Michael Draine's Twisted Vista
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Criterion DVD $39.95
The haunting, dreamlike tale of a young church
organist caught between the worlds of the living and the dead, Carnival of Souls
the dead, Carnival of Souls is an exquisitely
photographed variation on Ambrose Bierce’s
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
and Lucille Fletcher’s radio play, “The
Hitch-Hiker.” Director/producer Herk Harvey
(1924-1996) and cinematographer Maurice Prather
elicited Gothic black and white imagery from
local settings: the decrepit Saltair Pavilion,
site of the climactic danse macabre; the
cathedralesque organ factory; a Hitchcockian,
vortex-like stairwell. At the distributor’s
behest, Carnival of Souls was sheared of five
minutes by B-horror journeyman Herbert Strock,
director of Carnival’s co-feature, The Devil’s
Messenger. Criterion’s lavish double-disc set
presents both the 78m theatrical version and
the 83m director’s cut. Strock tightened the
pace and (perhaps unintentionally) intensified
the film’s liminal air by cutting expository
dialog and prioritizing the protagonist’s
point of view. While this may strike a note of
heresy, I find the Strock's theatrical version
superior to the director’s cut.
Extras include commentary by Herk Harvey
and screenwriter John Clifford, 45 minutes
of outtakes, a local TV documentary on
the 1989 cast and crew reunion, a tour of the
film’s locations as they exist today, text
interviews with Harvey, Clifford, and actress
Candace Hilligoss, and a history of the Saltair
Pavilion. An hour of faded but fascinating
instructional films made by the company
which employed Harvey and his crew is
supplemented by a chapter from Ken
Smith’s book, Mental Hygiene. The
only omission is Harvey’s b&w “weird
show” intro that accompanied the early ‘90s
tape and LD. Though only running 47 minutes,
Harvey and Clifford’s commentary packs
significant revelations, such as the fact that
Robert Altman’s The Delinquents (made in
Kansas City in 1955) inspired Harvey to attempt
a feature, and that he considered a nude shot of
Candace Hilligoss in the bath. A trailer
emphasizing the protagonist’s unresponsiveness		Music Review Index
to her neighbor’s desperately inept sexual
overtures opens Carnival of Souls to a
reading as a study in sexual repression
anticipating Polanski's Repulsion (1965).		Twisted Cinema
With the exception of a few dark shots
bearing overt motion artifacts, Criterion’s
crisp, scratch-free transfer realizes
the director’s intended “look of a
Bergman film and the feel of a Cocteau”
more completely than any prior edition.
Clean mono sound brings the fatalistic
undertow of Gene Moore’s ethereal organ
music to the fore.
With one foot in the arthouse and one in
the drive-in, Carnival of Souls represents a
triumph of inspiration over limited means,
one of regional filmmaking’s greatest
contributions to fantastic cinema.
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