter category. I really wanted to like this movie because it was not only set here in my home state of North Carolina, it was filmed in Concord, which is just a couple of counties over from where I live. To be fair, Survival is essentially a no-budget movie made by a couple of tried and true fans of the schlock horror film genre (think 70s grindhouse). You might see it referred to as "The EBAY movie" because the filmmakers financed the film by auctioning off producer credits on EBAY for twenty-five bucks a pop. The twelve hundred bucks they raised went solely to production costs - in other words, the cast and crew basically worked for no money whatsoever. You have to love the kind of dedication and hard work that made this film a reality, even if you don't like the final product.

Survival is pretty much another in a long line of films about young people going camping and having to fight for their lives against some inhospitable denizens of the backwoods. Jake (Matt McClure), Brian (Ian C. King), and two of their buddies go out camping every year to get away from the rigors of college, but this year's outing is a little different. Jake brings his girlfriend Lauren (Vanelle) along, while Brian is accompanied by his ex-girlfriend Wendy (Hannah Reynolds) - and their little group arrives a good day after their two fellow campers. They're unable to find their buddies, but everything still seems fine until Lauren gets a nasty little injury. A gruff local yokel (Rufus, played by Don Prentiss), who just happens to be passing by at the time, takes them home to see his very hospitable father - a doctor. It's pretty much all downhill from there, as the kids soon find themselves hunted by one or more psychos determined to torture and kill them all.

Obviously, you're not going to have much in the way of great acting among a cast of unpaid volunteers, and that hurts the film. None of the cast members are flat-out awful, but you're constantly aware that they are all acting, which means the film never succeeds at drawing you in to the story. As far as special effects go, I found all of the blood and gore quite satisfactory, especially for such a low-budget film. The most prominent special effect, though, is seen throughout the entire movie. In post-production, the filmmakers went about digitally adding a bunch of scratches and other defects designed to make the movie look like one of those 1970s drive-thru schlock classics. I actually think this works quite well, although I think the limited budget could have been put to better use in just about any other area.

I'm going to give Survival three stars. Quite frankly, it's not a great horror movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it was made for all the right reasons by some true fans of the genre (Joe Francis and Kevin Woods) - and I doubt anyone else out there could do more with such a limited, almost nonexistent budget. More power to these guys - I hear that a Survival 2 is in the works.

As a fan of low/no-budget horror this movie ain't half bad. I've seen a ton of stinkers and this wasn't one of them. It's nothing new, nothings that hasn't been done before and it pulls in a lot from other movies, but... it's fun. The acting is usually god-awful in these low/no budget flicks, but the acting here, though at times up and down, is for the most part pretty good. The soundtrack - pretty good. The overall thought is that you can tell these guys weren't in it to make an oscar award winning movie, but instead they try to make an enjoyable and gory flick that takes it self serious enough, but not too serious - they weren't trying to be something they weren't in the first place and I can get behind that. A nice find that pays homage to the 70's grindhouse films and though it lacks nudity often found in those sleazy gems of yore, it's worth a check out and offers up some good gore for such a low budget.

Production values are not high for Survival (2006), a low budget independent film, where many involved apparently donated their services. Intended as nod to 70's style grindhouse/drive-in cinema, the film's look is characterized by unsharp focus, a grainy appearance, simulated film imperfections, saturated colors, and abrupt cuts. These contributions to atmosphere might be more effective, if there was a coherent story, and better acting. As it is, they contribute to the impression that the film is cheap, poorly made, exploitive trash.

Spoilers ahead.

Two men in the North Carolina woods are attacked and disappear. Four friends they were to meet up with for a camping trip, arrive later and begin searching for their missing friends. When Lauren (Vanelle), one of the campers injures her foot, a scruffy tattooed stranger named Rufus (Don Prentiss), says that his father is a doctor who may be able to help. Dr. Richard Belial (Vic Aviles) offers the strangers the hospitality of his home, but unfortunately the Belial family turn out to be homicidal nutjobs, conducting some twisted experiments.

The plot, acting, and dialog are ridiculously bad most of the time, which makes storytelling pretty much a joke, and what are attempts at sick, dark humor, mostly ineffective. Even taking into account that the Belial family is crazy, little of what happens makes any sense, as people are killed for no apparent reason, and what experiments the family is conducting, isn't clear.

Dr. Belial does not even disinfect Lauren's wound, or provide any medical treatment, but this doesn't tip off the campers that something is wrong. When Lauren disappears, her friends get hysterical, rather than look for her. The fight scenes are terribly done, looking extremely fake. The special effects are slightly better, as Rufus has a thing for removing skin. Why anyone would find the family's prize mental case, appealing enough to contemplate a sequel, is a total mystery. Rufus is simply very crude an cruel, with an insane desire to kill and disfigure.

A more appropriate name for writer/director Joe Francis's Survival, might well be "Slaughter", as that is what it mostly is. The victims are clueless and inept prey, without much of a chance. Like watching helpless animals being butchered, there are there some shocks, but most horror fans are generally looking for something more substantial than this.

I am a horror movie fan and have watched alot. The acting is poor, the story is more of a comedy than horror. Looks like something that Shock Theater would not show.

I gotta say, for a movie I made with a bunch of people this is defiantly a movie. In 2006 we assembled a bunch of crazies (some of them included actors and crew people) to make a horror picture. Kevin Woods and I made it, and I took a really really long time to edit it.

I won't bs you, the possible customer, I promise. In the realm of crappy no budget backyard horror pictures, I honestly think this is at the top of the heap. Some people love it, some people loathe it. The latter will probably never have the sand to make something and put it out there though, will they? Hopefully they will, and hopefully it will change the way we all view motion pictures. I believe in them, I swear.

So here's the straight scoop, it IS a no budget horror picture. We d!cked with the video and audio enough to make it look like an old crappy movie. We also jam packed the dvd with as many special features as possible. Including BEHIND THE SCENES, PRELUDE COMIC, PROMOTING THE MOVIE, SCREENING FOOTAGE, and more! Seriously, this movie is about a lot of hate and was made with a lot of love.

Check it out if you want. Personally I haven't bought it yet, but I do plan on it at some point.

Love,

Joe Francis
writer/director 'Survival'

Any movie that has Kevin Woods as one of the writers has to have a quirky sense of humor and horror. Survival not only fits this bill but brings it to an even more chilling height.
Remember how Blair Witch was all over the net but when you finally got to see it it was a let down (at least to me) this movie should be all over the net and will not let you down. Its a rollercoaster ride that I know you will enjoy.