I'm confused about something

I don't think it is ever established that she is truly dead until the final scene of the movie. Her physical state up to that point is probably going to be debated until the end of time.

My theory is that Mary was trapped in a limbo between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She didn't accept her death, so therefore she was in between, transiting between these two worlds (that explains why she sometimes she gets invisible to everyone). The Man was trying to help her cross over.

The theater is like a faithful wife. The film is the great adventure, the costly, exacting mistress

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I feel like her "cutting out" of the reality around her tied into how dead she was inside -- her mental state is one of paranoia and suspicion, and she is starting to take seriously the idea that she may as well be dead. When she's chased at the end by the ghouls, they put her right where she and everyone else believes she belongs -- among the dead.

Very eerie film, I'd love to get it on Criterion.

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¡No hay la banda!

The real fun begins when all the people she interacted with realizes she was dead. That would have been interesting to see their reactions, especially her horn toad next door neighbor.

Always the officiant, never the bride. http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com

"Night Visions" did an episode titled "If a Tree Falls" (2001) in which friends are in an auto accident, with the car ending up in a deep lake. Like Mary, they climb out of the water and come to realize that they must have died. Why are they walking around and able to interact? They believe it's because only THEY know they're dead; to the rest of the world, they are alive~until they see their dead bodies or are told about their deaths. They believe they can go on living as long as no one else knows~except for one troubled friend who is very religious and believes they are cheating reality. There's a fantastic twist to the end of it.

When I saw this episode, I thought of "Carnival of Souls", of Mary dead in the car but still apparently among the living. Does it end for her only when they see her body? It's been three hours since the accident by the time she climbs out onto the sandbar.

Face it: There are so many ghost stories about phantoms interacting with people~ghostly hitchhikers, for example. Chicago has a famous girl ghost who hitchhikes.

It's interesting how often people comment on Mary's quality of emptiness, and we know she left town without even seeing her parents. Early on, the man speaking to her about her new job says it's not enough to be a talented musician; she must have "soul" in her performance. Yet, she has such an aura of detachment. Later, she keeps disconnecting from reality~those moments when there is no sound and when people do not see or hear her. I always notice how, even in the car with her friends, Mary turns away from them and shows little response to even the dragracing. She already seems to be a ghost in her life, drifting through it and avoiding connections, perhaps wavering between life and death, not yet ready to let go.

This film has always fascinated me.



*** The trouble with reality is there is no background music. ***

Never put more thought into a movie than the people who wrote it did.

People can allegedly see ghosts and briefly interact with them, according to the people who believe in ghosts. So my guess is that for the duration of the film, she was meant to be a sort of ghost, who could interact with people, but never for long.

So MY only question is... how can a ghost drive a car or play the organ? That involves physical contact and applying pressure, not convincing fallible humans that you're real...