Carnival of Souls Needs To Close That Building at Night

Carnival of Souls is a movie about why abandoned places need office hours.

My notes say this pretty clear, except one corner got butter on it.

A woman survives a car accident and then gets drawn to an abandoned carnival pavilion. People call this haunting. I call it poor scheduling by a building.

An abandoned pavilion should be closed. That is what abandoned means. But this one keeps being available. It stands there with all its bad energy out, accepting walk-ins from the living and maybe the not living.

That is not spooky. That is customer service failure.

The woman tries to live normal, but the pavilion has her number. I don't know how buildings get numbers. Maybe through cracks. Either way, somebody should unplug it.

Carnivals are already suspicious because they move around and sell food near spinning. Once the carnival leaves, the pavilion should calm down. This pavilion does not. It keeps acting like a dentist office for souls. This is where I started getting mad at the prop department.

The ghouls, if that is what they are, seem like staff. They move together like everyone got the same bad memo. I respect that, but I also fear it because group choreography is how buildings get confident.

The movie is quiet in a wet way. Good atmosphere. But again, atmosphere is not management.

If the pavilion posted a sign saying open Tuesdays 9 to 4 for unfinished existence, then fine. People could plan. Instead it lurks full time. That is how you get a carnival of souls when you only budgeted for a pavilion of maybe two souls.

My review says close the pavilion. Lock it. Put a vending machine in front of it. If a ghost wants service, it can make an appointment like everybody else.

Anyway that is the review, unless the theater calls me back.