YMMV / Carnival of Souls

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• Angst? What Angst?: Mary's attitude about the car accident and the other two girls. Enforced by the fact she's generally disconnected with everything.
• Cult Classic:
  • Largely forgotten after its initial run, it was rediscovered on late night TV, then got Vindicated by History 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 No Budget movie from The '60s that had gained a following, then when she started reading the article she was flabbergasted to learn it was Carnival of Souls.
  • 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.
• It Was His Sled: Mary was Dead All Along.
• Once Original, Now Common: Modern audiences will immediately realize Mary is in a Dying Dream or Dead All Along when she stumbles out of the car wreck - never mind that this was one of the very first movies to employ this trick.
• Special Effect Failure: 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 The Reveal.
• Unintentional Period Piece: 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 look quite different now.
• The Woobie: 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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