If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

While there were plenty of spooky settings used to great effect, the episodic plot line just felt like several segments unfolding. The logic of the story is also hard to believe. Three girls are drag racing against some guys before their car goes off a bridge. Why three girls? Why would girls in this time period be so openly daring, aggressive, and foolish? She drives away in a car after the crash, but where did it come from and whose car was it? Mary is haunted by some mysterious guy (Herk Harvey) but we never know who he is or where he came from. Why not put the guy in the car when it crashed? The carnival grounds keep drawing Mary there, but why? How did she know where they were? Director Harvey who played the ghost said in an interview he did not know a reason for these events or who the guy was, but wanted viewers to fill in the blanks. Some claim this is based on the "girl at the bridge" legend where a girl keeps haunting the same bridge she leaped off of before.

Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen this film and don't want the end spoiled for you, don't read this review. I found it impossible to write a review for this film without spoiling the ending.I am surprised by the number of reviewers who totally ignored the ending, which, for me, revealed all that had transpired before it. In my view, Mary had reached the point where life meets death. In our "living" time, the action following the accident on the bridge was perhaps 60 or 70 minutes, but for Mary, who had reached the point where life meets death, it could have been an instant or an eternity as there is no similar dimension of time during or after death. As she was a victim of drowning, the haunted Saltair Pavilion on Salt Lake was significant to her watery end, as were the "souls" who appeared from the water and from unknown, undefined realms beyond the living.For me, all that transpired after the accident occurred in a state of near death or after death. In her transition from life to death, Mary traveled through different phases, including alternating periods when she was totally and physically disconnected from the world that we know while we are alive. Even the boarding house in Salt Lake City was a kind of a death state. Mrs. Thompson, the landlady, was nice enough and even reminded me of Beryl Mercer, who played Jimmy Cagney's sweet mom in "The Public Enemy", but the house and its atmosphere was strangely quiet and lifeless. John Linden, the sleazy neighbor, seemed like death warmed over too. Even before the accident, Mary seemed totally disconnected from her teenage companions in the car. What was she doing with them? She seemed older, more mature, and totally out of place sitting with them during the drag race. Even in life, Mary was isolated from the world around her at least to some degree."I'm never coming back," she snapped coldly to her boss at the Kansas organ company, and she meant it because she was already dead. "You cannot live in isolation from the human race, you know," warns her new boss at the church in Utah, but Mary was already dead by then, so his words meant nothing to her. During the life-to-death transition or after death, nothing meant much to her except for the shocking images of the ghouls, who were either already dead or in a state of transition, and the haunting presence of the eerie Saltair Pavilion, which was as isolated from the world and as absent of life as Mary was during her life-to-death transition, and then, finally, after death. When she was recovered in the submerged car at the end, was Mary not dead?The entire atmosphere of this movie, including the haunting organ music and the creepy ghoul appearances, was extremely effective in conveying a sense of what it must be like to transition from life to death. In this portrayal of such a transition, the journey occurred in different stages, some of which repeated, such as the incidents when Mary was totally removed from the physical world as we know it in the department store and at the bus station. Gradually, more and more souls, who are already a part of the world of the dead, appear before her. Since Mary is either dying or already dead, she never travels to Salt Lake City and to the Saltair Pavilion in the world of the living, only in the world of life-to-death transition and, finally, of death itself. When I view this movie, I feel as though I have entered a terrifying, mysterious world that exists beyond the life that we know. I am experiencing a vision of the world that could possibly exist as we leave this life. It is a very unique and unforgettable adventure. I think that the writer, John Clifford, and the director, Herk Harvey, were brilliant for what they attempted to accomplish and for what they succeeded in achieving on such a tiny budget, and I loved Candace Hilligoss as poor, tormented Mary, may she finally rest in peace.

I'd heard of this film for years but just saw it for the first time. There's something to be said for that process; it lingers in the back of your mind as something you intend to watch "some day", and then when you finally see it, it's somehow satisfying. I'm sure there's probably an official term for this phenomenon.The acting isn't that great but it doesn't have to be; the film draws you in with its close-ups, oppressive music, simple but effective special effects, and attempt to make the main character normal when she clearly isn't. Long after you've seen the film, questions about the world it created linger, such as: was it all a dream, or was she lingering halfway between life and death, or was she just a ghost trying to live a normal life doing normal things like moving into a boarding house, finding a job, and getting hit on by a creeper? Was she just a walking corpse the whole time? This movie poses more questions than it answers, which is the hallmark of really good horror.

I've just finished watching 'Carnvial of Souls' for the very first time and I've already made up my mind that it's an absolute masterpiece. This movie manages to be incredibly atmospheric on a shoestring budget of just a couple thousand dollars and achieves something that most of today's movies don't even manage on a multi- million dollar budget: To completely draw the viewer in and mesmerize them.This movie proves that you don't necessarily need tons of practical and special effects, big action sequences or an overly complex plot to make a good movie, but merely a group of dedicated people with a vision and the expertise to realize it. Herk Harvey, John Clifford, Candace Hilligoss and their colleagues probably didn't realize what exactly they were creating at the time, but they all had lots of talent and expertise as is evident in the final movie. It's a piece of art.The cinematography and direction of 'Carnival of Souls' are phenomenal, Gene Moore's organ score is haunting, and the acting is surprisingly captivating, especially Candace Hilligoss in the lead role. Her facial expressions in the scene where she's playing the organ as if possessed are chilling. The grand finale at Saltair is something that is burnt into my mind now. Such beautiful and haunting images. A brilliant movie!