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* AngstWhatAngst: Mary's attitude about the car accident and the other two girls. Enforced by the fact she's generally disconnected with ''everything''.
* CultClassic:
** Largely forgotten after its initial run, it was rediscovered on late night TV, then got VindicatedByHistory via a 1989 re-release that earned it accolades from major film critics. The renewed attention was a bit of a surprise for everyone involved. Candace Hilligoss was intrigued by a newspaper headline in 1989 about a NoBudget movie from TheSixties that had gained a following, then when she started reading the article she was flabbergasted to learn it was ''Carnival of Souls''.
** ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286944/ Schlock! the Secret History of American Movies]]'' noted had the film been a foreign film released in the US, it would have been acclaimed as a masterpiece about existentialism and isolation.
* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: Mary was DeadAllAlong]].
* OnceOriginalNowCommon: Modern audiences will ''immediately'' realize [[spoiler:Mary is in a DyingDream or DeadAllAlong when she stumbles out of the car wreck]] - never mind that this was one of ''the very first'' movies to employ this trick.
* SpecialEffectFailure: In the last shot, featuring the car full of corpses being pulled out of the river, one of the dead girls obviously blinks -- egregiously, right as the camera is zooming in on the protagonist's face for TheReveal.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Utah-filmed scenes act as a time capsule, because the locations have changed so much since the early 60s. Saltair burned down in 1970 (a new, somewhat similar pavilion was built nearby about a decade later and is used as a concert venue now). The places in downtown Salt Lake City used in the film [[https://catalystmagazine.net/carnival-of-souls/ look quite different now]].
* TheWoobie: Poor Mary really can't catch a break in the movie, as the world seems to crumble around her into a nightmare, and the reactions of those around her amount to bemused, unhelpful (though well-intentioned) questioning to outright disdain.

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