Carnival of Souls has gained a strong cult reputation over recent years. Directed and produced by Harold ""Herk"" Harvey it has an intriguing power mixing ordinary people and everyday situations with the extraordinary and the supernatural. Made in Lawrence Kansas in 1962 the film centres on Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) who apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure
ONE OF THE MOST CHILLING AND INFLUENTIAL CULT HORROR FILMS OF ALL TIME A young woman in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En-route, she becomes haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her toward an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Made by industrial filmmakers on a modest budget, the eerily effective B-movie classic Carnival of Souls was intended to have the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteauand, with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score, it succeeds. Herk Harvey's macabre masterpiece gained a cult following through late-night television and continues to inspire filmmakers today. BONUS FEATURES SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Selected-scene audio commentary featuring director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford New interview with comedian and writer Dana Gould New video essay by film critic David Cairns The Movie That Wouldn't Die!, a documentary on the 1989 reunion of the film'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 film 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 PLUS: An essay by writer and programmer Kier-La Janisse
Carnival Of Souls: Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure... The Ape Man: Mad scientist Dr. Brewster long thought dead is working away in his basement laboratory on a serum derived from gorilla spinal fluid. Experimenting on himself Dr. Brewster is dismayed to discover that the injections have given him a bushy beard a
It's difficult sometimes to fathom how compilers think. This Chiller Theatre threesome consists of two classic silent horror films, plus a low-budget B-movie from the early 1960s. The connection? You decide! Yet these are films that belong in any self-respecting collection, and this package is a good way of acquiring them. Of those featuring Lon Chaney, it's the original 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame that comes across best. Chaney's grotesquerie is shot-through with pathos, and Patsy Ruth Miller's Esmeralda has enduring freshness. Wallace Worsley handles crowd scenes and cathedral stunts with aplomb, and there's an atmospheric "posthumous" soundtrack, though anyone looking for accuracy in the depiction of medieval French society is in for a shock. 1925's The Phantom of the Opera is slow-moving and uneventful by comparison, with Rupert Julian's direction never escaping the narrow Gothic trappings of the novel. Chaney cranks (or is that camps?) up his range of gestures to the limit, and Mary Philbin is an eye-catching heroine, but the denouement in the Paris sewers seems endless--with looped extracts of Schubert and Brahms as a hardly appropriate soundtrack. Cut to 1962, and The Carnival of Souls--made in Kansas for under $100,000--is an undeniable cult classic. Herk Harvey sustains the increasingly surreal narrative with ease, Candace Hilligoss is striking (if a tad gauche) as the young organist caught on the cusp of this world and the next, and Gene Moore's organ soundtrack is a masterly backdrop for the motley assemblage of ghouls who pursue her around the seaside pier in a memorable closing sequence. On the DVD: Chiller Theatre is very acceptably remastered--with 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 12 chapter headings per film--and decently if minimally packaged. --Richard Whitehouse
Three friends are out for a day's drive when they accept a drag challenge. Their car is forced off a bridge and plunges in to a river. with all three appearing to have drowned. Eventually Mary resurfaces and makes her way into town where she accepts a job as a church organist but a mysterious phantom figure begins to dog her every move.
Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure...
Is there death after life? Carnival of Souls has gained a strong cult reputation over recent years. It is an intriguing power mixing ordinary people and everyday situations with the extraordinary and the supernatural. Made in Lawrence Kansas in 1962 the film centres on Mary Henry who apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure . While lots of todays horror fi
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