Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The movie opens up with a couple of cars full of “kids” racing each other. When the two cars race across a bridge one of them ends up in the murky depths of the river below. As hope of finding any of them alive is almost gone one of the occupants, a woman named Mary, stumbles out of the river. The movie then moves ahead a few days as Mary is getting ready to leave town for a job as an organist at a church in Utah. But as she travels a mysterious man, who keeps showing up only to disappear when Mary chases after him, haunts her. She also becomes intrigued by an abandoned Carnival that sits on the outskirts of her new home, continually being drawn to it. Who is the mysterious man following Mary? What is so interesting about the Carnival? Stick around for the end and all will be explained.

Carnival of Souls is what it is. By that I mean the movie was made cheaply by a filmmaker that spent his career making industrial films and commercials (sound like anyone else we all know and love?). The movie is competently made by someone that knew their way around the tools of the trade. The sound and picture are top notch and the cast, while unknown, all give solid performances. The score is filled with canned music from whatever catalog they had access to. But even there the music actually fits the movie, which isn’t always the case when filmmakers use catalog music. These few facts alone puts the movie light years ahead of most of the independent projects made not only in the 60s, but from any decade.

The only complaint that I have with the movie is the story. I just don’t think there is enough to it for a feature. Basically the one creepy looking guy keeps showing up scaring Mary for the duration of the movie again and again. Other than the nifty scene in the department store that is all that happens. After a while I have to admit I was getting just a bit bored with it. But in spite of this I’ve still watched this movie at least a dozen times in my life and always end up watching it when they play it on the local midnight movie show. It might be because it was a staple of the late night horror shows that I grew up watching and at my age I’ve become nostalgic. Or it might be because I’ve always thought the mysterious man following Mary around was superbly creepy. It is one of those movies that I know isn’t great, but that I still enjoy.

Carnival of Souls is a public domain title and can be had on all sorts of low budget discs. But if you are interested in watching it do yourself a favor and pick up the DVD from Legend Films. Not only do you have the option of watching the movie in color, but the Black and White version has been restored. I’ve never seen the movie look better and I’m pleased to own the Legend Films version of this DVD. If that isn’t enough for you there is a commentary track from Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame that is damn funny. For more information go to http://www.legendfilms.net/

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer