Carnival of Souls
by Herk Harvey
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Actor: Art Ellison, Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Stan LevittDirector: Herk Harvey
Brand: Alpha Video
Editor: Dan Palmquist
Editor: Bill de Jarnette
Cinematographer: Maurice Prather
Producer: Herk Harvey
Writer: Herk Harvey
Editor: Herbert L. Strock
Writer: John Clifford
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 78 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
DVD Reviews of Carnival of Souls
DVD Review: Sound and Music Tell the Story
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best things about Carnival of Souls is the way the sound and music create the film's atmosphere. The first organ chords that open the film with shots of the river's murky surface foreshadow a later diegetic appearance of the same music. The magnified sound of the boards of the fateful wooden bridge ratchet up the eeriness of the mood, and echo the distorted sound of Mary Henry's footsteps when, toward the end, in her last terrified flight through the town, the clacking of her heels on the street takes on a strange and unreal rhythm.
After the accident, we see Mary Henry from above, from the point of view of the crowd on the bridge. She crawls out of the muddy water where the police have been dragging for the car, which had earlier plunged from the bridge. This is the first of many times that she is viewed from an overhead angle. The second time we see her from such a height is at the organ manufacturing warehouse, from the balcony where several of the workers, lured away from their various jobs as if hypnotized by her music, have gathered to see her practicing. In this scene we learn that she is leaving for Salt Lake City to take a job as a church organist. The installation supervisor wishes her luck, and tells her: Put your soul into it a little OK? (Spot the low-budget dialog, OK...?)
An interesting sound device occurs next in the car, en route to Salt Lake City. We discover that the music we hear is not coming from the radio as we had thought, because as she turns the dials, nothing happens. The source of the music appears puzzling to her as well. Hilligoss is stunning here - crazy-eyed, her face in ECU lit by otherworldly light.
The film was made in 1962, and so we never see a pack of Marlboros or a can of Pepsi. But when Mary Henry arrives at the rooming house in Salt Lake City and we meet the landlady, Mrs. Thomas, she happens to be carrying a can of Ajax - quite amusing!
Most of the scenes are tense as Mary is often in claustrophobic spaces: inside her car, or with the cloying Mr. Linden, the neighbor, who continually forces into her space with his hands, face, and body. Later, the minister too crowds her in the blocked area behind the organ. The first peaceful scene is the one where she first visits the abandoned fairground, which inexplicably draws her. Again we see her from high above when she enters the pavilion.
Probably the most important scene in the film occurs when Mary visits the empty church to practice. She starts out with all the correct organ music, pauses to look at her hands as if they don't belong to her, and resumes. But now the music changes. It becomes the haunted carnivalesque score building on what we'd heard briefly in the opening scene. Gene Moore is credited with the music, and it's superb! Has anything been written anywhere about this? (Did it influence the opening of Led Zeppelin's "Your Time is Gonna Come"?) She's become one with the organ, and we see her bare feet floating over the pedals, rows of choir robes shiver disembodied on their hangers, we see images of clouds over the moon then reflected in the water, saints frozen in the stained glass, and dancers in the pavilion in compressed time. I think this is really an amazing cinematic moment! It ends when the minister bursts on this scene, horrified. He's heard all this, and shrieks: Profane! Sacrilege! He blurts out that he pities her for her "lack of soul" and instantly banishes her from the church, firing her from her job as church organist forever.
There is a particularly sublime shot in the film to watch for. It occurs in the scene of Mary Henry's final visit to the pavilion. There is a long shot of the ballroom dancers in the dark pavilion, embracing and motionless, entangled with the long dangling streamers. This is count one. Counts two, three, and four occur like this: the strings of lights illuminate, the music starts, and the dancers begin. The lights, the music, and the motion occur with a cadence so deliberate and careful as though counted out by metronome, and as if to suggest that everything will happen in order, as it should. No need to hurry, no need to run. This time we see Mary from a low angle, the sky behind her instead of the ground.
Description of Carnival of Souls
Platform: DVD MOVIE Publisher: ALPHA VIDEO Packaging: DVD STYLE BOX An introverted church organ player named Mary (Candice Hilligoss) mysteriously emerges onto a river bank dazed and uninjured hours after a serious car accident. Mary is pursued by a terrifying ghoulish apparition beckoning her. Although she tries to run from this grinning stalker and the nightmarish goings-on in an old pavilion there is no escaping the fate that awaits her. It is nearly impossible to watch this film and not be haunted by its combination of music silence and imagery. For nearly four decades Carnival of Souls has been a classic of low-budget horror. It is most amazingly the first and only feature film made by director Herk Harvey and writer John Clifford.Starring: Candace HilligossDirected by: Herk HarveyScreenplay by: John Clifford DVD Details: Run Time: 78 minutesNumber of Discs: 1Originally Released in 1962Black & WhiteNo region encoding; For global distribution.Bestsellers in DVD
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