Carnival of Souls (1962)

“Funny, the world is so different in the daylight, but in the dark your fantasies get so out of hand. In the daylight everything falls back into place again. Let’s have no more nights.”

In a small Mid-Western town a group of young men challenge a group of girls to a drag race. As the two cars speed across an old bridge the girls lose control and go over the side. It’s a deep, fast river and the townsfolk are unable to find the car or the girls’ bodies. They are stunned when Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) emerges on the river bank, with no recollection of what happened after the car hit the water.

Mary is a trained organist. The local factory designs the instruments and the owner allows her to practice there. She has been offered a job in Utah playing for a church. The owner chides her for not putting her soul into her music. Mary insists she has no interest in religion, she regards being a church organist as being simply a job. Besides she is leaving anyway, for another town and she insists she will never come back. Driving alone on the road to Utah she sees the turrets of a building in the distance. Just then the face of a ghostly-white figure appears in her window, but Mary seems to think she imagined it. Until the man appears in front of her, dressed all in black and she swerves off the road to avoid him.

A gas attendant explains the old building she saw by the lake used to be a salt water bathhouse, but after the lake dried up they built a ballroom and then later turned it into a carnival. On her arrival the minister is impressed with her musicianship, but is taken aback when she refuses to be introduced to his clergy. Despite this they get along well enough. She joins the minister on a day trip and the visit the abandoned carnie. He refuses to accompany Mary any further than the gate, because the law has placed it off limits.

Mary becomes even more withdrawn and increasingly uncomfortable in the world. Strange things begin to happen. At one point during a shopping trip she becomes convinced nobody can see or hear her. Mary finds herself repeatedly drawn back to the carnival and its deserted ballroom. The stranger keeps on reappearing to her. During a church session she lapses into a trance while playing the organ and imagines a group of haunted-looking figures waltzing to her music and beckoning her to join them.

This dream-like, haunting low-budget feature has a devoted cult following. Made for $17,000 by first-time director Herk Hervey Carnival of Souls played the drive-in circuit as part of a double-feature without too much success. Over the years it acquired a reputation through late-night showings on television. Herk Hervey had a background in industrial filmmaking and only decided to make a horror film because he thought it would turn a profit.

Carnival of Souls is a brilliant example of a director utilising the resources available to him. Together with writer John Clifford, they crafted a story around the Saltair Pavilion, built by Mormons in the 1890’s. Mary’s profession was decided by Hervey knowing the owner of a factory that built organs, thus also providing the film with its eerie score. Hervey also saved money by casting himself as the stranger and waived his fee to keep the film under budget.

Carnival of Souls was sadly Hervey’s only feature film. Despite her subtle performance as the enigmatic Mary Henry, Candace Hilligoss appeared in only one other film, The Curse of the Living Corpse, (1964). John Clifford turned to scripting educational and industrial documentaries. Their names deserve to be known amongst lovers of cult cinema for this remarkable low-budget oddity which takes real-life locations and makes them seem like strange, unknowable places.

Kevin Sturton