by Cynthia C. Scott
Most horror movies nowadays can't seem to feel complete without a
lot of blood and gore to shock young audiences. But any movie that
manages to creep under your skin like a bad dream will inevitably zero
in on the psychological horror that defines modern-day society.
The 1960s horror classic "Carnival of Souls" is just one such
film. Haunting, ethereal, and spooky in all the right ways, "Carnival of
Souls" captures the themes of alienation, loneliness, and sexual
hysteria to near perfection.
Released in 1962, "Carnival of Souls" was the brainchild of
industrial filmmaker Herk Hervey, who got the idea for the movie after
driving through the lonely Utah desert and encountering the Saltair, an
old and abandoned amusement park outside of Salt Lake
City. Hervey directed the film on a shoestring budget (approximately
$30,000), using a few of the actors he worked with in some of his
industrial/educational films for Centron Productions in Lawrence,
Kansas. With the help of actor Sandy Berger, who played John, Hervey
cast Candace Hilligoss as the film's lead Mary Henry.
The premise of "Carnival of Souls" isn't a terribly original one.
In fact, Ambrose Bierce covered similar territory in his short story "An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." The Twilight Zone" also mined this
material for an original 1960s episode. Yet "Carnival of Souls"–with its
use of carnival-like, spooky organ music and Hilligoss's cold, ethereal
and ghostly beauty–has an eerie, unsettling feeling of otherworldliness
that is all its own.
While out drag racing with her girlfriends, Mary Henry is
involved in a fatal car accident when the car plunges off a bridge. Mary
survives the crash, but her near-death experience leads her to an
otherworldly nightmare populated by ghouls and ghosties, including one
such specter, played with frightful delight by the film's creator and
director, who seems obsessed with her.
Henry, an organist, gets a job at a church in Salt Lake City and
it is during her drive there that she first encounters the specter when
she sees its image reflected on the window of her car. The specter
continues to follow Mary, beckoning her into his frightening world. The
Saltair makes a spooky appearance in the film, serving one of its most
important settings as Mary goes there to try and make sense of her life
and the strange encounters she's been having.
Those unfamiliar with Bierce's story or the "Twilight Zone"
episode might be shocked by the film's ending, but the movie sets up
this twist throughout the story. Clearly Mary is dealing with something
not of this world.
"Carnival of Souls" has the feel of all those late night Friday
spook fests on television so popular during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
Best watched at midnight, it's a movie that captures the feelings of
alienation and paranoia Americans were feeling during the Atomic Age,
bringing a supernatural component to those fears.
Despite the fact that the film sunk after its initial release
through the drive-in circuit, it would go on to influence many noted
directors, such as George Romero (the film was an inspiration for "Night
of the Living Dead") and David Lynch. In 1989, "Carnival of Souls" was
re-released to much more lauded acclaim and interest, and continues to
this day to spook and inspire fans all over.
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