Carnival of Souls (1962)

Director: Herk Harvey
Writer(s): John Clifford
Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, and Herk Harvey

Carnival of Souls is the kind of movie where either nothing happens, or everything does; by the end, you will probably know just as little as you did in the beginning.  And yet it is somehow accomplished in an utterly transfixing, and completely engrossing way.  All too often filmmakers seem to feel the need to explicitly answer every question they pose, to tie every subplot up with a neat and tidy little bow, and make sure they ever so gently hand the gift-wrapped story device to us, lest we be caught off guard by any of it.

Carnival of Souls works in the complete opposite direction; it seems to get sadistic glee out of intentionally posing questions for us, and then leaving them to permanently dangle in midair.  It also seems to enjoy going out of its way to ensure that there is no neat or tidy explanation; the internet is chockfull of theories as to what exactly happens, and while there are some completely fascinating ones, even the best of them can be refuted by a single scene.

This mindset, paired up with some nightmarish imagery, and a complete disregard for structuring, makes this a jarring, almost experimental work.  It’s one of those rare low-budget horror movies that would have only been hindered with a larger cash supply, as the minimalist approach suits it well.

It all begins with a drag race:  At a red light, Mary Henry and her two friends are challenged to one.  The other car has two men in it, but what starts off as a friendly battle quickly turns to tragedy, when Mary’s car veers off a bridge—despite the desperate rescue attempts of passersby, and eventually the local authorities, there are no signs of life.  Well, until what appears to be an hour or so later, when Mary somehow stumbles out of the water, shaken up but otherwise in perfect health.

She quits her job as a church organist, and sets her sights on a similar job in Utah.  Along the way, she becomes drawn to an abandoned pavilion, which served as a carnival several years ago.  She can’t get the place out of her head, nor can she shake a ghostly white figure that appears to her at random times, yet that no one else can see.  Did she trade her sanity for survival…or did she even survive at all?

The writing is surprisingly pretty solid for such a low-budget work.  There were several witty one-liners that got me laughing, and the interplay between Mary and John Linden, a neighbor who desperately wants to “court” her, gradually grew on me.  I also appreciate how writers Herk Harvey (who also directed) and John Clifford seem to go out of their way to create an indecipherable mess of a story, which makes for a lively topic of debate long after the movie has ended.

But its stark, black-and-white photography is what elevates this beyond most genre fare; this success rests on the shoulders of cinematographer Maurice Prather, who worked mainly on educational features prior to lensing Carnival of Souls.  Given his background, that makes the end result that much more fascinating; George A. Romero has gone on record saying the photography in this movie was a huge influence on Night of the Living Dead, another landmark horror film.

As for whether or not this movie is “scary”, I can only say what it did, or what it did not do, for me; I was never “scared”, at least in a traditional sense, though there were a couple scenes that filled me with an almost inexplicable creepiness, or a growing sense of dread.  Yet it seemed to cast a spell on me; I was thoroughly engaged through the whole thing.  Even when I had no idea what the hell was going on, I was still completely absorbed in its world--which walks the line between reality, and dreamscape—and I didn’t ever want to leave.  It’s been a long time since a movie has effected me in this way.

The biggest downside was the poor audio quality of the version I saw, which made it very hard to hear clearly.  The beginning also had some awful dubbing (the words didn’t even sync up with the moving mouth), but it seemed to get better as it went on, because I didn’t notice a problem again.  It might also have been with the version I saw, which was a public domain print on a very popular video website; I have no doubts that DVD versions would be much crisper.

RECAP: Carnival of Souls is fantastic, a rare example of a low-budget horror film that is not only unhindered due to its frugal financing, but thrives because of it.  The photography is exceptional, and plays a large part in creating a world that is part waking dream, part nightmare; it is nevertheless always engrossing.  It has also influenced countless filmmakers, including George Romero, for his own Night of the Living Dead, which was produced 6 years later.  An absolute must see for horror fans.

RATING: 9/10

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