Carnival of Souls [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]

Overview

A drag race turns to tragedy when one car, with three young women inside, topples over a bridge and into the muddy river below. The authorities drag the river, but the search is fruitless and the girls are presumed dead until a single survivor stumbles out of the water with no recollection of how she escaped. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) decides to forget her strange experience and carry on with her plan to move to Utah to accept a job as a church organist. She rejects the notion that because her profession leads her to work in the church, she is obligated to worship as part of the congregation, and this cold approach to her work unnerves many around her. While driving to the new city, she experiences weird visions of a ghoulish man who stares at her through the windshield, and passes an abandonded carnival on a desolate stretch of highway outside of town to which she feels strangely drawn. Mary tries to live her life in private, ignoring invitations to worship by the minister of her church and the leering propositions of a neighbor in her rooming house. Soon the ghostly apparition from the highway is appearing more often, and she experiences eerie spells in which she becomes invisible to people on the street. A doctor tries to help, but he too is rejected, and eventually Mary realizes that the deserted carnival holds the secret to her destiny.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/12/2016
UPC:	0715515181419
Original Release:	1962
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:18:00
Sales rank:	15,455

Special Features

Selected-scene audio commentary featuring director Herk Harvey; and screenwriter John Clifford; New interview with comedian and write Dana gould; New video essay by film critic David Cairns; The Movie That Wouldn't Die!, a documentary on the 1989 reunion of the films's cast and crew; The Carnival Tour, a 2000 update on the film's locations; Excerpts from movies made by the Centron Corporation, an industrial fulm company based in Lawrence, Kansas, that once employed Harvey and Clifford; Deleted scenes; Outtakes, accompanied by Gene Moore's organ score; History of the Saltair Resort in Salt Lake City, where key scenes in the film were shot; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Candace Hilligoss	Mary Henry
Herk Harvey	The Man
Frances Feist	Landlady
Sidney Berger	John Linden
Stan Levitt	Doctor
Art Ellison	Minister
Tom McGinnis	Organ Factory Boss
Dan Palmquist	Gas Station Attendant
Steve Boozer	Chip, Man at Juke Box
Pamela Ballard	Dress Sales Lady
Larry Sneegas	Drag Racer
Cari Conboy	Lake Zombie
Karen Pyles	Dress Store Customer
Forbes Caldwell	Carpenter in Organ Factory
Bill De Jarnette	Mechanic
T.C. Adams	Dancing Zombie,Actor
Sharon Scoville	Mary's Girlfriend
Mary Ann Harris	Mary's Girlfriend
Peter Schnitzler	A Walking Corpse
Bill Sollner	Lake Zombie
Reza Badiyi	Bus Ticket Customer
Tom McGinniss	Actor
Lamy Sneegas	Actor
Gene Moore	Composer

Technical Credits

John Clifford

Herk Harvey	Director,Producer
John Clifford	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Carnival of Souls
1. Drag Race [5:55]
2. Never Coming Back [5:02]
3. Drive By Night [3:40]
4. Stirring The Soul [5:11]
5. The Pavillion [2:34]
6. Lost Night [6:57]
7. Morning Coffee [4:46]
8. Isolation [4:57]
9. "No Place In The World" [3:52]
10. Return To The Pavillion [5:42]
11. Awakening The Souls [4:39]
12. Roadhouse [7:13]
13. Departure [5:48]
14. Eastbound Bus [4:13]
15. Final Destination [7:31]
1. "The Look Of A Bergman, The Feel Of A Cocteau" [5:55]
2. Method Acting And No Retakes [5:02]
3. "The First Film Script I Ever Wrote" [3:40]
4. Independent Filmmaking [5:11]
5. Picking Up Extras On Location [2:34]
6. Comic Relief [6:57]
7. (No Commentary) [4:46]
8. "What Is My Motivation For Crossing The Street?" [4:57]
9. Double Bills At Drive-ins [3:52]
10. Plywood And High Heels [5:42]
11. (No Commentary) [4:39]
12. (No Commentary) [7:13]
13. (No Commentary) [5:48]
14. (No Commentary) [4:13]
15. An Unhoped-for Dimension [7:31]
1. Chapter 1 [16:06]
2. Chapter 2 [11:00]
Disc #2 -- Carnival of Souls
1. Chapter 1 [22:13]
2. Chapter 2 [:25]
1. Chapter 1 [32:10]
1. Chapter 1 [23:09]
2. Chapter 2 [:25]
1. Chapter 1 [25:58]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Carnival of Souls
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
   Commentary
      Commentary: Off
      Commentary: On
      Index
   Deleted Scenes
      Organ Factory
      Running
      Doctor's Office
   Outtakes
      Chapters
Disc #2 -- Carnival of Souls
   Final Destination
      Chapters
   The Movie That Wouldn't Die!
      Chapters
   Regards From Nowhere
      Chapters
   Saltair: Return To The Salt Queen
      Chapters
   The Centron Corporation
      History
      Index
         Star 34 (1954)
         Rebound (1954)
         Case History Of A Sales Meeting (1963)
         To Touch A Child (1966)
         Centron Commercial (ca. 1967)
         Signals: Read 'Em Or Weep (1982)
   Trailer

Editorial Reviews

A simple, low-budget ghost story made without stars or elaborate special effects, Carnival of Souls opened in 1962 to a generally dismissive public -- but with the passing years, Herk Harvey's hypnotic little chiller has acquired a cult following and been acknowledged as a minor masterpiece of fantastic cinema. It begins with the apparent drowning of Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss), who subsequently drives to Utah to take a job as a church organist in a small town. She suffers hallucinations of a cadaverous-looking man (played by Harvey) and, feeling alone and alienated, wanders into a shabby amusement park where she encounters the tormentor she thinks she's only imagined. Harvey doesn't attempt to cram his story with action and incident; instead he creates an eerie, dream-like atmosphere and lets the narrative unfold at a tempered pace. As is the case with the best horror films, Carnival of Souls has become a monument in its own right, spawning many imitators and a remake in 1998. Four decades after its release, this stark movie is as horrifying as ever.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

In the 1960s, there were dozens of regional filmmakers cranking out low-budget horror and sci-fi pictures, but while most of them were hoping to become the next Roger Corman or William Castle, Herk Harvey obviously had something more grand in mind. Kansas-based Harvey fancied himself an artist, and if his only feature, Carnival of Souls, is more than a bit pretentious, it's also strong and stylish enough to support his ambitions -- Carnival of Souls has a look and feel decidedly different than that of any horror movie of its time. Concerning itself with a woman caught in a spiritual netherworld between life and death, Carnival of Souls has a cool, slightly forbidding tone and a desolate beauty in its visual style that stands apart from most B-horror pics of the period (or A-horror pics, for that matter), and the icy emotional remove of leading lady Candace Hilligoss suggests a character out of Ingmar Bergman rather than the usual screaming damsel being chased by monsters who graced drive-in screens of the period. Harvey's years in industrial filmmaking certainly served him well while making Carnival of Souls, which looks surprisingly glossy and distinctive given its shoestring budget, and if some of the material seems just a shade overdone, more than enough of it hits the target (especially the slightly surreal dance of the ghouls, and Hilligoss' panicky final reel) to make one wish Harvey had been able to make a few more features before retreating back to movies about proper classroom etiquette. Carnival of Souls is that rare cult movie that truly deserves its reputation; while the film is available on home video from a number of sources thanks to its public domain status, the double-disc Criterion Collection DVD is certainly the best way to go, offering a pristine transfer that makes the most of the film's excellent camera work, and plenty of bonus features which tell you everything you might want to know about the making of Carnival of Souls, its locations, and the career of Herk Harvey.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming