‘Survive’ review: Dir. Frédéric Jardin [FrightFest 2024]

The survival thriller is a staple subgenre of horror. Audiences love nothing more than watching a group of hapless innocents find themselves facing insurmountable odds. From being trapped in a shark cage underwater (47 Metres Down), to being stuck on the top of a disused radio tower (Fall), or even getting left behind on a ski lift (Frozen), there is something fascinating about seeing the human spirit pushed to its limits. The latest film to place its characters in extreme peril is Frédéric Jardin’s Survive. 

Whereas other survival films position their characters in hostile scenarios via a series of unfortunate errors, the setting for Survive is unlike any other. The film opens with text that declares the Earth to have sustained five mass extinction events, with the sixth about to begin. This sets the scene for what is to come as a family find themselves trapped in a rather different version of the ocean after a gigantic storm hits their boat. The scenario is pure science-fiction, but writers Alexandre Coquelle and Mathieu Oullion are careful to keep the story grounded. This is achieved through the family unit at the heart of the film. 

Prior to the storm, time is spent with the quartet of mum Julia (Émilie Dequenne), dad Tom (Andreas Pietschmann), teenage daughter Cassie (Lisa Delamar) and son Ben (Lucas Ebel). The foursome are at sea to celebrate Ben’s birthday and through several introductory scenes they appear to be a regular family. This is not a film that feels the need to insert unnecessary conflict into the family unit, nor does it portray them as an overly perfect group. Given their owning of a boat and the expensive gifts given to Ben, the family clearly have money, but are otherwise a stable and unremarkable household. When placed into their new surroundings they are pragmatic and it seems as though they’ll be able to make it to safety, but then another person turns up and flips everything on its head. 

At this point Survive veers away from the single-location entrapment to a harrowing riff on the home invasion thriller, before morphing into a cat and mouse, hide and seek story. The constant shift in narrative style transitions smoothly and keeps the audience invested in their plight. The arrival of the outsider is an intense, bloody, and brutal sequence that could easily form part of some of the best French extremity on the market. Survive might not go as hard as others within the subgenre in terms of blood and gore content, but Jardin certainly captures the same level of threat and malice. Once on the run, Survive levels up again, placing the family against not only the elements, but nature too. With the ocean misbehaving, sea creatures start to act strange and become a very deadly threat. 

When reading up on Survive, some may have heard whispers of crab attacks and have interpreted that to mean that this film is a creature feature. That information would be incorrect, and those viewing with those expectations will be sorely disappointed. Whilst crabs are present for parts of the story, they are not the main threat. Instead the family are under attack from a never-ending conveyor of problems, the perpetual forward motion ensuring that audience fatigue never sets in. As the group traverses their new landscape, Jardin uses the opportunity to highlight some environmental issues. During their journey they encounter mountains of plastic, pools of toxic waste, and other atrocities that mankind has inflicted on the sea. These images are never spoken of by the characters, but the vision alone conveys the importance for humans to clean up their act. 

Unlike many other survival horrors, Survive approaches the subgenre from several different angles. The result is a film filled with great moments of intensity with the ever changing landscape providing plenty of opportunities to surprise the viewer. 

Survive was reviewed at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024. Survive is available on Digital Platforms 2 September. Distributed by Signature Entertainment