Sole Survivor 1984

Denise, Anita Skinner, a TV commercial producer, emerges from a catastrophic airliner crash as the sole survivor. Yet she feels as if something unseen is closing in on her, a sense that she is about to be caught by forces beyond understanding. In the hospital, she flirts with the doctor, Brian, Kurt Johnson, who insists that her fears are nothing more than survivor’s syndrome, a rational explanation for the terror she’s experiencing. Denise also receives ambiguous warnings from Carla, [Caren L. Larkey], a former actress with a psychic edge who had predicted the crash.

A drift of strange sightings and eerie encounters with zombie-like figures begins to escalate, making it apparent that something is intent on harming Denise. Brian, now romantically involved with her, remains skeptical and urges Denise to seek calm rather than chasing confrontations with the unknown. The tension thickens as Denise’s nights grow restless and her days become perilously interrupted by near-misses that threaten her life.

Desperate for someone to believe her, Denise turns to her friend and neighbor Kristy, [Robin Davidson], sharing the inexplicable danger she’s in. Kristy remains doubtful, yet the fear is hard to ignore as more oddities punctuate Denise’s days. After Denise falls asleep on the couch, a break-in occurs that ends in tragedy: a man enters Denise’s home and drowns Kristy. Denise wakes to the horror, escapes the intruder, and then reports the crime to the authorities, who cannot locate Kristy’s body. The police escalate their questions, but the mystery deepens, with Kristy’s disappearance adding another unsettling layer to Denise’s already mounting dread.

Meanwhile, Brian consults his pathologist friend Artie, [William Snare], who notes a disturbing pattern in several recently deceased individuals — lividity pooling in the legs as if those bodies had walked after death. This unsettling finding shifts Brian’s perspective, and he begins to entertain the possibility that Denise’s warnings may be grounded in something real and deadly. The plot thickens as the undead Kristy murders a taxi driver and then targets Denise, the attempt to kill her becoming a recurring threat. Brian rushes in with a gun to defend Denise but is fatally stabbed by the undead Kristy, a blow that leaves Denise momentarily hopeful yet more exposed than ever.

Forced to flee, Denise escapes her house and drives through a silent, anxious city until her car stalls. With nowhere else to go, she boards a bus and heads to Carla’s house, hoping to find shelter and answers. There, she seeks help and hands Carla the gun, but Carla reveals a chilling truth: she is also undead, having taken her own life earlier by slashing her wrists. Carla seizes the weapon and turns on Denise, delivering the final, fatal blow. Denise dies at Carla’s hands, a cruel twist that echoes the baffling pattern of the recent deaths.

In the morgue, Artie tends to the bodies of Denise, Brian, Carla, Kristy, and the taxi driver, puzzling over the mysterious blood patterns that drain into the legs—an eerie sign of something unresolved still walking among the dead. He speaks with a skeptical police detective on the phone, attempting to document the strange irregularities. The scene ends on a chilling note: one body on the gurney suddenly sits up, confirming that the mystery is far from over and leaving the audience with a lingering sense of dread as the screen cuts to black.