Carnival of Souls (1962)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

In producer/director Herk Harvey's (his sole feature film) disturbing, low-budget independent horror film, the spooky and haunting cult zombie classic was notable for its many effective and foreboding scenes of stylistic terror. It masterfully portrayed the psychological despair and loneliness of a lost young woman who then began to have visions of a ghostly netherworld. A story written by both Harvey and his script-writer John Clifford resulted in the film.

It has been acknowledged by George A. Romero that this film inspired the first of his "Dead" series of zombie films - Night of the Living Dead (1968). In homage to the film, it was remade by director Adam Grossman and was originally titled Wes Craven Presents Carnival of Souls (1998).

The plot of the macabre B-movie, often praised for Maurice Prather's atmospheric cinematography, was very similar to the late January, 1960 30-minute TV episode of The Twilight Zone titled "The Hitch-Hiker" (with Inger Stevens), and also to the short French film Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961). Its plot twist resembled many other films about death-dreams ("It was all a dream") and/or hallucinatory fantasies at the point of death (or in purgatory).

With a budget of only 33,000ドル dollars and shot in three weeks time on location in Kansas and Utah, this early amateurish horror-zombie-mystery film took years to gain a solid cult audience (through midnight and drive-in showings, and late-night TV broadcasts). The film was re-released and re-evaluated by the late 1980s with the release of a restored version in 1989 and film-festival and theatrical showings, and further DVD releases in the 2000s.

• in the film's opening sequence set in rural Kansas, young Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss in her film debut) with her two girlfriends (Sharon Scoville and Mary Ann Harris) were goaded by a male drag racer (Larry Sneegas) and his buddy into a speed race along winding back country roads
• the contest resulted in the car (holding three females in the car's front seat) crashing off a bridge into a muddy river and landing upside down; as the males looked down at the car in the water, the text of the title screen floated in and out and rippled, followed by further slanted and disoriented credits shown over the background

• a search party was organized to locate the submerged car but failed to find anything after three hours, and it was presumed that all three occupants of the car had drowned; but then mysteriously, the barefoot, bedraggled and very muddy Mary emerged unscathed and unharmed from the water (but didn't appear wet) and climbed up a sandy embankment; it appeared that she was the sole crash survivor (?); however, she was very disoriented and unable to answer questions after the horrific car accident
• as the story progressed after her near-fatal incident, Mary demonstrated her playing skill on a gigantic pipe organ as the organ factory boss (Tom McGinnis), a carpenter (Forbes Caldwell) and others listened; she learned that an organ made in the factory had been acquired by a church in the Salt Lake City area of Utah that was looking for a new church organist; Mary had already inquired about employment, and was planning to relocate, but told the boss that she wasn't religious: "It's just a job for me"; he offered some words of advice: "It takes more than intellect to be a musician. Put your soul into it a little, okay?"; she vowed: "I'm never coming back"
• she took one last drive over the bridge where the accident happened before leaving town; while on the trip, Mary listened to a music station, but as she crossed into Utah and it turned dark, she scanned her radio dial and was only able to tune into ominous and unsettling organ music (by composer Gene Moore) that apparently wasn't from the air waves but was playing in her head
• she experienced one of many weird, disturbing, and creepy visions of a ghostly figure (a recently dead zombie?); a ghoulish Spectral Man (director Harvey) with darkened eye sockets and a deathly pale face first glared at her with an eerie stare through the passenger window; she also viewed him through her front windshield standing in the middle of the road; the shocking sight of him caused her to veer off the road; however, she was still able to proceed onward
• after stopping for gas in the twilight hours, Mary asked the attendant (Dan Palmquist) about a lakeside structure she had noticed a few miles away; he told her about the history of the "pretty ritzy place in the old days"; now, it was an abandoned, condemned, and closed-down salt-water bathhouse and Pavilion dance hall that had also become a carnival-amusement park at one time [Note: The Pavilion was in Salt Lake City's Saltair Amusement Park first built in 1893 on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake, and rebuilt multiple times due to fire. The spooky locale was often abandoned due to the receding lake and changing economic conditions and tastes.]
• as he pointed out into the darkness, the scene transitioned to her entry into an apartment in a rooming house in town; she had paid a week's rent to a pleasant landlady Mrs. Thomas (Frances Feist); there was only one other tenant across the hall - John Linden (Sidney Berger); as Mary unpacked her suitcase, she caught another brief glimpse of the Spectral Man stalking her outside her window, but then the figure disappeared
• the next day, she visited a local church to inquire about the job opening she had already heard about; she spoke to the Minister (Art Ellison) about becoming their new church organist; as she played the organ (for practice) located in the rear balcony of the church, the Spectral Man entered the downstairs rear of the church and looked up; afterwards, she accepted a ride from the Minister who suggested that she stop and look at the lakeside Pavilion, but once they were there, he warned her to not enter through the barrier fence; the area was gated and off-limits, and he warned that it was unsafe and entry would risk breaking the law by trespassing
• Mary returned back to the rooming house, where she was interrupted while taking a bath by her neighbor John Linden (Sidney Berger); he revealed his creepy personality by spying on her after her bath, and by being pushy and aggressively asking her out for dinner, and commenting upon how lonesome her room looked; she rejected his unwanted advances

• in the hallway, Mary was spooked when she saw the pale-faced Spectral Man in the foyer at the bottom of the rooming house's stairway, stalking her again; after she reported the figure to the landlady who brought her coffee and a sandwich, Mrs. Thomas claimed that Mary must have been envisioning things in the old and "creaky" house and that it was all in her imagination: ("There is no other. Me and you and Mr. Linden"); later that evening in bed (with organ music on the soundtrack), Mary feared being alone with lightning crackling and thunder booming; as she stood by her window, her thoughts were directed back toward the Pavilion

• the next day early in the morning, she was again pestered by John Linden who brought coffee and two cups into her room; Mary explained her new job as a professional church organist but that she wasn't necessarily a "church woman"; she also shared that she had the "strangest feeling" during the previous dark and "lost night": ("In the dark, your fantasies get so out of hand"); after getting-to-know-each-other conversation and claiming he was a "happy" warehouse worker, he suggested more time later with her: ("You're gonna need me in the evenin' too. You just don't know it yet")
• during a visit to a department store in town to buy a dress from a saleslady (Pamela Ballard), after trying on some dresses, Mary experienced a moment in the dressing room when she became disconnected, withdrawn and detached from reality; she tried speaking to the saleslady but was entirely ignored; she asked herself: "What's the matter with everyone? Why don't they answer me?"; she was invisible and inaudible to others in the store and seemed to be caught between the real world and a dream-world
• outside the store on the sidewalk, she also seemed to be unnoticed and she couldn't hear sounds; but then under a tree in a nearby park, she began to hear birds chirping and other sounds of city life; Mary was relieved that things seemed to be normal again; however, as she leaned down at a drinking fountain, a black-suited man approached and scared her away; frightened, she told another bystander that a strange man had been following her: "It was that man. That man! There was someone else there! That strange man was there!" - but the man at the fountain wasn't the ghoulish, black-suited apparition she had been envisioning or hallucinating about earlier; the 2nd bystander, who identified himself as a physician, held onto Mary and urged her: "Hysteria won't solve anything. Now control yourself...You've had a shock. If you would like my assistance, I'll be glad to offer it"
• during an office consultation (across the street) with the physician who identified himself as Dr. Samuels (Stan Levitt), Mary explained what had happened in the dress-shop: ("It was more than just not being able to hear anything, or make contact with anyone. It was as though, as though for a time I didn't exist. As though I had no place in the world, no part of the life around me"; he suggested that her hysterical fears or worries were possibly a result of her recent car-crash trauma and injury - ("a serious emotional shock"), and could just be in her imagination: ("Our imaginations play tricks on us. They often misinterpret what we see and hear"); Mary admitted that she didn't care for "the close company of other people...I don't seem capable of being very close to people"; Dr. Samuels confessed that he wasn't a psychiatrist but still wanted to attempt to figure out her mental state; it was possible that the black-suited man was symbolic of a "guilt feeling" that she had
• the strong-willed Mary suspected that her persistent visions of the dark figure tracking her might be associated with the strange but deserted Pavilion outside of town; she hastily proposed returning there to confront her fears, but upon visiting, she found nothing unusual, although it was eerily vacant and spooky
• during organ practice in the church in the early evening as she played a traditional hymn, she suddenly found herself compelled to play an eerie musical piece; trance-like, she also experienced more visions of the man (with darkened eye sockets) and other similar-looking souls rising up from under the water, and then twirling around as they danced in the Pavilion; as the Spectral Man left the dancers and approached Mary to strangle her, she realized that the Minister's hands had grabbed her hands as she was playing the organ; he was so appalled by her offensive music selection (calling it "profane" and a "sacrilege") that he forced her to resign her job: ("I'm afraid you cannot be our organist"

• having lost her job and scared of being alone, Mary found her sleazy neighboring lodger John waiting for her outside the church; he insisted on taking her to a nightclub and bar for the evening, and was upset that she didn't like the loud dance music or the drinking; once back in her room, he drunkenly pressured her to be with him, but she rejected his crude and unwanted assaultive attacks; Mary experienced another phantom vision of the ghoulish man reflected in her dresser's large mirror; she became crazed and hysterical, and scared John off thinking that she was possessed (he called her "some girl who's off her rocker")
• for the remainder of the night, the insanely-behaving Mary rearranged her room's furniture to block all entry points, causing her baffled and worried landlady Mrs. Thomas to share her worries with Dr. Samuels the next morning; the landlady watched as Mary vacated her room with her luggage, and advised her that she wouldn't be refunded any of her pre-paid rent
• Mary drove off to leave town, but immediately experienced transmission problems with her car; she drove into a gas station in town for repairs, where she insisted on remaining in the car as it was hoisted up in the air on a hydraulic lift; in the film's sole "dream-within-a-dream" sequence, while the attendant took care of a gas customer, she dozed off; she heard footsteps and hurriedly locked all the doors; as she leaned against the passenger door, it opened and she fell out - but the car had already been mysteriously lowered back down in the dark garage by "the Man"; she ran off down the street and frantically entered a bus station; she again felt invisible and couldn't hear any sounds in her quasi-parallel universe; the ticket attendant and others didn't hear or notice her when she asked for directions and inquired about bus information
• she ran onto an eastbound departing Greyhound bus from Gate 9 that was loudly announced by a monotone voice on the PA system, but was horrified that the occupants on the bus - the same otherworldly apparitions that she had seen dancing in the Pavilion during organ practice - grabbed at her and chased after her (to the accompaniment of non-stop organ music); she couldn't get the attention of a motorcycle cop or a taxi-cab driver; she cried out: "Why can't anybody hear me?"
• Mary returned to the park that she had visited earlier after shopping for dresses, and was relieved that things again appeared normal; she returned to Dr. Samuel's office, but screamed in reaction when the doctor - actually the black-suited "Man" with his back to her - swiveled his high-backed chair around to reveal himself; it was then suddenly shown that Mary actually awakened in fright and was still sitting in the car on the garage station's lift (it had been lowered) - and everything had been a nightmarish day-dream
• she pulled out of the station and was inexorably drawn to drive toward the Pavilion; at this point in the story, she was lured to enter into the shadowy Pavilion's ballroom during a macabre party; she again envisioned ghoulish souls rising up in the salty water; and then inside the decaying dance hall, the lights turned on and she again saw a surreal "dance of death" performed by zombie-like ghouls or souls (a "carnival of souls") that she had already seen in her visions and on the bus; the dead spirits were twirling around as dance partners; Mary literally entered into the world of the dead; Mary realized that her actual dead doppelganger or double was dancing with the ghoulish Spectral Man

• she screamed in fright and ran off - as the camera motion was sped up while the soundtrack was distorted with laughter; she was chased by many of the undead, dark-eyed dancing partners all around the Pavilion and then to the beach, where she fell down in the sand during the pursuit - her collapsed body was completely surrounded by the heads of the zombies staring down upon her as the screen darkened

• the next day at the Pavilion, Dr. Samuels, the Minister, and the Sheriff went searching for Mary who had mysteriously vanished; the search party surveyed the sand where Mary had fallen, with tracks of footprints in the sand leading up to where she had collapsed - with a large imprint of her body and an opened handprint; however, there was no sign of Mary's body; the Sheriff announced how Mary's car had been found at the Pavilion's gates nearby: (Sheriff: "Her car's still over there, and then there are footprints leading up to here. And then nothing")
  [Note: This scene was the most incongruous one in the film - if her body was examined in Utah, how could it also show up in the last and final scene back in Kansas?]

• in the revelatory final scene's plot twist, back in Kansas, a man in a search boat called out to a tow-truck driver: "The car is right down there. Bring it on up"; he had recovered Mary's submerged car (with Mary's corpse inside along with her two friends in the front seat) - it was partially dredged out of the river; Mary's dreams, imagined visions and trances involving the ghouls in a dance of death were due to her hallucinations during her death experience and entry into the spirit world