Film

The Survivor

Name: The Survivor
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 1981
Cast: Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, Joseph Cotten, Angela Punch McGregor, Peter Sumner

Supernatural mystery

A 747 crashes with one mysterious survivor—the pilot himself, virtually unscathed. As investigators hunt for answers, inexplicable deaths ripple through the community. A psychic enters the fray, sensing supernatural forces at work. This 1981 Australian thriller braids plane disaster procedural with occult horror, and it's genuinely unsettling in ways modern genre films have forgotten.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy slow-burning supernatural mysteries built on atmosphere, unsettling images and a sense that something uncanny is pressing in from the edges, the way early-eighties Australian-gothic chillers like Picnic at Hanging Rock do.

Skip it if you want brisk scares or a tidy, fully explained plot; this one lingers over mood and loose threads, and its horror arrives in quiet, eerie stretches rather than jolts.

What it asks of you: Ninety-eight minutes of patient, deliberate pacing, where you need to stay with the investigation and the eerie atmosphere rather than wait for big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Alive1993

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Survivor

The wildcard

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Poltergeist1982

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But Slow-burn to the point where some viewers lose patience. The dialogue-heavy opening will test you before the horror arrives.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both pit rational investigation against irrational supernatural logic. Both feature protagonists trying to outrun or solve a doom that operates by its own rules. Both suggest guilt—earned or inherited—as the real engine of horror.

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But The pacing is glacial. Dialogue is deliberately artificial and can feel mannered. Some see it as cold rather than scary.