Review of Carnival of Souls (1962) by Peter H — 27 May 2010

Six words to describe this film A Masterpiece of the Horror Genre; Carnival of Souls is one of those movies that after you have viewed it you can never forget it. Why is that? Because it has that effect of making the audience feel spooked out even though nothing graphic happens. This Films terror comes from its creepy pipe organ music, eerie atmosphere, convincing and believable acting, and beautiful and chilling cinema photography and even in some scenes the lack of dialogue adds to an unnerving psychological viewing experience.

The story of this film involves Mary Henry a young woman that is the only survivor of a hot rod race that ended in the vehicle coming off a bridge. Haunted by this unfortunate tragedy that claimed the lives of her friends; Mary decides to immediately depart for Utah where she has gotten a job as a Church organist. Upon her arrival in the city Mary beings to see a vision of an unknown male figure that starts to haunt her every move. Slowly in her new settings Mary starts to act strangely around her land lady, her neighbour and the churches minster but unknown to them she is dealing with some tormenting paranormal events that involve her being drawn to a long closed carnival. I'm not going to go any tougher with outline this films plot due its ending being so creepy and brilliant it will surprise almost any one that will view it.

On a final note this terrific low budget film was a total box office flop when it was originally realised in 1962 due it being realised amongst a sea of crappy low budget B-movie by this stage were becoming so frequent in drive in movie theatres they were being ignored by the main stream audiences due to their poor quality. But after many late night T.V screenings and it being a public domain film has allowed many different cheap home movie distributors to put this film out on the market has given this brilliant horror film a cult audience. In fact I purchased a DVD copy this film for only 3 NZ dollars from a bargain bin of all things and to be honest I was shocked at how good this film was. To me this film feels like a spooky episode of the original TWILIGHT ZONE that has been blended together with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and STANLEY KUBRICK'S THE SHINNING in one brilliant low budget picture. 10/10 check it out.