Carnival of Souls (1962)

[Flack]

Ask most people what they remember from the 1990 film Jacob's Ladder and they'll immediately mention the unsettling demon-like creatures that pursued Jacob or the film's terrifying hospital scene, but you might recall that none of those things happened. Everything that takes place in the film's "modern" timeline is made up, a figment of Jacob's imagination as he lay dying in Vietnam.

The problem with unreliable narrators in films is that we the audience are seeing things that aren't taking place in the film's universe. Occasionally, in films like Fight Club, this can be done with great effect. But then there are films like The Usual Suspects, which is entertaining until you realize that the entire film is a visual depiction of the story Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) is spinning in the police station. At the end of the film it is revealed that all the major points of his story were made up, pulled from objects within the detective's office. Other than the interrogation scenes, literally nothing we saw in The Usual Suspects actually happened. Imagine a friend telling you a long, 90-minute tale about their vacation only to admit at the end that they made the entire thing up.

1962's Carnival of Souls begins as a car full of young women involved in a spontaneous drag race careens over the side of a bridge, plunging into the icy waters below. The three women are presumed dead. Later, one of the three women, Mary Henry, emerges from the waters (dry) and seemingly goes about her business. She accepts a position as an organ player for a church and moves from Kansas to Salt Lake City. She rents a room at a local inn and becomes the object of desire for one of her neighbors, a guy who is equal parts desperate and forceful.

But... there's something about Mary that's not quite right. Occasionally she seems to wane in and out of reality, fading into an alternate reality in which no one can hear her, and likewise she cannot hear anyone or anything else, except for foreboding organ music. And then there's a creepy, white-faced man that may be Death Incarnate who occasionally stalks Mary, disappearing as quickly and mysteriously as he comes.

It's never entirely clear whether Mary has landed in a limbo state between life and death, or the entire movie takes place in her mind during her last few moments of life. Wikipedia states that the film is loosely based on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," a story (and short film) that takes place entirely within the protagonist's mind during their last moments of life which certainly points to a similar explanation -- however, toward the very end of the film after Mary leaves to accept her fate, the citizens of Salt Lake City are left to investigate her disappearance. If the narrative continues after Mary' vanishes, it leads to the fact that the people she interacts with throughout the film exist in reality... whatever reality is.

With its shoestring budget and a cast featuring exactly one professional actor, Carnival of Souls manages to tell a fun ghost story with more atmosphere and spooks than continuity or logic. The next time someone tells you they're seeing things, fear that they are.

[AArdvark]

I was going to mention Owl Creek Bridge, it's one of my favorite radio dramas

And yes, after watching the trailer(with sound) I can attest to only one real actor

[Flack]

We read it in class in 8th grade. This was the same English teacher that introduced us to Beowulf and Grendel. I appreciate that teacher more than I used to.

[Tdarcos]

The problem with unreliable narrators in films is that we the audience are seeing things that aren't taking place in the film's universe. Occasionally, in films like Fight Club, this can be done with great effect. But then there are films like The Usual Suspects, which is entertaining until you realize that the entire film is a visual depiction of the story Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) is spinning in the police station. At the end of the film it is revealed that all the major points of his story were made up, pulled from objects within the detective's office. Other than the interrogation scenes, literally nothing we saw in The Usual Suspects actually happened.

If I take it literally, then yes, nothing in the film actually happened. It's fiction. There was no explosion at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach, there were no dead bodies, there is no Keyser Soze, Verbal Kint, Detective Lujan, or a guy giving a description, in a foreign language, to a translator and a police sketch artist. Kevin Spacey was not arrested, and there was no interrogation by a police officer. It is all a story.

I am presuming this is not what you meant when you said, "literally nothing we saw in The Usual Suspects actually happened,"

Now if we take it in-universe, you're saying there was no explosion, no discovery of over a dozen dead people, no one was arrested, there was an interrogation though, nobody walked out of the station with a fake limp they dropped shortly thereafter, and he did not get into a car driven by a Japanese man. All of these things happened outside of the interrogation scenes, but since "Other than the interrogation scenes, literally nothing we saw in The Usual Suspects actually happened," then even the reason for the interrogation never happened.

I am not happy with people using the term "literally" to mean something happening in a manner other than exactly what they said. I took it when you wrote, "Other than the interrogation scenes, literally nothing we saw in The Usual Suspects actually happened," you meant, "Other than the interrogation scenes, literally nothing we saw that Verbal Kint described in his confession in The Usual Suspects actually happened," but that is an inference on my part, and is not what you said, and were I to claim that, I would be putting words in your mouth. That would also be redundant, since that is literally what you said earlier. :)