Carnival of Souls (1962)
Directed by Herk Harvey
Sometimes when I do this blog, I get stuck in the vortex of 80s horror, hell even just 80s slashers, but like I’ve said before that’s my passion. This time I wanted to watch some more classic stuff, and in an effort of doing so I was able to check out Carnival of Souls on Tubi (get Tubi!). I haven’t reviewed many older films so I was excited.
Carnival of Souls starts immediately after you hit play, no intro, no production company logo, nothing! I think it kind of adds to the charm of this low budget film. By low budget I’m taking $33,000! Just a heads up I’m going to discuss the movie in its entirety since it is fairly well known an old enough. So SPOILER ALERT! Anyhoo, the movie takes place in Kansas. Two cars full of younger adults are racing each other. A car full of women gets bumped by the other and they go off a bridge into the water. The Police start dragging the water for hours trying to find anything, with no success. One girl finally surfaces from the wreck, Mary. Mary has no idea how she survived and she is practically unscathed. After the wreck, Mary moves to Salt Lake City, Utah where she works as a church organist. While she’s driving her radio picks up strange organ music and she has a vision of a ghoulish man. She ends up seeing an abandoned pavilion off from Great Salt Lake. A local tells her the pavilion was a bathhouse, a dance hall, then a carnival before it was closed. For whatever reason the pavilion seems to be drawing her there. As the movie goes on strange things begin to happen to Mary. A few times she becomes invisible to the people around her, she can walk and talk like normal but it is as if she isn’t there to the others. She begins seeing the ghoulish man over and over, he’s haunting her. Mary seeks the help of a psychiatrist, whom tries to help her find the answers to what is happening to her. She goes back to church to practice her music, and she suddenly shifts to playing the eerie organ music from the pavilion vision. The minister is irate with it and insists that she resigns. Mary talks to her doctor again and she believes she HAS to go to the pavilion, to confront the ghoulish man. Once there she sees numerous ghouls dancing at the carnival area. They turn and start chasing her, she tries to escape on a bus but all the passengers are ghouls. Suddenly she wakes up in her car, it was a dream. She is drawn back to the pavilion where she sees a ghoulish version of herself dancing with the man. When she runs away, they close in on her and she collapses. The following day the doctor, the minister and the police go looking for her. They find her footprints but they end abruptly. Back in Kansas the car is pulled from the river and Mary’s body is in the front seat along with the other girls.
The acting is this movie is fairly good. Candace Hilligoss plays Mary and she is great. Very beautiful woman that did a great job showing pain and suffering on her face throughout the film. The visions of the ghoulish man are creepy as hell. He never speaks a word but the stoic looks and subtle movements are intense. The other characters are there to present Mary, so not much can be said about them. Dr. Samuels is played by Stan Levitt and he gives a decent performance but again the only character that is important is Mary. Funny fact, the ghoulish man is played by Herk Harvey, the director.
With old movies like this, there isn’t much for special effects. The scenes at the carnival are creepy. The old abandoned carnival is the perfect atmosphere for a horror/suspense movie. All the broken-down rides and attractions themselves give a ghostly feel, and when you add in the odd ghoulish beings it is quite unnerving. That’s what this movie truly is, it relies greatly on its atmosphere and unsettling and intense scenes.
Carnival of Souls really is a classic and the fact that it was so low budget but greatly acted and presented is impressive to say the least. I’m surprised to see that Candace Hilligoss only appeared in three movies and two TV shows in her career. She was truly great in this movie. Her emotions and slow slip into madness is felt in every scene. Not only was she beautiful but she was a rather intelligent character, whom reflects on herself numerous times in an attempt to understand the events that are happening in her life. If you like older horror from the early 60s, check out Carnival of Souls it is an important milestone in the genre and deserves some credit. I give this an A-. It isn’t perfect and that may be because of the low budget, but that low budget gives it a certain charm that is missing from big time Hollywood films.
