Disc Details
Special Features:	Widescreen anamorphic format. Chapter selection. R-Rated version not shown in theaters. Selected scene commentary track with star Melissa Sagemiller. Deleted scenes. Featurette: "Behind the Deathmask-The Making of Soul Survivors." Featurette: "Living Dangerously-The Art of Harvey Danger." 3 different interactive menus. Trailers. Artisan sneek peek trailer gallery. Animated storyboard to scene comparisons.
Video Format:	Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) [SS-DL]
Languages:	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English (Dolby Stereo 2.0)Surround
Subtitles:	English,Spanish.
Captions:	Yes
Casing:	1-Disc Keep Case

Cassie and Sean were celebrating Freshman Rush week at the school that Cassie and her friend Annabel (Eliza Dushku) are attending. Cassie loves Sean. Annabel is dating Matt (Wes Bentley from "American Beauty"). Matt and Cassie used to be a couple. The four friends end up in a gothic disco set up in an abandoned church. Cassie notices two creepy guys following her. On looks like the Indian murderer from "Body Double" while the other wears one of those semi opaque face masks you always see in bank robbery films. Cassie gets the creeps and leaves the disco. Outside, she runs into Sean and they start kissing. She tells Sean she wants to go, but that she lost Annabel. Sean goes to look for Annabel and Cassie goes to the car. Matt watched the lovers kissing. He follows Cassie to the car and convinces her to give him one last kiss. "20 years from now, when you are married to Sean, it won’t matter if we said goodbye with a kiss." Cassie falls for the line. Sean sees Cassie kiss Matt. The four pile into the car with Cassie behind the wheel. Sean and Cassie are fighting. The road is wet, and guess what? The creeps from the disco are in a car behind our heroes. One thing leads to another and both cars go off the side of an embankment into a ravine. Death comes to visit.

The remainder of the film focuses on Cassie’s nightmares and recovery. She is depressed over killing Sean. She is haunted by visions of Sean which make her question her sanity. She also notices changes in Annabel and Matt. She has visions of them with the three creeps from the other car. Her only solace comes from occasional talks with Father Jude (Luke Wilson). Jude is a young priest who works with college kids. I won’t reveal anymore of the plot. I was able to figure this one out well before the end of the movie. Even though I saw it coming, director Carpenter had me doubting my guess with his deft handling of the material.

"Soul Survivor" doesn’t rise to the level of "Scream" but it is better than average for the genre. There are some good frights, and genuinely creepy characters. The atmosphere, photography and music all combine to make this a good little supernatural thriller.

Picture Quality: 10/10
Director of Photography Fred Murphy created some great scenes. The gothic disco, the car crash and the lesbian library sequences for example.

Sound Quality: 10/10
Great sound. I was in a car crash once where time seemed to stand still and glass flew in slow-motion. The sounds from the car crash scene in "Soul Survivors" caused me to flash back on that experience. Excellent use of surround sound.

Menu: 10/10
There are three menu choices based on the movie's themes: Fantasy, Reality and Nightmares. Neat design. Good use of images and music from the film. Easy to navigate.

Extra Features: 10/10
Nice commentary track. It is only for selected scenes. Melissa Sagemiller made her debut in this movie. I thought it was refreshing to hear the comments of such a relative newcomer.

"The Art of Harvey Danger" is a hoot. This featurette is basically a big ad for the band "Harvey Danger." As I watched it, I wondered just what the hell it was about. What it is about is fun.

There are four deleted scenes. The Behind the Scenes featurette is good. Don't watch it before the movie though.

The animated storyboards show the artwork with the final film's soundtrack. After the storyboard is shown, the final cut of the scene plays. I wish the original concept of the car crash, as shown on the storyboards had been used.

The Final Word:
This one is worth the price of admission. While the movie is good, the extras push this DVD over the top. Folks who haven't seen as many movies as I have may give the film itself a higher rating. I was reminded of a supernatural film from the late 80s early 90s. I didn't mention it in the review because it would give away the ending. This is another nice product from Artisan. The wants of the DVD consumer are taken into consideration. Reasonably priced for a DVD with so many extras.

Rusty White