Carnival of Souls (1998) - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.


	Carnival of Souls USA 1998. Director: Adam Grossman Cast: Bobbie Philips, Larry Miller, Paul Johansson, Shawnee Smith As a child Alex (Bobbie Philips) witnessed the killing of her mother. Twenty years later she is still haunted by the memory and of the fear of the killer coming back for more. And after having had strange nightmares and hallucinations Alex is convinced that he has come back. Or is it only her imagination playing her another funny game? If it wasn't for the fact that the killer had died some years earlier, people would perhaps believe her. There's some rather effective editing that sets the viewer off-guard many times and the explosive jumping back and forth in time actually works. And for a change director Grossman understands the impression of silence, the most underrated of special effects. But those are also the only great things with this remake as "presented" by Wes Craven. Our heroine mostly walks around seeing strange images and opening her big brown eyes wide to the camera. And the ending is just some stupid running around tents. A little like Jacob's Ladder but without the balls. Definitely no match for the original movie either, although it's slickly done, good craftmanship and all that. Expect something like an average episode of Tales From the Crypt and it may work. For trivia buffs, Bobbie Philips was booed off stage at some X-Files convention some year back, for having played the bug-scientist who had the nerve to step between Scully and Mulder in some episode of the TV-series. Actress Shawnee Smith is best remembered from The Blob as well as McDonalds commercials and director Adam Grossman also helmed two Sometimes They Come Back Again sequels while co-executive producer Anthony Hickox is also director of Warlock 2 and Hellraiser 3. And while we're at it, Wes Craven had probably nothing to do with it at all. © The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.