Carnival of Souls, (1962) is one of those B movies everyone makes fun of, but can’t help watching. If you decide to watch this film, just imagine you are seeing an extended episode of the “The Twilight Zone.” I remember when I was a little girl seeing this movie, it haunted me for days. Although the movie was done on a shoestring, it is scary, and director, Herk Harvey does a fine job with it.
The movie opens up with a group of young people drag racing, if you want to call going 15 miles per hour drag racing; I guess that was the protocol back in the day. Mary Henry (Candice Hilligoss) finds herself on this ominous day on the passenger seat of one of the cars. When the cars race across a bridge Mary and her friends end up crashing into the water below. The credits roll, and then we see Mary’s ghostly like figure rising from under the water. She is pale, wet, and appears cold, but alive.
Although poor Mary is alive her troubles have only just begun. Mary is a church organist, and is offered a job in Utah. She packs up her little things and moves. On her drive to Utah in her beat up car, in a lonely and dark country road, she begins to see a pale, ghastly man. When she arrives in Utah, the ghastly man appears everywhere she goes and torments her relentlessly. The ghastly man, turns out, has friends, these zombie-like creatures who also pursue Mary. They beckon her to come to the other side. They dance a waltz to eerie, dark music, in an abandoned carnival that Mary is summoned to. As they dance, they smile at each other as if celebrating the new member, Mary.
Mary seeks help from people, but all think she has lost her mind. She continues to have flashes in which everything around her goes completely silent. As if for moments, she breaks the barrier between life and death. When she enters the silent world, she appears like a spirit in limbo. She cries out to people in the street, but they don’t hear her. Mary realizes she is caught between two worlds and must escape death’s grip. But can she?
The movie has campy dialogue, but the camera work is incredible. Shots of the organ and ghouls are eerie. The organ playing through out the film was a little too much, but tells a morose, dark, and eerie story. Hillgross’ performance was good, not Oscar worthy, but good. She captured the spirit of a detached, cold, & isolated young woman caught between two worlds. The guy who plays her neighbor drove me crazy. A pervert no one would want next door. Although Hillgross was the only real actor in the movie, the fact that the other characters were not fully developed adds to this film. They are like people in a dream, much like the dream Mary is in. OK, it’s a B movie, but it is scary in terms of mood, & setting, and well worth the watch. I must warn you, you may just not get up from this dream.
