Carnival of Souls (1998)

★★1/2

Half experimental and half linear; this movie follows a young bartender who is still struggling with inner demons after seeing the brutal rape and murder of her mother by a circus performer. When the nightmares of the fateful night that she met him begin to resurface, so does the carnival and when the carnival comes back to town… so does her mother’s murderer. Now, caught in a web of dreams and hallucinations, the young girl must struggle to find peace and decipher what’s real and what isn’t. The story sounds great on paper but it is in fact a remake of a better film of the same name. This film has great production design and 1 or 2 creepy moments but it falls flat and becomes stale. I think it’s main problem is the lack of solid direction and a clear story.