Translation: "She would have been better off dead!"
Sole Survivor is a 1984 horror film. It was a major influence on Final Destination and It Follows.
Denise (Anita Skinner) is the Sole Survivor of a plane crash. Upon being released from the hospital, though, she begins to experience strange phenomena, including the corpses of recently-deceased people coming to take her back. Cue the nightmarish Carnival of Souls vibes.
Oh, and did I mention that this is a Christmas movie?
This film contains the examples of:
- Bolivian Army Ending: The movie ends with the medical examiner turning his back on the recent spate of victims, all of whom rise behind him, and then cuts.
- Came Back Wrong: It's implied that Karla became a servant or conduit of Death after surviving her suicide attempt.
- Evil Elevator: The elevator that Denise takes at work malfunctions and traps her briefly on the wrong floor.
- Final Boss: Karla, as the only member of the "dead" who can talk, use reason, and retain most or all of their original personality.
- My Car Hates Me: Denise struggles to start the car while fleeing her and Christy's houses.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The dead return to come get Denise (thus show very little intere st in anyone else at first); they walk slowly and can use weapons, but are not especially strong.
- The Pollyanna: Denise remains remarkably upbeat even though her parents are dead, she saw many people die in an air crash, and is being pursued by the dead.
- Red Is Violent: Red is a major Color Motif throughout the movie. Denise wears a red sweater when Christy dies, a red cardigan in the taxi near the end, she has a red door, and there are red walls in Christy's house.
- Rule of Pool: Played for Horror. Late in the film, Christy has a pool. She is drowned in it by one of the recently-revived dead.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: The dead are distinguished by their eerie staring into the middle distance.
- Wham Shot: Of Karla's slashed wrists.
