Carnival Of Souls 1962
Reviewed by Joshua Taj Bozeman on January 3, 2003 @ 10:30 A.M. CT.

Warning: Possible Spoliers Below

Carnival Of Souls is about a young woman who survives after the car she is riding in goes over a bridge and into water, where her two friends drown...luckily for her, she makes it out alive. She is headed to Salt Lake City to be a church organist. While driving to Utah, she sees a strange man out of her side window...looks as tho he is almost floating next to the car...she keeps seeing the man here and there along the way, and when she gets into town, she sees him even more. She's not sure who it is, but she is sure it's not her imagination...it's not shock like some would try to make her believe. The man is real. But who is he? That's the question in this film, and overall, it's not a very exciting answer. I figured out the entire plot pretty quickly. If you have seen the sixth sense (the writer of that movie must have taken something from this one!), you will be able to figure it out too.

Knowing the secret of the movie doesn't ruin it, but it does take away some of the excitement you might have had if you had not known. The movie is failry entertaining, tho there's not much that happens. The girl is in Utah, she keeps seeing the strange man following her, she plays the organ at church, she talks to a doctor about her mental state, she sees the man some more...the end. The story isn't very strong, and everything that happens is just leading up to the ending...sort of filler space till they can unvail the big secret of the film, it seems.

The movie seems really choppy...like the editor didn't know exactly what he was doing. It feels like there are scenes missing, even in the extended director's cut. Maybe this is the low budget aspect to it, and maybe the fact that there's very plot has a role in it as well, but it gets a bit annoying after a while. It's worse in the beginning, but it persists throughout. The acting is good...the lead female (no idea what her name is?) is really good...she has the losing her mind role down pretty well. The "monsters" are pretty well done too. Nothing that will scare you, but the makeup is pretty cool, especially for the man who keeps following her. Other than that, nothing in particular stands out. Maybe the fact that the settings are nice. They use this huge building that used to house a giant dancehall, and then was turned into a carnival which is really nice...it's kind of spooky when she goes out there to investigate. It's near a big lake too, and the zombie- like people start coming out of it, so that's kinda neat too.

This movie is actually considered a classic by many (it must be since it got a criterion edition dvd for it), but I don't see how. I guess, in it's time, it was visionary in some manner, but the story is too weak to be enjoyable. Another thing that is painfully obvious is the poor sound editing and effects. For people walking (especially the women), it sounds as tho they just took some wood blocks and pounded them onto the editing room floor. On top of that, the voices don't always match the characters lips too well, and it's clear that there was a lot of ADR done (when the people are below the bridge, pulling the woman out of the mud, there voices are echoing as tho they're inside a big empty room.) That does take away from the mood of the film...I had to laugh in various points because of the sound problems. The picture doesn't suffer, tho some parts are a bit too dark to see much of anything. The DVD has some nice bonus material as well, inlcuding a look at the various filming locations today, and how they have changed since the 1960's when the movie was shot. I tried the commentary track that was recorded in 1990 for the laserdisc version, I guess, but I didn't hear anything. It did mention that the commentary track started in the middle of chapters and was intermitten throughout, so I'm sure I just didn't wait long enough.

Carnival Of Souls is an enjoyable movie despite its flaws, but I would probably never consider it a classic like many others do.

6.5/10

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