Movies - Carnival of Souls

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	Movies - Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls is a black and white horror cult film released in 1962. Produced and directed by Herk Harvey for $33,000, the movie, which varies in length from 78 to 84 minutes depending on the edition, never gained widespread public attention, though supporters claim that it strongly influenced the work of filmmakers such as George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead
), Tim Burton (Beetlejuice
), and David Lynch (Mulholland Drive). The basic plot is a variation of the classic Ambrose Bierce short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Set to an organ score by Gene Moore and shot in a surrealistic style reminiscent of the work of Jean Cocteau, Carnival of Souls relies more on atmosphere than on special effects to create its mood of horror.

Lawrence, Kansas-based Herk Harvey was a director and producer of industrial and educational films for the Centron Corporation. During a visit to Salt Lake City, he developed the idea for a variation of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge involving the elaborate, abandoned SaltAir Pavilion, which made a strong impact on him. Hiring an up-and-coming actress (Lee Strasberg-trained Candace Hilligoss) and otherwise employing mostly local talent, he shot Carnival of Souls in a few weeks in Lawrence and Salt Lake City. Given the movie’s extremely low budget and Harvey’s inexperience with the genre, the film contains a considerable amount of plot problems, bad dialogue, cheap effects, continuity errors, and techniques that reveal Harvey’s industrial film background. But Harvey, with his vision, manages to transcend all of these flaws to present a film replete with little strokes of genius and a basic concept that many find quite unsettling. Given better distribution, Carnival of Souls would surely have become a better-known film. Its revival, first on late-night local television, then on videocassette, now on high-quality re-mastered Criterion Collection and Off Color Films DVDs, has made it not only a seminal work in the horror film genre but a cult classic.

Plot Overview

The film tells the story of Mary Henry, a talented young organist (Hilligoss). At the film’s beginning, the car in which Mary is riding, driven by a young lady who some boys in a nearby car challenge to a drag race, plunges off a bridge and into a river. Although the others in the car die, Mary, a mere passenger, mysteriously survives.

Up to this point, the movie has all the appearances of being a picture-piece for safe driving, and how young men and women should not go racing. But then we begin to focus on Mary's character, first as she is drawn back to the scene of the accident, and then as she performs an impromptu concert in an organ factory. While she is obviously a gifted organist, her interaction with the factory supervisor is emotionless and even cold, and there is a suggestion that she has become this way since (and because of) the accident.

Mary then travels to Salt Lake City, where she takes a new job playing organ at a church. While driving there, she passes a large, abandoned pavilion (in reality, Salt Lake City’s Saltair amusement park), which seems to beckon to her in the twilight. Shortly thereafter, while driving along a deserted stretch of road, she sees an apparition: a deformed, ghoulish figure (aka the Man, played by director Herk Harvey) whose image replaces her reflection in the passenger window. He stares at her fixedly through the window of her moving car until her own image returns.

As the film progresses, Mary becomes acquainted with her new landlady and a lecherous, sinister fellow tenant (played by Sidney Berger, now University of Houston School of Theatre Director). Again and again, her reflection is replaced with the Man's image. At the same time, she continues to see visions of the Man that are no longer confined to mirrors or window reflections. Although no one else is aware of his presence, she begins to experience terrifying moments when she herself becomes invisible and inaudible to the rest of the world, as if she simply isn’t there.

The dynamic soon becomes one of her suspension between the regular world and the world of the Man, or, more bluntly, between the realms of the living and the dead. At times she holds herself aloof from her fellow boarder, clearly repulsed by his carnal desires; at others she seems to encourage his advances. At one moment she seems in control of her life, dismissive of anything supernatural (including the possible salvation of religion); at the next she is frightened of the unknown, beyond the help of science (in the person of a doctor from whom she seeks help) and religion (as represented by the minister of the church where she plays).

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