Customer Reviews

Carnival of Souls

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When I saw a copy of Carnival of Souls together with Night of the Living Dead for a measly buck, I figured I would go ahead and take advantage. After all, I could always use a backup copy of Night of the Living Dead, and this Carnival of Souls looked good for laughs. So I bought the set, having a bit of change on me, and that night I readied myself for some fun.

When I put Carnival of Souls into the player, I was at first a bit unimpressed. I mean, nothing really happened that related to any sort of plot. Then, about 25 minutes into the film I started feeling very uneasy, a feeling I was unfamiliar with in film with the exception of Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. the story is simple, to put it short a woman survives a car accident, and delves into a dissolute surrealistic nightmare.

The surreal atmosphere, the sudden realizations of fear, and the general feel of the film gave a VERY foreboding atmosphere, which haunted me the entire following week. The film is just so foreboding, I could not help but remain uneasy, even the second time around.

The film also was also fairly technically impressive, at least more so then I thought. This film had come six years before George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, but the use of camera is very similar, and it is very evident that Romero has been influenced by this film's direction. It is a shame that Herk Harvey did not expand on his talent, this is his only feature, yet there is nothing amateur about it. It is very advanced considering what it is, and I was overtly impressed with it.

I suppose Carnival of Souls could, and maybe should warrant an 8/10, I gave it 7/10, but it is truly an original film, and one that I feel holds up very well in the present day. I think it is a must see for fans of surrealism, horror, or just experiences.

Carnival of Souls is a perfect example of how a film can be brilliant and entertaining without a big budget. Originally made for just $33,000 in 1962, you would never guess viewing this film that it was a low budget independent film. The creative energy of those that made this film is rather startling. The director, the screenwriter, musical score writer, and the actors all did a fantastic job in creating a film akin to catching lightning in a bottle. There is something uniquely special about this film that is difficult to describe.

However, I would suggest that there are four primary reasons:

1. The musical score of this film is absolutely fabulous, and adds a huge factor to the eeriness of the film. Written by Gene Moore, the sound score is wonderful. A professional presentation it there ever was one, it could hold up with any big budget film sound score. The use of the organ music conveying the different moods of the film is exceptional.

2. The screenplay by John Clifford is simply above average for a horror film. Centred around the main character of Mary, the film brings in the viewer to experience with Mary the foreboding terror that awaits her.

3. The actress who plays Mary, Candace Hilligoss, is a professionally trained actress with talent and ability. The film needed an actress with ability to carry this film, otherwise it would have failed. A beautiful woman, Hilligoss does a great job of conveying the disorientation and confusion of her character. It is one of those curiosities in film history that she never did any other movies of note after this film.

4. Finally, the director and visionary of this remarkable film, Herk Harvey. A director of documentaries prior to doing this film, this was the first and last feature that he ever directed. His ability to make this film work, particularly in regard to the atmosphere and mood of this film, is great artistic inspiration. However, the most impressive thing about his contribution to this film was his ability, irrespective of the low budget he was working with, to recruit the talents of Moore, Clifford, and Hilligoss to work on this film.

A truly great film of the horror genre.

I am reviewing this item not for the feature (as I already reviewed this excellent film a while back), I am reviewing the Criterion Special Edition DVD, which is a two-disc set packed and
loaded with tones of special features. The first disc contains the original theatrical version which director Herk Harvey edited some sequences and scenes out. The first disc also contains a really neat look back on the film in a 1989 documentary "The Movie That Wouldn't Die". There is also a very neat extra of 45 minutes of rare outtakes seen for the first time, and accompanied by the eerie organ music of Gene Moore. Some rare songs not heard in the original movie are here for your scary enjoyment. There is also a theatrical trailer feature.
A very interesting look back on the locations for Carnival of Souls is included, and it talks about the history of the Saltair Resort, which has a very magnificent history and was used for the carnival location, this is an illustrated history.

On the second disc, there is a director's cut of the film, including some scenes not even shown on the VHS "director's cut" editions. One scene that is most notably absent from the original
is the scene where the priest talks to the church carpenter about how strange Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is. This disc also contains a selected audio commentary by screenwriter John Clifford and the late Herk Harvey. Some excerpts of films made by the Centron Corporation. As well as an essay on the history of Centron. Some printed interviews with film illustrations are featured here as well.

This DVD-set is the best DVD-set I've ever seen. The image quality of the black and white transfer is unbelievably clear, and is the best image transfer I've ever seen. The special features are very cool, and believe it or not, the outtakes featured here are remastered in picture quality as well, along with the music score.

I was blown away with this DVD, and I'm sure you will be too. It is one of the best treatments to a cult classic every put on screen. I am so pleased with this DVD-set I could just burst. I thank the Criterion people for making this a dream come true :)

I was hesitant to purchase this film, since I have seen so many flawed, tainted versions of it and been enthralled by the content and yet disappointed by the quality of the presentation. In the end, I found myself trusting the reputation of the Criterion Collection and purchased "Carnival Of Souls", finding it to be one of the finest DVDs I have ever purchased. The price of this DVD is worthy of the film, looking spectacular, crisp, clear, and utterly haunting. I wonder now how Herk Harvey (Director) didn't end up changing the film industry by his methods of film-making. This Criterion Collection version of "Carnival Of Souls" is well worth the price. I can't wait to view it once more!

Candace Hilligoss is beautiful but creepy, the music is creepy, the photography is creepy, the story is creepy and the directing is creepy. One of the all time great horror classics.

This is one you must watch alone in the dark! It's really scary then. Yes you could watch it with a bunch of buds and make fun of it, but when everyone is gone and nobody is around to hold onto, this movie will move in with it's intense atmosphere and shocking conclusion. Definately a must buy!

First saw this movie on tv late one night about 25 years ago. Made an indelible and lasting impression on me. The acting and direction etc. were pretty average but somehow it didn't seem to matter. It was the way the story unfolded that left the mark. Probably best seen without knowing the plot but I will still be getting this one because, in its own way, it is memorable. Along with Julie Harris in the "The Haunting" and Deborah Kerr in "The Innocents" this film has always held a special place in movies that have really physically unsettled me while I was watching them. Definitely dark room, very late, by yourself, viewing. :)

YOUR REVIEWERS NEED TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK. I originally saw this film in SLC about 3 years after it was made. The river may have been in Lawrence, Kansas, but the other scenes are in SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH and at the SALTAIR RESORT on the Great Salt Lake. The scenes at the 'carnival pavillion' are of the SALTAIR ballroom and amusement park. My parents met at a dance there in 1934 when the lake was still high but a small train ride was needed to reach the shore for bathing. Originally you just walked down the stairs to the water. Later the pavillion, still on the original pilings (shown in the next to last scene) was just used as an amusement park. I rode their huge roller coaster in 1956. The lake continued to receed, the roller coaster was blown down twice by high winds and eventually the place was closed. At the time this film was made, my high school friends and I used to sneak in and explore the condemned site. The 'prarie' referred to by one reviewer is in fact the Salt Flats and old beach area. I saw this film when one of several efforts to raise money for restoring SALTAIR was in progress. Arsonists burned the place down eventually. It was a stunninly beautiful place with one of the most beautiful ballrooms of the Victorian Era. We felt it as a huge loss of a city landmark.

Other scenes are in downtown SLC: the church where the heroine plays is an Episcopal church where my best friend got married, the water fountain scene is on the grounds of the City and County Building, NOTE the VERY WIDE STREETS! Salt Lake is known for them. Many of the buildings shown still stand like ZCMI dept. store where the dress scene is taken (you can make out the letters set into the pavement as she exits the store) and Ron Wilson (the tire place with the mechanic) had a Chevrolet Dealership too, the Union Station (train scene) stands but I'm not certain about the Grayhound Depot (the spot where I departed from SLC 30 years ago (though I return for several visits a year.)
I loved "Carnival" when I first saw it and I love it now for both the sites and the story. Which, by the way, recalls Ambrose Bierce's "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge", the French film of which was first aired in the US on The Twilight Zone around the time this film was made.

Ordered this Criterion DVD strictly by the reviews here on Amazon. Would like to say I was not disappointed. I did have the end figured out before the closing frame, as others have indicated, but was still genuinely frightened for what was happening to Mary. It has been said that Candace Hilligoss's performance caused you not to care about the character, however I did not feel that way. It was quite an unsettling experience. As usual, Criterion done an outstanding job on the picture and sound quality, and the box art was really nice. If I were to say anything negative, it would be to ask "Does one really need two versions of the same movie, especially when we're talking a mere 5 minutes?" Highly recommended fright film to anyone who doesn't need buckets of blood, or gallons of gore.

What is it about this film, that makes me want to watch it again and again? It can't be the special effects; they are laughable. It can't be the sound; the dubbing is the worst I've ever seen. It can't be stellar performances by all involved; some of the acting and dialogue are horribly corny.

I think what makes this movie special, what has earned it a cult following, is that it traps the viewer within its own world, a claustrophobic, washed-out black and white world, a world on the edge of twilight heading inexorably toward an eternal darkness, a world where the heroine is slowly led to her doom, in spite of her desperate attempts to escape. Lots of horror movies try to create this feeling of "no exit" but most try to do it with silly fright gimmicks and fail miserably. This one uses a slowly constricting, strangely palid atmosphere centered on one character's increasingly odd experiences, eerie organ music, excellent cinematography, and an expressionistic landscape (a spider web shuddering on tree branches; a dark, abandoned carnival pavilion seen off on the horizon, a car pulled from a muddy river) to create a surrealistic sense of horror. Candace Hilligoss, who only made this and one other horror film, turns in a stunning performance reminiscent of Kim Novak in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo: distant, vulnerable, refined, yet repressed. It's exactly what was needed here, and it makes her one of the most memorable horror actresses ever, in my book.