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Carnival of Souls was a low-budget "B" film ($33,000 in 1962), directed by Herk Harvey, that did mediocre business on release, but has become a Cult Classic. In fact, some people consider it to be the best "B" movie ever made.
The plot in essence is a young woman who perceives, with gradually increasing frequency, images of a horrid, deformed stranger (as, for example, a temporary appearance in a mirror). The screw tightens until, at the climax, we find out who The Man is and why she has been receiving these visitations.
The movie is a case of an obscenely high-number of routine, standard tropes that more or less accidentally happen to work to a whole greater than the sum of the parts (or of the makers' designs and--arguably--capabilities).
In 1998, a remake executive-produced by Wes Craven was released, which received mixed, mostly-negative reviews.
- Alone in a Crowd
- Amusement Park of Doom
- Bad Dreams: One of Mary's visions is revealed to have been a dream near the end.
- The Bad Guy Wins
- Be Careful What You Wish For: See Ineffectual Loner below.
- Big Bad: The Man
- Butt Monkey: John
- Celibate Hero
- Chase Scene
- Cold Open
- Dances and Balls: Part of the Carnival's backstory. Played for Horror later on in the main story.
- Dead All Along
- Deadpan Snarker: Mary when she has coffee with John. This part honestly plays more like a period sit-com than a horror movie.
- Defrosting Ice Queen
- Downer Ending
- The End
- Evil Albino
- Finally Found the Body: How The Reveal is made.
- Fridge Horror: The really scary thing about Carnival of Souls is what it implies about the afterlife. Forget pearly gates and tunnels of light; when you die, you become a cackling ghoul who haunts the desolate and abandoned corners of the world.
- The Grim Reaper: What The Man seems to be.
- Haunted Heroine
- Hazardous Water
- Hollywood Driving
- Ineffectual Loner: Mary until she no longer wants to be alone. This entire movie could arguably be summed up as "being Mary sucks".
- In the End You Are on Your Own
- Looks Like Cesare: The Man, to some extent
- Mirror Monster
- Motif: Water is either present or referenced to in a lot of the scary stuff which makes sense given the opening and the Twist Ending. It's inconsistent though as some of The Man's apperances have nothing to do with water.
- Mr. Exposition: Several examples.
- No Name Given: The Big Bad
- Oh Crap: An oddly-delayed version of this occurs during the second visit to the psychologist.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: If you love this sort of thing, Carnival of Souls will be your dream movie; if you hate it, steer clear.
- Our Ghosts Are Different
- Parental Abandonment: Inverted. Mary refuses to visit her folks after the accident.
- Perpetual Smiler: The Man
- Preacher Man
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: John
- Silent Antagonist
- Slasher Smile: The Man is almost always like this, but the other Undead only break into a smile near the end.
- Stalker with a Crush: John, as well as a possible way to interpret The Man.
- Sugar and Ice Personality
- Surreal Horror
- Tomato in the Mirror
- Twist Ending
- The Undead