Carnival of Souls

Young Alex Grant witnesses carnival clown Louis Seagram brutally murder her mother, Elaine, during a visit to the seaside carnival. The violence leaves a permanent scar and a sense of danger that never fully leaves Alex. This tragedy becomes the defining trauma that frames her life.

Two decades later, Alex works as a bartender above the Mermaid Bar, while her sister Sandra pursues singing. The memory of her mother's murder continues to haunt her daily, shaping her cautious, haunted outlook. The siblings lean on each other as they carry the legacy of that night.

Seagram is released from prison and immediately closes in on Alex. He assaults her in her car, threatening to brutalize Sandra, and forces Alex to drive toward the carnival where he once worked.

During the drive, Seagram maintains control and reminds Alex of the danger Sandra would face if she resists. They head toward the old carnival, a place tied to Seagram’s past and Alex's terror.

In a desperate move, Alex swerves and drives the car off the pier into the water below. The impact knocks her unconscious and the world fades to black as the car sinks.

Alex wakes up in her bathtub, realizing the earlier sequence may have been a nightmare. The boundary between dream and reality begins to blur as she processes what happened.

Haunted by waking nightmares, Alex experiences visions of Seagram and other ghoulish figures. She recalls the carnival encounter where Seagram first took an interest in her mother and began molesting her, deepening the trauma.

To calm her fears, Alex begins researching Seagram’s whereabouts and discovers he has apparently been murdered after his release. The search spans documents, police records, and rumors in town.

Sandra and Sid, the Mermaid Bar manager, worry about Alex’s deteriorating mental state as strange memories and Seagram’s shadowy presence intrude on daily life. The bar becomes a place where fear and doubt mingle with routine.

A mysterious new regular at the bar, Michael, begins pursuing Alex romantically, offering a possible escape from her trauma. His attentions pull her into a fragile sense of possibility amid the confusion.

Alex and Michael go out on his boat and share a night of intimacy. Michael suddenly transforms into a ghoul-like figure and shifts into Seagram, rupturing the moment and reality for Alex.

Alex awakens on the carnival’s Ferris wheel, suggesting the prior encounter may have been a dream. She is then pursued by Seagram through a hallucinatory, carnivalesque landscape before waking again on the pier.

Sometime later, the car is retrieved from the water near the pier, containing both Alex’s and Seagram’s corpses inside. It confirms that Seagram did attack her and that the crash actually happened.

Back in the Mermaid Bar, Sandra answers a ringing phone and hears the distant sounds of a carnival on the line. The horror lingers, suggesting the danger may not be over for the sisters.