Product Description

Platform:  DVD MOVIE Publisher:  ALPHA VIDEO Packaging:  DVD STYLE BOX An introverted church organ player named Mary (Candice Hilligoss) mysteriously emerges onto a river bank dazed and uninjured hours after a serious car accident. Mary is pursued by a terrifying ghoulish apparition beckoning her. Although she tries to run from this grinning stalker and the nightmarish goings-on in an old pavilion there is no escaping the fate that awaits her. It is nearly impossible to watch this film and not be haunted by its combination of music silence and imagery. For nearly four decades Carnival of Souls has been a classic of low-budget horror. It is most amazingly the first and only feature film made by director Herk Harvey and writer John Clifford.Starring: Candace HilligossDirected by: Herk HarveyScreenplay by: John Clifford DVD Details: Run Time: 78 minutesNumber of Discs: 1Originally Released in 1962Black & WhiteNo region encoding; For global distribution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23346 in DVD
• Brand: Alpha Video
• Released on: 2002-09-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .56 pounds
• Running time: 76 minutes

Customer Reviews

Sound and Music Tell the Story
One of the best things about Carnival of Souls is the way the sound and music create the film's atmosphere. The first organ chords that open the film with shots of the river's murky surface foreshadow a later diegetic appearance of the same music. The magnified sound of the boards of the fateful wooden bridge ratchet up the eeriness of the mood, and echo the distorted sound of Mary Henry's footsteps when, toward the end, in her last terrified flight through the town, the clacking of her heels on the street takes on a strange and unreal rhythm.
After the accident, we see Mary Henry from above, from the point of view of the crowd on the bridge. She crawls out of the muddy water where the police have been dragging for the car, which had earlier plunged from the bridge. This is the first of many times that she is viewed from an overhead angle. The second time we see her from such a height is at the organ manufacturing warehouse, from the balcony where several of the workers, lured away from their various jobs as if hypnotized by her music, have gathered to see her practicing. In this scene we learn that she is leaving for Salt Lake City to take a job as a church organist. The installation supervisor wishes her luck, and tells her: Put your soul into it a little OK? (Spot the low-budget dialog, OK...?)

An interesting sound device occurs next in the car, en route to Salt Lake City. We discover that the music we hear is not coming from the radio as we had thought, because as she turns the dials, nothing happens. The source of the music appears puzzling to her as well. Hilligoss is stunning here - crazy-eyed, her face in ECU lit by otherworldly light.
The film was made in 1962, and so we never see a pack of Marlboros or a can of Pepsi. But when Mary Henry arrives at the rooming house in Salt Lake City and we meet the landlady, Mrs. Thomas, she happens to be carrying a can of Ajax - quite amusing!
Most of the scenes are tense as Mary is often in claustrophobic spaces: inside her car, or with the cloying Mr. Linden, the neighbor, who continually forces into her space with his hands, face, and body. Later, the minister too crowds her in the blocked area behind the organ. The first peaceful scene is the one where she first visits the abandoned fairground, which inexplicably draws her. Again we see her from high above when she enters the pavilion.

Probably the most important scene in the film occurs when Mary visits the empty church to practice. She starts out with all the correct organ music, pauses to look at her hands as if they don't belong to her, and resumes. But now the music changes. It becomes the haunted carnivalesque score building on what we'd heard briefly in the opening scene. Gene Moore is credited with the music, and it's superb! Has anything been written anywhere about this? (Did it influence the opening of Led Zeppelin's "Your Time is Gonna Come"?) She's become one with the organ, and we see her bare feet floating over the pedals, rows of choir robes shiver disembodied on their hangers, we see images of clouds over the moon then reflected in the water, saints frozen in the stained glass, and dancers in the pavilion in compressed time. I think this is really an amazing cinematic moment! It ends when the minister bursts on this scene, horrified. He's heard all this, and shrieks: Profane! Sacrilege! He blurts out that he pities her for her "lack of soul" and instantly banishes her from the church, firing her from her job as church organist forever.

There is a particularly sublime shot in the film to watch for. It occurs in the scene of Mary Henry's final visit to the pavilion. There is a long shot of the ballroom dancers in the dark pavilion, embracing and motionless, entangled with the long dangling streamers. This is count one. Counts two, three, and four occur like this: the strings of lights illuminate, the music starts, and the dancers begin. The lights, the music, and the motion occur with a cadence so deliberate and careful as though counted out by metronome, and as if to suggest that everything will happen in order, as it should. No need to hurry, no need to run. This time we see Mary from a low angle, the sky behind her instead of the ground.

Your soul is required Miss Holligoss
Carnival of Souls aka "Corridors of Evil", is a crowning jewel in American Cinema. Despite the low budget and poor film quality, this 1962 masterpiece stands as a cult more than 40 years after it's release. Candice Hilligoss' fine performance will overwhelm you as she portrays a character caught in a purgatory between life and death. Her beauty alone will strike the viewer in a way few actresses can. Her physical acting, facial gestures, and line delivery will leave you wondering why this woman did not become a household name like Marilyn Monroe or Raquel Welch.

The story is as simple as it is complex. A woman is an innocent passenger in a car that gets into a drag race with some teenage thugs. The result is her car going over a bridge into a fast running, sandy river. As she crawls out of the wreckage covered in mud, the viewer thinks she has survived, but has she?

Ms. Hilligoss' character is a musician, an organist to be exact who takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City, Utah. As she begins her journey she is terrified of images of a phantom of sorts who seems to be seeking her out. Anyone who has driven for an average of twelve hours straight can tell you that driving can take its toll, and the mind can play tricks on a sleepy driver. However, after she checks into her room, she finds the same phantom lurking in the window, then in the hallway. Who is this creature, what does he want, where is he from?

The main point of the film is not horror, but human nature. Are we all alone in this world? Is everyone an island unto themselves. The lesson is thrown upon our character by a minister, a psychologist, and a would be male suitor. They all try to help her in their own way (except the suitor who is only interested in her for a chance to have sex). But our character waves a hand at them all, convinced that she can do it her own way. She is an independent woman who needs no man or companionship; a view that may have gone against society's thinking in 1962.

The male suitor (or 'just your normal guy' as he likes to call himself) is an obnoxious oaf to say the least. His headstrong pursuit of her is only his own selfish desire to have her. He's not an alcoholic he claims, yet he drinks at dawn. He quit college because he doesn't like to learn. This is not an ideal resume for a long term relationship for her or any other woman. When she is truly frightened by the visiting spectre, and she reaches out to him as a last resort for help, he runs. Not wanting to get involved, he was only interested in her for her body and his own sexual desire. Yet another lesson in this film for all the young ladies who care to pay attention.

As the story goes on Candace's soul seems to deteriorate. She slips in and out of reality and a strange sort of parallel world. This dimension looks the same as real life, but she cannot be seen or heard. The department store dressing room for example, shows how the lost spirit must learn that she is no longer of this world, but now belongs in the spirit world, where yet another companion awaits her.

Who is this man that haunts her in visions? We see at the end of the film that they are to be together forever. In the final seen where we see Candace's peek at her after-life. She screams in horror as the ghosts dance eternally as the haunt the carnival. She is finally captured by the ghosts and is spirited away. The police and minister are confused and baffled as her footprints and final body print leads nowhere. The minister gives a knowing look as if he has known all along, but says nothing.

The minister must have known there was something wrong with his new organist when he first met and eventually fired her. She had not the soul of a musician, she only had a knowledge for music. She was told this too by the organ builder in the beginning of the film. When she is possessed in the church and her true musician ship comes out as she plays without control, that is her true spirit, but the misinster fires her for 'blasphony'.

This film cannot be watched once and dismissed. It deserves to be watched over and over again. It is a timeless movie where something seems new every time you watch it. I applaud you 'Carnival of Souls'. One of the greatest movies ever made.

The original classic low-buget black & white horror film
"Carnival of Souls," the only theatrical film every directed by Herk Harvey, is a cult classic with a most deserved reputation that puts it almost on a par with dead George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" in terms of shoestring productions (In fact, the two films appear together on a recent DVD Double Feature). Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) accepts a car ride from a group of other young girls, only to end up in a drag race that sees the car go over a bridge with only Mary surviving. Having taken a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City, Mary heads for her new home, passing a deserted pavilion on the outskirts of town. Mary is drawn to the ruined bathing center/carnival, but has bigger problems since she keeps seeing a leering, corpse-like man (played by Harvey) watching her. Again and again Mary has the eerie experience of suddenly finding herself in a silent world where no one seems to notice her. Eventually she returns to the pavilions to come to the terrifying realization of what has happened.

"Carnvial of Souls" came about because Herk Harvey drove by Saltair, the deserted 1940s tourist resort outside Salt Lake City, and decided it would make a powerful location for a horror film. The man was definitely right on that score. Harvey recruited John Clifford to come up with a screenplay that would involve Harvey's image of dead bodies rising from the lake to pursue their victim. The finished product certainly evokes a nightmarish quality that makes you ignore the technical problems with overdubbing, campy performances by the supporting cast, and such. Hilligloss, trained in the Method by Lee Strassberg himself but denied any hint of her character's motivation by the director (think about it), only made one other film, "Curse of the Living Corpse" (1964), but this film is enough to secure her reputation in the field. Sidney Berger, the all too friendly guy down the hall at her boarding house, does a cameo as a cop in the 1998 "Wes Craven Presents Carnival of Souls" debacle, which does not compare on any level to this evocative horror classic. Given the high gloss shlock that is out there it is nice to see a horror film that is actually effective at creating a sense of unease without resorting to special effects. Yes, the ending is predictable TODAY, but stop and think what things were like in the early Sixties before "The Twilight Zone" covered practically every ironic twist in the book.