Movie Review: Carnival of Souls directed by Herk Harvey
I’m participating in the CHUD challenge, where other fans pick movies from my “to be watched” pile for me to view and review. The April challenge starts with this relatively obscure 1962 horror film, which I have to say provides some genuine creepy moments.
Recently graduated organ major Mary is the only survivor when the car she’s in loses a drag race by careening off a bridge into a Kansas river. She’s clearly traumatized, and doesn’t remember how she got out alive. But no time for therapy or even checking in with her parents. Mary’s been recruited straight out of college to serve as church organist for the second-biggest church in an Utah city. (The denomination is never said, but isn’t Mormon.)
On the way, Mary begins having moments when she can’t hear any sound, and a mysterious figure (played by Herk Harvey) starts showing up in reflective surfaces, and then in physical space. No one else sees this person, and when the silent moments happen, no one can hear or see Mary either. (Notably, she doesn’t try just touching anyone during these sequences.) She also feels drawn to an abandoned carnival pavilion a few miles out of town.
The local doctor suggests that Mary’s imagination is playing tricks on her, but the audience has seen the mysterious figure when Mary isn’t looking at him, so there’s some questions there.
I especially like the music direction–even when Mary’s not playing the organ herself, creepy organ music dominates the soundtrack.
Mary appears to be on the aromantic/asexual side, though she cannot recall if this was always the case. This gets her some hassle from neighbor Mr. Lyman, who is not good at reading women’s signals, and pushy when it comes to wooing Mary. Only “this chick be crazy” finally gets him to back off. More of an issue with her job is that Mary is areligious–she just likes playing the organ and the church will pay her.
This is not a movie for people who like explanations. There’s a scene towards the end, where representatives of Law, Science and Religion are equally at a loss. We see what may be a partial explanation, but it just raises more questions.
The acting is wooden in places (with Mary this may be intentional.)
Overall, if you like movies that are confident in themselves enough to explain nothing, this would be a good match for you.
