''Carnival of Souls'' (also billed as ''Wes Craven Presents 'Carnival of Souls''') is a 1998 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

, a remake of Herk Harvey's 1962 horror film of the same name, although it has very little in common with the story of the original. It stars

Bobbie Phillips Bobbie Phillips (born January 29, 1968) is an American actress. Career Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Phillips moved to Hollywood in 1990 and began working in television soon after. Her first acting job was guest-starring with Halle Berry ...

and comedian Larry Miller, and was directed by Adam Grossman and Ian Kessner. It was executive produced by

Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...

Plot

Although this film is a remake of 1962's ''Carnival of Souls'', it bears little resemblance to the original aside from the ending. This film centers on Alex Grant (

) who witnesses a carnival clown named Louis Seagram ( Larry Miller)

raping Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or a ...

and murdering her mother on January 24, 1977. Twenty years later, Seagram returns after being released from prison and attacks Alex in her car. She drives the car into the river, and as she struggles back to shore she has hallucinations of Seagram and the same carnival where she met him. Alex is then drawn into a ghoulish game of cat and mouse with Seagram at the carnival.

Cast

Release

''Carnival of Souls'' was released on August 21, 1998, on a limited theatrical run, and eventually came

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

in the United States and other territories. The film was released on DVD by

Lions Gate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

on February 23, 1999. It was later released by VCI on January 15, 2001, and by

Cinema Club 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

on December 31 that same year.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 20% based on five reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 4.1/10. Shawn Handling from ''HorrorNews.net'' stated that, although the film was "a decent little fright picture" and its style made up for its lack of originality, Handling criticized the film's "run-of the-mill" performances, writing, predictable story, lack of scares, and choice of music.

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

awarded the film 1/5 stars, calling the film "dismal", writing, "Though filled with modern-day horror contrivances, Grossman's film evokes none of the haunting atmosphere that distinguished Herk Harvey's eerily timeless original."

References

External links

* * *{{Rotten Tomatoes, wes_craven_presents_carnival_of_souls
''Carnival of Souls'' at FEARnet
1998 films 1998 horror films American horror films Remakes of American films Films set in 1977 Films set in 1997 Horror film remakes Films about rape Trimark Pictures films Horror films about clowns 1990s English-language films 1990s American films