Carnival of Souls 2003 Horror Movie Review

Carnival of Souls is not your typical horror film.  Very low budget & stripped of all the frills, it is within it’s simplicity that it is so successful.  Relying on a myriad of loney, desolate shots, this film creates a deep sence of isolation & despair in the viewer.


The movie is about a young girl—Mary Henry—who survives a near fatal traffic accident when the car in which she is riding plunges into a river.  Deciding a change would do her good, she moves to a small town in Utah where she becomes a church organist.  But Mary finds she is being stalked by a corpse-like figure who periodically appears in spurts of a few seconds at a time, and then just a quickly dissapears.  Simultantously, she is also being pursued by a housemate (who resembles a corpse himself the way he drinks and womanizes) who has eyes for Mary, but cares little else for her.


As time passes, the apperition becomes more terrifing while Mary devcelopes a macabre dasination with an abandoned amusement park which turns out to hold the key to Mary’s delusions.  On the verge of a mental breakdown, unable to determine if her visions are real or manifestations of insanity, Mary is abandoned by the few people around her, leaving her alone to face an evil which is creeping ever closer, and with which, she must eventually confront.


Deep down, the film confronts such issues as isolation, dread, insanity, fear of the unknown, and a unique theme of an individuals abandonment by society.  Although there are few characters in the film, they are all well developed.  There are a number of fantasticallt shot scenes and interesting editing which combined with the eirree background music forms a parrallel of a dizzying descent into fear and maddness.  A great movie that you need to pay close attention to, watch it several times.