Le Carnaval des âmes

Carnival of souls (1962) is that rare thing in life. An intelligent and genuinely unsettling horror film. Where most horror films go for the obvious effects of gore and leave nothing to the imagination, this film takes a far more subtle approach. The film deals with the story of a withdrawn church organist Mary (Candice Hilligloss) who is involved in a car crash from which she is the only survivor. She then finds herself being pursued by a strange ghoulish looking man and has episodes where it appears no one around her can see or hear her. This leads to a startling revelation for Mary at the old abandoned Carnival in the desert.

What makes this film so good is its eerie atmosphere and the strong visual influence of German expressionist cinema, mixed with some pretty good photography (for such a low budget) and good performances from a mainly non-professional cast, results in a fine example of how to unnerve an audience without big budgets and special effects.

The film can also be seen as being a major influential on other such films as David Lynch's Eraserhead (1976) and George Romero's Night of the living dead (1968).

This film of Herk Harvey is a gem of cult, a unique product, considering that the director never would film again due to the commercial failure of this prime opera. A true pity, since from the titles we are in front of an absolutely original and punctilious piece of work, as much in the aesthetic aspect as in casting and the production. A calm little town as many in the average American west, in the early ' 60s. A race cars between boys and girls that finishes in tragedy. The car of the young people falls from a bridge to the river and apparently all suffocates. But Mary Henry leaves the water. Later she obtains a solitary job as an organist in the church of a near town. Her life seems to take control again , when Mary begins to have strange visions of macabre figures... but her will is put under taste more .Mary is a cold of great clear eyes, independent and distant blonde; . In fact, the personage of Mary is few years subsequent to the one of the blondes of Psychosis and Vertigo, even a doctor appears who does the times of psychiatrist, who resembles films of the great British director again. and three years previous to the one of Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion, of Polanski;(the personal style of the film it just remains me o a Polanski film,I wonder if he saw this movie) been compared to Wild Strawberries-era Ingmar Bergman and the dreamstates of Jean Cocteau. Nevertheless, the carnival of the souls has with all these titles a great climate affinity and characters; . I cannot say more; The carnival of the souls is dream like, hypnotic, frightful per moments, always disquieting is a total experience. Notice the ballroom scene of the macabre people(In fast motion). Shot on location in and around the spectacular Saltair pavilion (since destroyed by fire), and the soundtrack is pretty creepy too.

Not many people know of this film, surprisingly--this is one of the most intelligently constructed and atmospheric horror (for lack of a better term) movies of all time. Whenever I do run across someone else who has seen this film, there is an instantaneous, unspoken understanding in regards to the enduring creepiness of this film.

My first viewing of COS occurred when I had inexplicably awoke in the middle of the night as a boy and switched on the TV. I had missed the opening minutes, but was powerfully drawn into the story. I sat transfixed until the shock ending, and think I just stared until after the sign off and following screen static. The next day I was not entirely sure I had actually watched this film or dreamed it--nobody else had ever heard of it and I never did catch the title (for some reason, its never shown much). Needless to say I was creeped out for days! Films that can affect one's sensibilities like this are golden! Find it and watch it in the middle of the night--alone.

Carnival of Souls (from 1962, not the unrelated 1998 movie with the same name) is an (admittedly obscure) art-house classic. Shot in high-contrast black-and-white, on a miniscule budget, it has an eerie, dreamlike quality throughout perhaps reminiscent of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion".

Although the lead Candace Hilligoss had acted before, many of the supporting players were not professionals and some of the locations were worked into the film simply because they were available (for example the deserted funfair, apparently located in Salt Lake City). The director Herk Harvey, who had worked on educational shorts before directing this feature, makes a cameo appearance as one of the "dancing dead" at the funfair towards the end of the movie.

One of a kind, and recommended.

Title: Carnival of Souls (1962)

Director: Herk Harvey

Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Tom McGinnis

Review: I love going back in time while watching old horror films. I love to see what scared people in different eras and times. Some people completely dismiss old films just because they are old. I relish the moment when I can find an obscure gem and just indulge in it. Sometimes I find a true classic like when I saw White Zombie for the first time...sometimes I find a dud like when I saw the original 13 Ghosts. This time around in my humble opinion I have found a really creepy and surreal film in director Herk Harveys Carnival of Souls.

The story is about this girl called Mary who gets involved in a car accident in which she emerges completely unharmed. All her friends die, but she is left in a perfect state. She decides to move to a new town to start anew. She takes a job in a church as a "profesional organist" and moves into a new place. Unfortunately she begins seeing a ghostly apparition and she is strangely attracted by the spooky abandoned amusement park near her new home. What horrors await for her inside? And why is she seeing these visions? This film has a few faults in various departments. For one, I thought that the editing in the movie really sucked. You'll notice little skips here and there in the continuity of the film, it doesn't flow fluidly. It hits a few speed bumps along the way. The sound was also a bit atrocious at times, I could barely make out what they were saying in certain parts at the beginning of the film. But somehow...in spite of all of its flaws this movie had me reeled in from the get go.

The character of Mary is likable so I felt like sticking with her and seeing where she was going to end up. I liked her attitude about her job in church just "being a job". She didn't take religion seriously and I was like "whoa, there's a girl with a head on her shoulders!". Anyhows, I kept watching and things began to get a whole lot more interesting as the film progressed. Its one of those films that has a bad start (mainly because of its technical faults) but as it goes on it gets really good.

I loved the strange location they used to shoot the old abandoned amusement park. Apparently there really was an abandoned amusement park in the middle of nowhere and they shot part of the movie there! The director was wise to take advantage of this location and shoot the hell out of it. It has a real isolated feel to it. You can tell, it really is in the middle of nowheresville. So that added to the feeling of creepyness and isolation. Specially seeing Mary going into it all by herself.

Once the spooks join in on the story, well things get really nightmarish. And heres where the film won its classic status for me. The images that the film conjures up, specially towards the last half of the film are some of the most surreal, nightmarish I have seen on screen. And to top things off, its all in black and white which adds another layer of spookiness to the whole affair.

As I watched it I thought to myself, man, this director was really ahead of his time! And he was! He managed to make some truly haunting imagery all the way back in 1962! Sadly because the critics shot this movie down, he never made more feature films. He did manage to make a lot of educational documentaries. But no more movies.

So if you are up from some truly spooky surreal images that feel like something that came out of your worst nightmares, go rent this baby. Just remember it has a few imperfections here and there, but once you get through the rough stuff, you'll get to what really matters. Those spooky ass visions filled with ghosts and ghouls! Sweet Dreams! Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5