Product Description

This classic horror tale is now restored and in color for the first time, complete with an irreverent bonus commentary from Mike Nelson of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" fame.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81239 in DVD
• Brand: Carnival
• Released on: 2005-03-29
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Collector's Edition, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Customer Reviews

Eerie horror movie
This dvd has several good features. You can choose to watch the film in black and white or colorized, with Mike Nelson's(MST3K)commentary or without. Mike's commentary is pretty much the same kind of commentary as was typical for the MST3K movies - and it runs throughout the film. Some extra info is included about the film and also the original movie trailers. The colorization is not bad, although you can tell it's been colorized because of the flatness of the colors. The black and white is scarier, I think, because in color the carnival souls look about as frightening as Brain Guy from MST3K.
This movie was made in the early '60's and it is remarkably similar in plotline to a Twilght Zone episode entitled "The Hitch-hiker." After being in a car wreck, a young woman drives cross-country to take a job as a church organist in Utah. She passes an eerie Mormon amusement park which has been closed down and is strangely drawn to it. Throughout the film she notices something is wrong!~ But what can it be? I won't give away what happens for those who haven't seen it yet.
Mike's best line: "It's a bad sign when your creepy new landlady tells you to take all the baths you want."

Psychic isolation rendered through landscape.
Gallons of ink have been devoted, (justifiably) to this film. But few have perhaps paid sufficient due to the cinematographer, Maurice Prather.

Mr. Prather aids and abets the script at every turn in his rendering of Miss Hilligoss's (in the role of Mary Henry) isolation from those around her. From his crow's nest shots of her wandering through the deserted carnival to the scenes of her lone sedan traversing the twilight prairie highway, he unfailingly delivers a picture of un-peopled vastness--a vastness that cannot be breached by human or psychic outreach.

And that is what this film is really about--Mary Henry's inability to accept the fact that she has already departed from the world she continues to haunt.

Ultimately she knows, (as does her personal Charon--the Carnival Ghoul) that she must be reclaimed--and it is in her persistent refusal to yield to his summons, from which the conflict and tension of the film springs.

This is perhaps revealed most disquietingly in a scene near the beginning of the film, when the minister accompanies her to take a look at the abandoned carnival--but refuses to accompany her across the barricade. Thus, though the visit is without ostensible horrific incident--it concludes with a silhouette of the Carnival Ghoul dropping his head in resignation from behind a gated doorway inside the pavilion, while at the very same moment, Miss Hilligoss, (seemingly safe in a car already miles away) is stabbed with a sudden deja vu--reflected with a rueful knowing in her eyes--one of many brilliant moments in a film brimming with them.

And it should not merely be to the cognoscente that such an inevitable moment as this, terrifies far more meaningfully, than any knife wielding Friday the 13th slasher might.

As to Mr. Prather, note how similar are the contrast and tone levels he uses to depict the vast American mid-western landscapes under over-cast skies, to that used by Sven Nykvist in Bergman's "Winter Light." Though the Bergman film is set in Sweden--surely the similarity is not coincidental.


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This would be great film making if it were done today, but the fact that it was made in 62 makes it a masterpeice.
I love this film. It is dark, creepy, and the characters are so believable especially the side characters, like the Head of the Organ making company and the doctor. These people didn't look like actors, they looked like average, ordinary people. I truly cannot say enough good things about this film, except that I consider it a masterpiece. I own this film about 3 times over on various DVD packs. This particular one I have rented but I don't own. Dispite what traditionalist may say, I like the optional color, just to see what it looks like, but the black and white is far more beautiful. This is not only a erie, creepy film, it is beautiful. Also the star of the film, supposedly dissappeard after this film was made and never made another movie. I don't know if this is true, but the myth just adds to the mystique of this film. THIS FILM IS A MUST HAVE IN YOUR HORROR MOVIE COLLECITON, any version you can get. I sure would love to watch this film with commentary
I would put this movie up with any modern day horror film or any film period. This film should be studied in film school along with the short films of Maya Deren.