The ending: 2 possibilities
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Carnival of Souls
danwiild — 12 years ago(January 08, 2014 04:57 AM)
The first is that she had been dead the whole time, and that it was her spirit that had become lost in our world.
The second, (which my gran actually came up with), is that the ghosts took her from the beach and PUT her back in the car where she was supposed to have died in the first place. Ie. that you cannot cheat death. -
EyeDunno — 11 years ago(May 26, 2014 09:45 PM)
SPOILERS: The one thing I think makes sense is that the whole film is a story from her subconscious or even unconscious state, that her mind offered what she wanted, to escape that plunge into the muddy water. But as her story kept running along, death (the main grey character) kept catching up with her. When they did whisk her away, poof the search had really only gone on a short time when they found the car. She had never left, or even interacted with anyone of those people since she supposedly stepped onto that sand below the bridge. The search at the end of the film was still going on in its initial phase as though not even the afternoon had waned.
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Catfishbunter — 11 years ago(October 19, 2014 11:54 AM)
My problem with the whole "she's only been dead a short while" theory is that she left tangible evidence of her existence in Utah. We see her landlady and the priest/preacher note her disappearance (this is presumably after several days and as long as several weeks after her death). It's clear that she was in Utah for days, either in spirit or in real life, and made an impact on people there. We even see her footprints and handprints which just end in the middle of a sandy beach. All of this provides compelling evidence that the events in the film occurred and were not part of a few minutes of subconscious happenings while she is drowning in the Kaw River.
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johnbayer79 — 10 years ago(October 07, 2015 12:40 AM)
Heavy Handed religious themes about her soul being in peril due to her indifference to religion and with her "a church is just a place of business" lines. I wonder had she met with the congregation and became a member of the church would her soul have been saved?? Instead she keeps it business and states that she doesn't prefer folks company but when she's living in Purgatory Utah she can't bear to be alone. And then she finds out she's not alone but wishes she was as the lost souls give chase.