Comments on: 16. CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) http://366weirdmovies.com/carnival-of-souls-1962 Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, psychotronic, and the just plain WEIRD! Wed, 23 May 2012 00:42:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Eric Gabbard http://366weirdmovies.com/carnival-of-souls-1962/comment-page-1#comment-165747 Eric Gabbard Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:37:21 +0000 http://366weirdmovies.wordpress.com/?p=896#comment-165747 I can somewhat see the parallels you are making between the two films, whether it was Hardy's intention or not. Especially in regards to the two leads repressed sexuality. Mary seems the weaker of the two and you can sense she wants to break free and sin to the hilt, whereas Sgt. Howie's staunch religious stance keeps him in check. Mary sees being a church organist as merely a job, not because her belief in Christianity compels her to do it. If anything, Mary is consumed with doubt and questions. Sgt. Howie is just too stubborn and blinded by his faith. And for the love his God he is a truly a blind fool! Britt Ekland is one gorgeous heathen. Due to the fact that Mary and John were also neighbors, maybe all John needed to do was a nude, paganistic Willow dance in his apartment to get Mary to finally succumb to his nebbish adavances. In any case, they both resisted temptations of the flesh and it led to dire consequences, so yeah interesting similarities between the two films. I also agree that the first appearances of the ghostly face in the car windows are the indelible images of the film. I can somewhat see the parallels you are making between the two films, whether it was Hardy’s intention or not. Especially in regards to the two leads repressed sexuality. Mary seems the weaker of the two and you can sense she wants to break free and sin to the hilt, whereas Sgt. Howie’s staunch religious stance keeps him in check. Mary sees being a church organist as merely a job, not because her belief in Christianity compels her to do it. If anything, Mary is consumed with doubt and questions. Sgt. Howie is just too stubborn and blinded by his faith. And for the love his God he is a truly a blind fool! Britt Ekland is one gorgeous heathen. Due to the fact that Mary and John were also neighbors, maybe all John needed to do was a nude, paganistic Willow dance in his apartment to get Mary to finally succumb to his nebbish adavances. In any case, they both resisted temptations of the flesh and it led to dire consequences, so yeah interesting similarities between the two films. I also agree that the first appearances of the ghostly face in the car windows are the indelible images of the film.

]]> By: The Awful Doctor Orloff http://366weirdmovies.com/carnival-of-souls-1962/comment-page-1#comment-165160 The Awful Doctor Orloff Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:32:12 +0000 http://366weirdmovies.wordpress.com/?p=896#comment-165160 Is it just me, or is this film one of several semi-precursors to "The Wicker Man"? Mary is presumably a Christian - after all, she does get a job as a church organist - and judging by her behavior, a "professional virgin". And yet, she's clearly a bit conflicted right from the start. What, for instance, is she doing in that car with those extremely irresponsible youngsters who get themselves killed driving dangerously for kicks? More to the point, she voluntarily takes herself off to an isolated place where the entire community gradually turn against her in increasingly bizarre ways, inevitably steering her towards the place where she will meet her inescapable fate. And yet, is that fate truly inescapable? Many people have claimed that, prior to the deliberately ironic and rather silly "Cherry Falls", "The Wicker Man" was the only horror film in which failure to participate in sexual activity got anyone killed. But what about this one? I submit that Mary's encounter with John isn't that different from Sgt. Howie's temptation by Willow MacGregor. Obviously, speaking as a heterosexual male, I find Britt Ekland considerably more attractive than Sidney Berger (and if his performance as John represents the real man, I think that would still apply if I was gay). But ultimately, they're both equally sleazy - Willow gets away with it because a) she's prettier, and b) she lives in a community where nymphomania is the norm. But really, she doesn't know the meaning of subtlety any more than John does, and if she was only marginally less attractive, that scene would cross the line into comedy of embarrassment, just like John does, or rather, he would if the whole situation wasn't so edgy that there's nothing to laugh at. But my main point is that, in both films, a protagonist who finds him/herself alone in a very weird situation - against which Christianity is explicitly revealed to be impotent - is offered at least the possibility of getting out of it by embracing what they're most scared of yet tempted by - the opposite sex - but resist the temptation, thereby allowing Fate to inexorably home in on them. There's also a distinct parallel regarding the treatment of secular and profane music. Well, that's just my theory - does anybody know if Robin Hardy ever mentioned this film in this or any other context? "The Wicker Man" and all the minutiae surrounding it has such a fanatical following that presumably, if this information exists, some of you know it. Enlighten us, please! Oh, by the way - that "indelible image" is completely wrong. Spooky carnival imagery? I don't think so, compared to the very early scene where Mary is driving along a dark, deserted highway, and she glances to one side and suddenly sees a deeply disturbing-looking person gazing at her through the window from a distance of about a foot, even though this would involve him hovering in mid-air while flying sideways parallel with a car going at about 60 MPH. Now THAT is true nightmare material! Is it just me, or is this film one of several semi-precursors to “The Wicker Man”? Mary is presumably a Christian – after all, she does get a job as a church organist – and judging by her behavior, a “professional virgin”. And yet, she’s clearly a bit conflicted right from the start. What, for instance, is she doing in that car with those extremely irresponsible youngsters who get themselves killed driving dangerously for kicks?

More to the point, she voluntarily takes herself off to an isolated place where the entire community gradually turn against her in increasingly bizarre ways, inevitably steering her towards the place where she will meet her inescapable fate. And yet, is that fate truly inescapable? Many people have claimed that, prior to the deliberately ironic and rather silly “Cherry Falls”, “The Wicker Man” was the only horror film in which failure to participate in sexual activity got anyone killed. But what about this one?

I submit that Mary’s encounter with John isn’t that different from Sgt. Howie’s temptation by Willow MacGregor. Obviously, speaking as a heterosexual male, I find Britt Ekland considerably more attractive than Sidney Berger (and if his performance as John represents the real man, I think that would still apply if I was gay). But ultimately, they’re both equally sleazy – Willow gets away with it because a) she’s prettier, and b) she lives in a community where nymphomania is the norm. But really, she doesn’t know the meaning of subtlety any more than John does, and if she was only marginally less attractive, that scene would cross the line into comedy of embarrassment, just like John does, or rather, he would if the whole situation wasn’t so edgy that there’s nothing to laugh at.

But my main point is that, in both films, a protagonist who finds him/herself alone in a very weird situation – against which Christianity is explicitly revealed to be impotent – is offered at least the possibility of getting out of it by embracing what they’re most scared of yet tempted by – the opposite sex – but resist the temptation, thereby allowing Fate to inexorably home in on them. There’s also a distinct parallel regarding the treatment of secular and profane music.

Well, that’s just my theory – does anybody know if Robin Hardy ever mentioned this film in this or any other context? “The Wicker Man” and all the minutiae surrounding it has such a fanatical following that presumably, if this information exists, some of you know it. Enlighten us, please!

Oh, by the way – that “indelible image” is completely wrong. Spooky carnival imagery? I don’t think so, compared to the very early scene where Mary is driving along a dark, deserted highway, and she glances to one side and suddenly sees a deeply disturbing-looking person gazing at her through the window from a distance of about a foot, even though this would involve him hovering in mid-air while flying sideways parallel with a car going at about 60 MPH. Now THAT is true nightmare material!

]]> By: Tania Winter http://366weirdmovies.com/carnival-of-souls-1962/comment-page-1#comment-16265 Tania Winter Mon, 31 May 2010 03:55:08 +0000 http://366weirdmovies.wordpress.com/?p=896#comment-16265 The soundtrack is worth listening to on it's own, has freakded me out for years. The soundtrack is worth listening to on it’s own, has freakded me out for years.

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