review by Travis Lytle
Carnival of Souls 1962
Watched Aug 13, 2012
Travis Lytle’s review:
There is not a lot to "Carnival of Souls." The film is spare, roughly assembled, and tells only a modest story. Its strength, however, lies in its ability to build a feeling of dread. Starkly haunting, simple, and occasionally bizarre imagery coupled with an effective musical score create a tense and eerie atmosphere. A near-mesmerizing experience, "Carnival of Souls" will reward genre fans with the patience to simply watch.
ive tried to watch this a few times.. sometimes black and white movies put me to sleep.. i thought they have a colorized version of this.. not that it matters but "Night of the Living Dead, in color, i think holds up to a lot of today's horror/zombie flicks.
This movie is very dream-like to begin with, so I understand any dozing. Netflix is streaming a really clean black and white version of this.
I love the original NotLD, but I can't imagine it in color! I like the 1990 remake (of course, that's in color), but the creaky, black and white photography of the original is one of my favorite things about it.
I really liked this film and picked it up on dvd a number of years ago, but haven't watched it in a while. I still remember a couple of very effective sections though, notably when the heroine is driving through the desert and night. Creeped me out.
The sudden appearances of the man with the dark eyes (or whatever we call him) got to me, and the shots of him in water too. Creeptastic!