This black-and-white scary movie classic from 1962 inspired countless films over the years, ranging from Tim Burton’s 1988 dark comedy Beetlejuice to M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 psychological thriller The Sixth Sense. Even without costly special effects, A-list actors, and computer-generated images, Carnival of Souls delivers a truly frightening cinematic experience. The phantams appearing throughout the film have pasty white faces with sunken black eyes for an especially ghoulish effect, but the movie’s most terrifying aspects reveal themselves through three far more subtle story elements.
Mary Henry is a Young, Isolated Woman
The central character, Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss), an attractive young woman without family or friends, endures a car accident in which the vehicle falls off the side of a bridge into a muddy lake overflowing its bed. Although all three women in the car appear to have drowned, Mary emerges from the lake after a couple of hours looking disheveled and confused. After spending a brief time recovering, she leaves town to begin a new job.
Mary’s background remains unclear, as the story begins right before the car accident. What the audience soon learns, however, is that she has no personal ties to anyone or anyplace, insisting that she “won’t be coming back” after she leaves for her new job. Women in general, and young women in particular, show their fear outwardly more easily than men. Frail-looking and on her own, Mary immediately becomes a sympathetic character.
Working in the Church Cannot Protect Against Evil
Her new job in Utah as a church organist implies a safe haven for her. She lives a clean, healthy life without drinking or smoking, and remains aloof to men (such as her sleazy neighbor [played by Sidney Berger]) who aggressively pursues her. Mary’s overall sense of purity makes her seem even more susceptible to the evils in the world. Although she claims no strong faith – merely a love of organ music – the church should provide the perfect sanctuary for her.
Since her car trip to Utah, however, she has encountered a vision: a terrifying phantam man who pursues her everywhere. The phantam’s face appears inside the church, at her rented room, and around town. This demonic figure that torments her while awake and asleep, her neighbor’s persistent sexual overtures, and the car accident become even more terrifying because of her vulnerability (which even the church cannot protect).
The Carnival in The Carnival of Souls
Central to the story is the actual carnival, i.e., the abandoned carnival pavilion in Salt Lake City to which Mary is mysteriously drawn. The iconic carnival, circus, boardwalk kind of surroundings also connote a playful setting in which the only danger is carefully controlled thrills provided for entertainment. Yet, this abandoned pavilion lures Mary in for malevolent purposes.
Here at the pavilion, she sees phantams paired with partners in a dance of death. The music, the phantoms, and the carnivalesque atmosphere appear quite menacing and overwhelm Mary’s senses with the sights, sounds, and emotions of what she encounters there.
These three elements – Mary’s youthful innocence and isolation, her work as a church organist, and the carnival pavilion – combine to increase the terror in Carnival of Souls, an intensely frightening film well ahead of its time.
- Carnival of Souls (1962)
- After a car plunges off a bridge, sole survivor Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) emerges from the lake to find that her life has changed.
- Director: Herk Harvey
- Writer: John Clifford
- Run Time: 78 minutes
- Rating: Not Rated
- Additional Information: Black-and-white and newer colorized versions available on DVD.
For more information about classic black-and-white horror films, read F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.
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