A creepy, surreal voyage through one woman's nightmares, Carnival Of Souls
transcends its low budget into a cult classic.  The film starts out with a
drag race between a car of guys and one of girls.  They race through country
roads and onto a wooden bridge.  There's an accident, and the girls' car
crashes over the side of the bridge and into the river.  The locals search
for survivors for hours, but then as they're about to lose hope, one girl
stumbles out of the water.  Mary.

I really enjoyed Candace Hilligoss's performance as Mary.  She always had a
weird, uncomforting expression on her face, and she really makes this movie
great.  Anyway, Mary leaves her small town for Utah, where she's accepted a
job as a church organist.  On her way there, she has visions.  Nightmarish
visions of a pasty white evil-looking old man.  The visions don't end once
she gets to Utah, finds a place to live, and settles into her job.  Not only
does she have these frightening images to deal with, she also has a
lecherous neighbor who constantly hits on her (his acting I definitely
didn't care for).  Mary is strangely drawn to an old ruined carnival
pavilion, and visits it, but to no avail.  Her nightmare becomes weirder
when she has episodes where people can't hear or see her.  Truly bizarre.
And that old guy pops up all over the place!  The strangeness and suspence
build up to the ending where Mary visits the Pavilion at night.

This was a cool movie.  Definitely slow at points, and I could do with a lot
less organ music, but it lends to the eerie feeling.  The whole movie, but
mostly Mary, are slightly off-kilter.  There's a bizarre atmosphere starting
at the beginning of the film, and it carries on throughout the picture (rare
in movies).  Yes, it's low budget, and there's some overly dark scenes, and
grating music at times.  But if you take it for what it is, you can truly
appreciate this movie.
 
 
 

Quality: 5.0  Visuals: 4.0  Intensity: 4.0 
OVERALL RATING: 4.3