Carnival of Souls (1962)

Posted by Curt

This neo-noir horror film impresses me as a final taste of Val Lewton. Made back in the spring of 1962 in Lawrence, Kansas, and written by John Clifford and produced and directed by Herk Harvey, this movie shared the destiny of so many naively conceived first films; profitless distribution for the makers of the picture. But in all the decades since the meager release of this film, it has withstood the test of time and survived on late night t.v., in various film classes and in the world of video and dvd.

Carnival of Soulsis an outstanding example of low budget style, and also one of the better made neo-noir horror pictures from the sound era. The main character of Mary Henry, played in an eerie manner by Candace Hilligoss, is the only survivor of a car plunge into the Kaw River. After this occurs, her touch with reality rapidly declines. She becomes completely anti-social and experiences moments of total disorientation, loss of time and sound and contact with those around her. She also experiences haunting episodes of a cadaverous male figure that shows up from time to time, played disquietingly by the director of the film, Herk Harvey.

It's hard to believe that this film was done in 35mm for the tiny sum of only $30,000, but director Harvey was able to make the most of it by taking wild gambles with some of his scenes. One scene in particular has Mary Henry fading away from reality, as the soundtrack goes completely dead; a huge savings on the set and in the mix as well. What could have been a negative element in the film is put to effective use to relate the totality of her trauma. I also wanted to point out, that Candace Hilligoss's love interest in the story was played by Sidney Berger, who comes off as portraying the best nerd-in-heat that I've ever seen done in ANY film imho. The final scenes in the movie were filmed at the abandoned Saltair Pavilion outside Salt Lake City, where Mary Henry finally gets to confront her demons head-on in a frightening climax to this unforgettable horror movie. This was the only feature film ever done by Herk Harvey. That's really unfortunate, because one can only wonder how far his talents would have gone had he kept pursuing a career in the film industry. Let's be glad we have this one at least, because what a statement he made with this low budget masterpiece!