Carnival of Souls (1962) review

5. Carnival of Souls (1962)

Directed by: Herk Harvey

Produced by: Herk Harvey

Screenplay by: John Clifford

Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger

If you find carnivals fun, you don’t want to go to this one. “Carnival of Souls” is an independent movie directed by Herk Harvey, who had mainly overseen industrial and educational films before getting the idea to make his own feature, with a budget of only $33,000. It’s about a woman named Mary (Candace Hilligoss) who survives a near-death experience and soon after moves to a new town, only to be disturbed by several mysterious occurrences; they’re mostly centered on an abandoned pavilion that was once a carnival, and a ghoulish, pale-faced figure (Harvey) that haunts her. Its narrative is unclearly vague and the acting somewhat stiff, but the off-beat atmosphere, eerie music and memorable visuals make it a stellar exercise in nontraditional storytelling; this is a great bit of psychological horror.

Beginning in Kansas, we see Mary get into a road race with two other women against a car with two men, that ends disastrously when the women’s car plunges off a bridge into a river. Hours later, Mary emerges alive but has no memory of how. She attempts to resume her life, moving to Salt Lake City to start a new job as a church organist, but struggles to fit in with the world around her, as she’s both disturbed by The Man and pestered by her neighbor John (Sidney Berger), who has the hots for her, all while feeling a powerful draw to this carnival. But things get even stranger, as she sometimes has episodes where nobody can see or hear her and sees visions of dancing ghouls as her organist skills are disrupted, perhaps by something beyond her physical control.

What’s interesting about this movie is that it has a lot of familiar setups; the main character sees things that make them question their reality, there’s a location with sort of a mystic aura to it, and even the payoff isn’t especially original, at least if you’re familiar with the works of Ambrose Bierce. But the way it’s edited and shot creates such an uncomfortable mood, like you’re in a similar state of delirium and paranoia. One of the only people Mary connects with is John, and it’s not even a pleasant bond; he acts like a creep most of the time, often being manipulative when she rebuffs his more overt advances. The film knows how to make you feel uncomfortable as a viewer; concepts like seeing ghosts and even making the protagonist think they’re a ghost aren’t new, but the pacing and cinematography make some of these moments truly disturbing. Think about this, the idea of seeing a bunch of undead spirits sitting on a bus is kind of silly, right? But when it happens here, it actually makes me go, “Oh, shit.”

Gene Moore’s score is another aspect that sells the vibe; I’ve always thought organ music was fundamentally creepy, and the way it’s blended with this imagery is pitch perfect; the visual of The Man rising out of the water dripping in muck and looking like death itself just fills you with anxiety. Most of the actors are amateurs with few credits to their name, and they range from fine to awkward, but in a way it kind of helps make everything feel slightly off, like nothing is as it should be. Candace Hilligoss does solid work as Mary; I buy her scenes of confusion and terror, while also being more active than a common wallflower. Everyone in general is photographed well, which is a testament to Harvey using what little they had with various guerrilla filmmaking techniques like quick takes on location and paying off locals. There isn’t much focus on the story, it mainly just uses the opening as a jumping off point for a lot of experimental set pieces and concepts, and it’s really damn good at it.

“Carnival of Souls” is a movie I wanted to watch for a long time but just hadn’t gotten around to; coming off the heels of something like “Psycho” or the ongoing series of Hammer Horror films and Edgar Allen Poe adaptations that either had more lavish scenery or were pushing the content envelope, this is a much humbler project. But it uses what it has in a most effective manner, with a story just murky enough to still feel interesting while never losing sight of its strengths. The movie was mostly ignored at the box office, and the US release didn’t even include a copyright notice, so it’s public domain over here. But around the late 1980s, it started finding an audience, both with the avant-garde crowd and in the mainstream, to the point of inspiring many legitimate names like David Lynch, George Romero and James Wan. The action might be a little slow and strange at times but stick with it; this is a hell of a ride.

My rating: 9/10