Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Although this movie claims to be a remake of the 1960s movie of the same name, it really isn't. It just borrows a few minor details from the original film, and spends most of its time doing its own thing. I wasn't really bothered by that, and I simply requested that this "remake" be good. But it isn't. As others here have reported, this is an extremely slow moving movie, where scene after scene of no real consequence happens. And when things do happen, it's often very confusing, not making it clear if what happens is in the imagination of the heroine or is actually happening. At the end, I was not quite sure what had indeed happened. I will say that the movie looks okay for what was reportedly just a two million dollar budget, but the decent look in no way compensates for the movie's shortcomings.

"Wes Craven's Carnival of Souls" is a pretty dull affair with a few good moments.**SPOILERS**Years after their mother's death, sisters Alex, (Bobbie Phillips) and Sandra Grant, (Shawnee Smith) are still upset the day their father Louis Seagren, (Larry Miller) killed her in front of them. As adults, weird visions start happening to them, making them wish to leave their small-town home quicker. When the visions start to get more intense, she starts to seek comfort with nearby worker Michael, (Paul Johansson) and they start a relationship. As the past keeps coming back to haunt her, she finally gets the strength to stand up to it before it is able to completely control both their lives.The Good News: When this one tries, it's not that bad. The big one is the hallucinations and the visions, which here aren't that bad. This one here pretty much goes with these as the solid points since all of them are really entertaining and some quite frightening. The freak-out in the car wash is the freakiest one, since it slowly builds up the potential for something with the ominous focusing on the one employee and the shadows in the background playing havoc. When it turns into the big hallucination attack, the atmosphere is built up beautifully, for it does that change beforehand and comes through perfectly. Another freaky scene is the one in the bathtub, which doesn't even start off like it would but then quickly changes into a pretty frightening vision at times. That there's the brief ones scattered all throughout are also quite nice, as it changes them up and really tries to do something with them. That they can happen at any time is a fantastic quality, as there's a feeling of suspense in waiting for the next one to occur. That alone is pretty good and gives it a good reasoning for a viewing. The back-story is decent enough and has some really creepy ideas thrown in. The last positive is the big stunt scene, which is the only real action in the film and really gets over. These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: Despite it's good points, this one was really underwhelming. The complete and utter inability to make the main villain a source of fear is something to get over. This one has a main villain that fails to do anything in here that could cause fear in them. Popping up in hallucinations and day-dreams, which are obvious when they occur since the villain shows up, to attempt to torment the victims yet never laying a physical hand on them is quite shocking, since the actions prove that they're something to be reckoned with, yet the behavior does nothing and really hurts the villain. That is also done in with the never physical but only mental harming, and these really drop the film down a lot. The dragged pace is also somewhat troublesome, especially since the film decides to concentrate simply on the hallucinations for the shocks. It really stretches out the film and makes them feel like they're done in pretty infrequent intervals with boring filler in between. That isn't far off, as most of the time spent waiting for the hallucinations to come back offer nothing but boredom, and these are really problematic. There's little minor flaws, such as the sex scene being really sloppy-looking and not coming off at all realistic or believable or the fact that this one never really tries to capitalize on the notion of clowns being something to add fear to the film with their constant appearances, but the main ones here are the first two flaws. Those will be the ones that keep the film down the most.The Final Verdict: While it's not that spectacular, there is enough going for it to be entertaining that there is something worthwhile about it. If the boredom can be overcome, then this one could prove watchable, but those looking for more than a few shocks won't be terribly impressed with this one.Rated R: Language, Violence, mild incest themes and a clothed sex scene

After "Fear Of Clowns" this is the worst film I have ever had the misfortune to see.It narrowly beat "Fear Of Clowns" in that I forced myself to watch it through to the end. I wish I hadn't wasted valuable minutes of my life in doing so.Like many of you, I was tricked into watching it by the association with Wes Craven. Needless to say, I will not be tricked in the same fashion again.Very poor. So poor, that I remembered its name after all this time. This film is memorable only in its level of ineptitude.

I saw the original Carnival of Souls many years ago, when the film was re-released with some additional 'lost' footage reinstated. I remember being severely underwhelmed by the movie, finding it tedious in the extreme. I know I am in the minority for disliking this 'classic', but I truly think it is highly over-rated. I haven't seen it since.When this 'reimagining' was lent to me on DVD, my initial reaction was 'no thank you', but I changed my mind on seeing Shawnee Smith's name in the credits (I've been a fan of hers since The Blob in '88). On seeing the words 'Wes Craven Presents' I almost changed my mind again, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. And, whilst it may never be revered as a classic, this version has enough going for it to make it worth a viewing. The story may be confusing, the ending lacklustre, and the main 'baddie' not scary enough, but I still found this to be more enjoyable than the original.Eleven-year-old Alex witnesses her mother's murder at the hands of a kiddie-fiddling carnival clown named Louis. Her testimony puts him in jail for twenty years, but you can't keep a bad clown down and two decades later he shows up wanting revenge. Held hostage in her car by Louis, knowing that after he has dealt with her, he'll go after her younger sister, Alex floors the gas and drives herself and her captor at top speed into the sea. Then things get weird.From this point on, director Adam Grossman mixes reality and fantasy, blurring the boundary between the two and confusing the audience in the process. Sequences snap from reality (or what we perceive to be reality) to fantasy in the blink of an eye, and vice versa. Alex has strange hallucinations; hideous demons pop up in the strangest of places, as does her old pal Louis.These strange goings-on don't make a lot of sense, but they are quite entertaining, and at no point did I find myself regretting my decision to watch the film. Both Bobbie Phillips (who plays the grown-up Alex) and Shawnee Smith (who plays her sister) are easy on the eye and give reasonable performances. The demonic creatures that appear out of nowhere are very unsettling and the film is worth watching for these alone (they reminded me of Chris Cunningham's disturbing videos for Aphex Twin). If only Louis the carnival clown had been half as frightening as the demons; his blonde wig and crappy make-up are lame and as creepy movie clowns go, he is a disappointment.Fans of the original have slated this film, describing it as a travesty. Although I wouldn't exactly recommend this version myself, those who haven't seen the original may find enough to like to warrant giving it a go.