Carnival of Souls (1998)

   

Directed by: Adma Grossman & Ian Kessner

Written by: Adam Grossman

Starring:

Bobbie Phillips .... Alex Grant
Shawnee Smith .... Sandra Grant
Larry Miller .... Louis Seagram
Paul Johansson .... Michael
Cleavant Derricks .... Sid
Henry G. Sanders .... Officer Soby
Brendon Thomas Dillion .... Henry
Anna K. McKown .... Elaine Grant
Raquel Beaudene .... Young Alex Grant

Release Date: Limited Theatrical: August 21, 1988

Rating:

 

Twenty years ago a child named Alex Grant (Raquel Beaudene) experienced her mother being beaten and killed by someone employed as a clown at a local carnival by the name of Louis Seagram (Larry Miller) and then got locked up and put away.
However, Louis escaped and tried to hold Alex as hostage in her car to get to her sister Sandra (Shawnee Smith) but she drives the two of them into the depths of the ocean and only Alex rises out of the car.
She is then working at the carnival with her sister but is being haunted by supernatural forces as well as Luois himself as he seems to have returned from the dead and doesn't know what to do about all of this since she finds no escape from him at all as he plys a diabolical game on her
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The story seems to deliver some jumps and alot of twists to the story. They start it off with a disturbing scene by having a child of Young Alex Grant walking towards a room where her Mom is being abused by a creep named Louis as the setting is extremely disturbing with this moment happening.
There's a good shot on Alex Grant sitting in the drivers seat with Louis Seagram sitting in the passenger seat by grabbing her and poitning a gun to her. Later on she shows nice energy by putting the pedal to the metal and driving into the ocean which looks adventurous.
We spot some nice flashback moments that involved Young Alex and Louis with their scene's together which looks quite devilish like.
There's a good camera shot on Alex dunking her head in a sink of water and Louis keeping her head in there as it looked Freddy Krueger like.
A great suspenseful moment with Alex in a carwash with these ghoulish things surrounding her along with her vehicle being flooded up and she's trapped inside.
We have a terrific moment between Alex and Michael acting lusty towards one another and tearing off each others clothes.
We see nice slow movements on the zombie's at the carnival with Alex walking around looking a little frightened and a nice fantasy shot on her like she's in Alice in Wonderland in a funhouse when Louis is taunting her and then she acts courageous while pointing a gun at him which has some nice timing too.
Bottom line as that this remake to the 1962 classic is extremely different by any means with different characters and plots. The only similarities is a troubled woman being haunted after driving her car into the water. However, this film really doesn't go anywhere at all and is extremely bland and stale plus it's like a Hellraiser ripoff too but not a bad film at all.
Some scene's in this film during the beginning is quite disturbing too

The acting is too average I found but again that is just me as some might think of it differently.
Lead actress Bobbie Phillips (Alex Grant) didn't do anything for me at all as the troubled woman disturbed by her childhood past but she wasn't by any means terrible.
However, showed nice frightened expressions with the terror surrounding her. She also really knew how to act uptight with her discussion with her fellow actor playing a shrink.
Larry Miller
(Louis Seagram) seemed to breeze through well as the evil murderous clown in the film making his part believeably untrustworthy and sleazy like. He performed well by acting like a scumbag.
Paul Johansson
(Michael) stood out greatly as a playboy type in the film and had the perfect looks too.
Supporting actress Anna K. McKown (Elaine Grant) played a good single mother as she knew how to play a character in the film.
Child actress R
aquel Beaudene (Young Alex Grant) really knew how to play someone cautious as the younger version of the lead in the film. She is very rough with her lines when she points a gun towards someone during the beginning of her performance.

Blood is splashing on Alex's face after she shoots Louis.

The music Andrew Rose contributed wasn't really anything special as it sounds too low key but we have some interesting piano sounds.

Alex Grant: I've been seeing things, things that can't be real.