05/23/06 Carnival Of Souls

Carnival Of Souls (1962), directed by Herk Harvey

watched solo; DVD (personal copy) @ home

This is what low-budget horror flicks are all about, beyond being a standard on your late night television. The veritable epitome of this genre has to lie in films like this, and Romero's "Night Of The Living Dead." Romero was influenced greatly with ideas from this earlier production, both in style and approach to working within a small budget framework. Using a local Utah abandoned pavilion as the inspiration, Harvey cast his story about death after life. After inconceivably surviving a terrific car crash off a bridge, Mary wanders aimlessly into a small town. She is a professional organist (yeah, tons of macabre organ playing abounds), and takes a job at the local church. She finds lodging in a boarding house, where she promptly begins to see shadowy and deathly figures following her (lead by Harvey himself, as the scary "Man"). Mary soon begins living with constant fear and ghostly apparitions, slowly driving her insane. When her fears take hold of her, she falls into a surreal dreamworld where no one can either hear or see her...begging the question whether she even exists at all. The film is chock-full of eerie landscapes, scary phantoms, and haunting organ soundtrack...and to think that Harvey could create so much with so little. You have to recognize how laughable the sound quality/editing is in the film, as it represents the worst foley artists ever. However, it's really breathtaking at moments to follow the Fellini-esque cinematography, the Romero-esque grotesqueness and Lynch-esque creepiness. All of those great filmmakers had influence or were influenced upon director Harvey. The funny thing to remember, is that this is basically the only feature-length film he ever made. Harvey's twisted brain was utilized more in the world of academia and industry in producing over 400 short films for educational/documentary purposes. He is the ultimate A/V geek.

5 out of 5 stars