Carnival Of Souls

Year: 1962

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Harvey

Review

an interesting film, but not a very compelling one. it’s an independent film released in 1962 and it plays out like a long episode of the twilight zone. a woman and her friends are driving on a bridge when they are pushed through the guard rail and crash into the river below. the protagonist miraculously emerges from the river and goes onto another town to work as a church organ player. while in this new town she shifts in and out of existence…through most of the film she can be seen and heard by everyone, but sometimes she’ll shift out of existence and walk amongst people as if she’s a ghost. it’s not a scary film or a particularly stylish or fantastic film in any way, but it is interesting for a couple reasons. i think a little too much is made of the film’s influence or it’s distinction among horror films of the time. surely, it doesn’t fall into the normal b-horror film standards, but i didn’t feel it broke ground that hitchcock hadn’t already covered, in vertigo for example. it’s a psychological thriller and that’s why it separates itself a bit…more of the films of the time were about invaders from outer space (invasion of the body snatchers or invaders from mars) or nuclear experiments gone wrong (them!). one interesting thing about the film itself is that it’s really a story that is taking place inside the protagonist’s head and the filmmaking reinforces that. for example, there will be an organ track that will provide the soundtrack to the woman driving, but then later in the film she will be playing the same tune on the organ. it’s an “inside/outside” (at least that’s what i’ll call it) style of filmmaking that reinforces the fact that the protagonist is responsible for what we are seeing/hearing. in normal films the characters won’t interact with the score (except in musicals), much less play pieces of the score from earlier in the film. other examples are the more run-of-the-mill kind – if she sees a ghost we’ll see it too, etc. but that kind of technique is always employed to get the audience in the protagonist’s head. romero seems to also have been slightly influenced by the film. night of the living dead has a similar visual style…at least in the part of the film that takes place outside of the cabin…and barbra looks like the protagonist in this film. in sum, carnival of souls did some interesting things, but never really captured me like the great psychological thrillers have. also, orbital samples a line (“why can’t anybody hear me?”) from this film on their “middle of nowhere” album.