User Reviews

CARNIVAL OF SOULS is a crude, ridiculously bad and ill-advised remake of the early '60s arthouse cult classic. Being a 1990s film, everything has to be now explained, so there are rapist clowns on the prowl and all kinds of nonsense assailing our uninteresting heroine. It's a badly-edited, poorly-scripted kind of movie that just kind of muddles along aimlessly, and the only surprise is just how young Shawnee Smith still looks a good decade after she appeared in the excellent remake of THE BLOB. As for this remake...avoid like the plague. Why Wes Craven had anything to do with it, I have no idea.

I've just recently seen Wes Craven's Carnival of Souls and I thought that it was pretty good, not great. It was marketed badly and shouldn't have bared the same title as the original as it's not much of a remake as it is its own tale. Although Wes Craven's name is shamelessly attached to the movie despite little to no involvement beyond seemningly giving his consent, ironicly the storyline actually has more potential than most Craven movies put together whether his own or just bare the name. And thats coming from a guy who loves Craven as much as the next horror buff.

The potential of the story itself is one of the two main positives which outweigh such negatives as dodgy special effects. It's sort of a complex psychological war fair tale with a touch of the Sixth Senses' style.

It appears to be about a tortured young girl whom is haunted by a tragic childhood where she watched as her mother was murdered by a guy whom had been a friend of the family and worked at a carnival as a clown and her evidence got him life in prison. Then of course years later he gets out and comes after her, but surprisingly in a struggle both seem to die and it seems as though her ghost is trapped in a land of the dead limbo where she appears to be living her life as normal in her mind yet the presence of ghosts and all the familiar faces of everyone in her life are trying to convince her to except her fate so she can pass over, everything they say and do seems geared to her situation, including a kind of guardian Angel figure who looks like he's stepped off a romance novel cover, which would fit with a young woman's creation of the imagination too. "Sometimes you have to face your demons before you can see the angels"

At the same time the demonic ghost of the clown invades her mind, tormenting her seemingly trying to keep her from being able to move on and except her fate etc, possibly to avoid passing over himself into hell as she ascends to heaven: "The Longer you hold on, the more we get to play!" or maybe he's a sinister form of her inner demons: "Funny thing about guilt Alex, it can haunt you as real as any ghost" All in all it seems really open to interpretation. There are many interesting possibilities. My personal view is that it's just a movie about letting go and moving on. certainly points must be given for such effort to at least attempt at something complex rather than just going with the usual typical horror movie traditional slasher formula.

The other biggest positive is the performances, the lead actress is convincingly haunted looking but particularly the serial killer clown character Lewis. He's quite effective in a distinctly well drawn role, which is wisely used sparingly and well portrayed by a cast against type Larry Miller. He has a great presence, is genuinely creepy and has a real sense of mystery to him. Larry Miller, another comedian character actor in an unknown, his performance was destined to be overlooked.

Just remember, don't be fooled by all you read, judge it for yourself.

Will you, won't you, join the dance?

Of course I know it doesn't come close to the original film. I saw it years ago and didn't think much of it. Then a few years later I bought it on DVD as part of a set along with LEPRECHAUN and two of David Cronenberg's movies RABID and SHIVERS. When I revisited CARNIVAL OF SOULS the plot made a little more sense. But when I read the reviews on it's IMDb web page I noticed that this film was somewhat misunderstood.

1. Like in the beginning of the film where Alex (Bobbie Phillips) drives her car into the ocean with Louis (Larry Miller) the man responsible for her mother's murder in the backseat. Right after this scene the film cuts to Alex waking up in her bathtub. Many seemed to have assumed she dreamed about the crash but that is not the case. When the film cuts to this scene it actually goes back a few days meaning Alex didn't dream about the crash it happened a few days later.

2. There is another scene where Alex goes to see a psychiatrist and she talks to him like they've had several sessions together. But the psychiatrist reveals that he has never met Alex before. This is representative of the reality setting in of what really happened after that crash that took place which would lead us to the final revelation or the big twist ending. Of course at one point Alex is shown climbing out of the ocean and on to the pier she drove off where she sees the abandoned carnival grounds. In fact this is really Alex's soul climbing out of the water and on to the pier. The whole part between the crash and the twist at the end is really what we think is reality that slowly turns into what is actual reality.

This is how I understand or interpreted it. CARNIVAL OF SOULS is really a thinking man's horror movie. You have to pay close attention to certain parts of the dialog to grasp what certain phrases actually refer to. Many plot elements are not presented in a very straightforward manner so it requires a long attention to figure out the plot.

Overall, it's not the worst film I've endured. I also agree that the original is way better. But since this film strayed from the original I didn't really try to make comparisons.

There is also an unofficial German remake entitled YELLA which is also better. and had it been an official remake it would be considered the more faithful of the two.