{"id":13520,"date":"2010-12-13T14:03:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13520"},"modified":"2021-01-29T17:21:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T00:21:27","slug":"carnival-of-souls-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13520","title":{"rendered":"Carnival of Souls (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I feel sorry for you and your lack of soul!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster-192x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster-192x300.png 192w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster-655x1024.png 655w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster-82x128.png 82w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster-173x270.png 173w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Carnival-of-Souls-Poster.png 725w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter emerging from a fatal car crash, a young woman (Candace Hilligoss) travels to her new job as a church organist in Utah, but remains haunted by the presence of a ghoulish man (Herk Harvey), and unable to emotionally connect with anyone around her.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Horror<\/li>\n<li>Living Nightmare<\/li>\n<li>Untimely Death<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary refers to this low-budget cult classic as a &#8220;sleeper that moviegoers always mention as one of their personal discoveries&#8221;. He comments on its &#8220;many clever &#8216;eerie&#8217; scenes&#8221;, such as the two times when &#8220;Mary [Hilligoss] finds that she can&#8217;t hear anything and that people neither hear nor see her&#8221; (reminiscent of a &#8220;Twilight Zone&#8221; episode); the scene when she &#8220;climbs onto a bus, only to find that it is full of ghouls&#8221;; and the creepy finale at a deserted carnival pavilion. Indeed, for such a low-budget venture by a relatively novice director (this was Herk Harvey&#8217;s first and only feature-length narrative movie after a career in industrial film production), it possesses a surprising amount of atmosphere and panache, with striking b&#038;w cinematography, creative direction, and a particularly noteworthy organ score by Gene Moore.<\/p>\n<p>In his review, Peary argues that &#8220;rather than being a straight horror film, [<em>Carnival of Souls<\/em>] delivers a message similar to the one in <em>Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em> about how we are turning into pod people&#8221;, given that &#8220;Mary is such a passive, uninvolved (soulless) character&#8221;. (Interestingly, the Strasberg-trained Hilligoss apparently complained about this very description, and attempted to inject even more life into her protagonist.) Unfortunately, Peary&#8217;s review glibly gives away spoilers, as do other online reviews &#8212; so be duly forewarned; but chances are you&#8217;ll find yourself guessing the truth about Mary&#8217;s &#8220;situation&#8221; long before the end. Remade <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0120627\/\">in 1998 by Wes Craven<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/70341\/carnival-of-souls#articles-reviews\">According to TCM<\/a>, <em>Carnival of Souls<\/em> was restored and revived in theaters in 1989, and made available on home video the following year, thus entering into mainstream moviegoers&#8217; cultural consciousness just a few years after Peary&#8217;s <em>GFTFF<\/em> was published. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Candace Hilligoss as Mary<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-hilligoss.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-hilligoss.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13525\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Many genuinely frightening images<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-imagery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-imagery.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13526\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Striking cinematography by Maurice Prather<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13527\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Effective use of pre-existing locales<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-location.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-location.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13528\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Creative direction and editing<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-direction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/carnival-of-souls-direction.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13529\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Gene Moore&#8217;s organ score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a genuine cult classic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0055830\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/carnival-of-souls-1989\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moriareviews.com\/horror\/carnival-of-souls-1962.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/3701\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/70341\/carnival-of-souls#articles-reviews\">TCM Articles (spoiler alert!)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/style\/longterm\/movies\/videos\/carnivalofsoulsnrbrown_a0adb1.htm\">Washington Post Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/carnival-of-souls\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I feel sorry for you and your lack of soul!&#8221; Synopsis: After emerging from a fatal car crash, a young woman (Candace Hilligoss) travels to her new job as a church organist in Utah, but remains haunted by the presence of a ghoulish man (Herk Harvey), and unable to emotionally connect with anyone around her. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Horror Living Nightmare Untimely Death Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary refers to this low-budget cult classic as a &#8220;sleeper that&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=13520\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66870,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13520\/revisions\/66870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}