Don't listen to the negative reviews

Better Late Then Never

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Blistering performances.

The film Carnival of Souls was adequate. The only reason I watched it was because 1) I'll watch any movie and 2) the role of Shawnee Smith is present. I love Shawnee. She is an idol of mine especially after seeing "Becker" the brilliant TV show. Shawnee is perfect, she is a talented and beautiful actress whom is also, shown by this movie, a talented singer. She has it all. I haven't seen the original "Carnival of Souls" therefore I can't judge on that account. The film was pretty confusing, strange and generally creepy. The concept was fairly well and the acting was pretty average. On that note, actors such as Shawnee, Bobbie (the actress that played the main character) and whoever played Louis the clown were great actors and played their roles tremendously. The minor characters weren't very great a what they did but the main characters made all the difference. I didn't quite like the ending of the movie whereas it lacked a climax. The entire movie was also disturbing and rather confusing. I could easily abide through the boring scenes and confusing parts of the movie but truthfully, they could have done better. Although the flashbacks kept the movie alive and helped advance the plot. There were some interesting and even funny quotes in the movie, also some odd. One I was rather shocked to hear was, "Oh we're not gonna put the makeup on my face this time." What? But some quotes I liked, such as "Do you know what girls are made of? Sugar and spice and all things *checks her our* nice." I got some good laughs out of this movie. But truthfully, it wasn't a good movie. Then again, the quotes and Shawnee Smith's amazing performance made the movie semi-good. Plus the antagonist, Louis the Clown, was one bad@ss character. Therefore I give this movie a solid five out of ten.

I enjoyed this film. I liked it when I first saw it years ago, and I liked it this time. I do have to say there are things about it that I noticed now that I'm older, that I didn't like, but overall the story was really good. The end especially was very memorable. The creatures were scary but reminded me of Hellraiser's cenobytes (not a bad thing), and I thought the killer clown could have and should have been scarier, more threatening. I was very upset that they somehow forgot that the little girls portraying the main characters had bright, bright green/blue eyes as kids, but as adults one has brown eyes and one blue- a totally different shade. The whole "I'm going insane" idea I do love, however, and that is what made me like the movie so much.

It's hard to find a remake that actually does justice to the original,but this one is almost downright insulting.Thre story has very little,if anything,to do with the one of the original.And whos idea was it to cast Larry Miller as the bad guy ?He is so terribly miscast.One thing I noticed about all the positive reviews is that they say the movie should be considered a 'drama' instead of horror.Please tell me,why name it after a horror movie if it's supposed to be a drama ? I would never believe a 40 year old original could still outdo a modern remake but apparently it can.

Weird that the vote totals have an inordinate number of "1" votes, more so than usual for this type of film. I'd dare to guess that either those votes were disappointed that it wasn't a typical Wes Craven gory kill-fest, or they just are mad at Wes Craven for some other reason. Still, this is an effective and spooky, if small-time, chiller that would have been much more well-received had it been foreign. There would be this whole crowd of intellectual horror buffs spouting about all the psychological twists and turns, and the underlying meaning of the water motif throughout, and how it foreshadows and gives hints as to the true ending, and so on. Well, all of that is still there, just not in French or Japanese. I mean, really, this is just as good as The Grudge, and just as easy to understand. She really DID drive the car off of the pier, and everything in-between the beginning to the end was her in a personal purgatory because she always blamed herself for not shooting the clown/killer before he killed her mom. Once she settled that guilt trip, she left this purgatory. That's what it is. In conveying this, the film does well, but if you've grown up on simple-minded slasher and gore horror, where you're led down every path and through every door without needing to think, then you won't get it and you'll be bored. Those who give it a "1", this means you. If you think the original Carnival of Souls is a "10" then you'll find this one enjoyable and more than adequate, though not great. One last note, there are some complaints that Larry Miller wasn't spooky enough, too much of a regular type of guy, like an accountant or such. Well, WAKE UP, those are the guys that get you! Those regular types are where you'll find the killers who will surprise you. Look at BTK. How many times have you heard, Oh he was such a nice neighbor, I can't believe he did it!