Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her...
Carnival of Souls parades its illusory low budget chills in a daunting hall of mirrors. A dilapidated abandoned pavilion, once a soothing relaxation bathhouse before transformed into a picturesque dance hall and then an illuminated joyous carnival, presides over the desolate shores of the Great Salt Lake. The towering structure beckoning lost souls who precariously drive past its demeaning grandeur in the midst of fading twilight. One such individual is Mary Henry, a steely intellectual equipped with the talent of instrumentally harmonising church organs, whom recently survived a car accident where the vehicle plunged into a foreboding river. Miraculously, she’s the sole survivor, unable to recollect the traumatising event. Whilst moving to Salt Lake City, the sizeable pavilion calls out to her. The car radio receiving ominous organ music, as she envisions a ghoulish pale entity outside her vehicle. Haunted by this alluring figure, Mary experiences various inexplicable encounters that gradually deteriorates her sanity, preventing her from connecting with the new community surrounding her. For it is the carnival of souls that plagues her fragile mentality.
Harvey’s sole feature credit as director, Carnival of Souls marked a colossal leap for the limitless potential found in independently financed horror. With a minuscule budget of just thirty-three thousand dollars, Harvey had no option but to enforce guerrilla filmmaking techniques. Notably including real locations, simplistic props and skeleton crews. It’s a necessary style for those who yearn to create art without the privilege of background funding. An indicator of passion for the medium of film, and it fundamentally presents itself in Harvey’s direction. The technical astuteness of various sequences, from the multitude of exquisite scene transitions to the simplicity of equipping the car passenger window with an angled mirror to impose the exterior ghoulish figure (simply known as “The Man”, whom Harvey played the role), adds an alluring charm. A charm that only a low-budget could intensify.
Whilst the post-production is rampantly unpolished, with voiceovers engaged when actors aren’t visibly talking and Mary’s clomping heeled footwear resembling that of a trotting horse, it’s the locational filming that enhances the feature’s authenticity. Mary frantically fleeing her tormentor at a department store. The introductory drag race across the rickety bridge. A brisk process that forced Harvey to pay off locals to allow such filming to take place. The raw aesthetic provides a haunting magnetism, one that a Hollywood feature would fail to supply. A wondrous concoction of instinct and talent! Hilligoss’ central performance as the vulnerable yet strong-willed Mary was devilishly impressive, employing credible facial acting alongside her cognitive line delivery. Moore’s original organ score heightening the ambience of a spooky carnival, whilst alluding to the religious connotations that Harvey embeds as a thematic undertone. The story itself merging the planes of reality with the surrealist nature of the afterlife, a fragmented structure that would inspire several filmmakers including fellow surrealist Lynch.
Harvey dabbles into the psychology of Mary, however due to the restricted runtime these were often overwrought with explanatory dialogue and loses that illusory style. Eventually culminating in a haunting conclusion (which was somewhat obvious...) that felt too rushed when Mary eventually confronts her nightmarish visions. The only other narrational criticism was with the parallels drawn between Mary’s frigidity and her obtrusive neighbour John whom haphazardly flirts with her whilst constantly consuming alcoholic beverages. The two are portrayed to be alike, despite the polar opposites in personality, yet there’s an irksome note that forcibly matches them together, likening frigidity to encroachment. It failed to bring much characterisation to either character, other than to highlight Mary’s already noticeable detachment to reality.
Still, Harvey’s sole endeavour into feature filmmaking remains a prominent pillar for artistic integrity and atmospheric orchestration. Suitably spooky, chimerically chilling and sensationally surreal. It’s a story of macabre tendencies that, whilst unpolished, welcomes you to the illusory carnival of souls.
