My Fascination With Carnival Of Souls

A psychology perspective

"Carnival Of Souls 1962
Directed by Herk Harvey and co-written by John Clifford and Harvey.
Starring Candace Hilligoss, Sydney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt and Frances Feist.

Carnival Of Souls was filmed in Kansas and Salt Lake City on a budget of around 30,000 dollars in total. It was inspired by Harvey's unusual experience at the Saltair Pavillion in Salt Lake City when, by chance, he visited this old, deserted location. Inspired by his eery experience, Harvey decided to make a film based around the Pavillion and with a centre-stage actress of the Alfred Hitchcock genre. Candace Hilligoss was offered the leading role in a fairly low budget movie that initially failed to make any impact at all on American audiences.

On a personal note, I tend to pick up on similarities between Carnival Of Souls and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, since both movies somehow deal with the subject of Schizophrenia, although Candace's role as Mary Henry portrays the delusions of a victim rather than the fragmented personality of a murderer (Norman Bates). Psycho, moreover, was filmed on a low budget but also involved some kind of a rooming-house, as well as a few scenes that include a bathroom and someone peering in like a peeping-tom. Likewise, it would not be at all difficult to imagine Candace Hilligoss starring in Hitchcocks The Birds. More than likely, Hitchcock would have snapped her up.
Harvey's film doesn't appear to have been written directly in connection with Schizophrenia in the way Repulsion was. Carnival Of Souls appears to fluctuate between the concept the leading figure, Mary Henry, had actually died in the initial car-crash but there is also a suggestion she is a very troubled, young woman who suffers from paranoid delusions. For example, it turns out she never had a boyfriend and never felt any close connection to other people.

Here, then, is how the plot unfolds:

The film starts by showing Mary as a passenger with friends in a car. The car stops and some men in a passing vehicle challenge them to race to the bridge. However, what starts off as a bit of fun ends up in tragedy. Mary's car veers out of control at the bridge and plunges into the lake. When teams of rescuers drag the lake in search of the vehicle, Mary is finally spotted on the sands, dazed and unable to recall how she escaped death.

Mary decides to start afresh after the accident and accepts a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. While driving her car, she experiences her first encounter with something inexplicable when her car radio starts to pick up eery, organ music across the entire bandwidth. Ironically, this type of variation to "voices" is not unheard of in Schizophrenia. V.A. Gilyarovskiy wrote:

"Pseudo-hallucinations, or mental hallucinations, are a typical phenomenon, relating to this disorder. Likewise, the fact that thoughts and distinctive words are repeated out loud by somebody else (Gedankenlautwerden). Sometimes patients mention a telephone, wireless telegraphy or radio."

Unerved by the experience with the radio, Mary then sees the figure of a ghoulish man through her car-window and swerves off the road in fright. This then sets the scene for the implied implication of Paranoid Schizophrenia and the visual hallucinations that continue to develop.

"Forms of visual hallucination are somehow spectral and unreal, giving the impression of sketched outlnes and not flesh-and-blood composites." (V.A. Gilyarovskiy).

It should be noted once more that my comments based around Herk Harvey's movie, thus far, are not intended to suggest Harvey intentionally incorporated elements of Schizophrenia into the script. It just happens to be the case that Schizophrenia is reflected in a very vivid manner as the character of Mary Henry unfolds. Did Herk Harvey or John Clifford know someone who suffered from a similar disorder and did they subconsciously convey these impressions in the film? However the case may be, Harvey's film appears to more directly imply Mary's experiences are of a paranormal origen and caused by her close encounter with death. In many ways, it follows a similar theme to the later film "Passengers", in which a psychologist eventually discovers she never survived a plane crash.

The storyline then progresses to Mary Henry's arrival at the rooming-house, where she meets Mrs.Thomas, the landlady (Frances Feist). Mrs. Thomas comes across as very normal and down-to-earth and her role in Carnival Of Souls is relatively minor. She shows Mary her room and briefly mentions her other lodger, Mr. Linden. As Mary settles into her new room she briefly imagines she saw the ghoulish man at her window.

After this, there follows a meeting with the pastor of the church (Art Ellison) and the first indication of the conflicts that will follow. Mary matter-of-factly explains she prefers to skip the planned welcome reception. The pastor suggests that hiding away from the human race isn't the best outlook on life but is clearly impressed by her organ playing. In fact, other church members are seen to be more than happy with the new member of the congregation. However, once more, the ghoulish man is seen freely staking out the church. This represents the dark aspect of Mary's life which threatens to undermine her attempts to build a normal career for herself. We shall see that "the strange man", the Saltair Pavillion (and the eery history associated with it) all collectively represent a dark force that controls Mary's future. Possibly it controls others too. As she plays on the organ, the music briefly changes to a haunting theme but the pastor only reacts when it stops altogether.

"A very common form of persecution complex in Schizophrenia is connected to the 'control delusion'. The patient feels he is under the influence of people unknown to him, under the spell of some force. All his thoughts and behaviour are not his own, but rather controlled by others. (V.A. Gilyarovskiy).

Herk Harvey clearly decided to do some close-scene footage of the Saltair Pavillion so, early in the film, the church pastor agrees to drive Mary over there on his way to a house-call. The weather is windy and bleak as the car pulls up to the deserted building. They both get out and stare at the building. The pastor explains how it was at one time the life and soul of the town but had stood empty and deserted for years. Mary wants to push through the barrier and go inside but the pastor is unwilling:

"What could possibly interest you out there?" , he asks, as the wind howls.

On returning to the rooming house, Mary decides to take a bath and hurries to the door after she assumes Mrs Thomas is outside knocking. Opening the door, she is greeted by the sight of Mr. Linden (played by Sydney Berger). From his first appearance in the movie, two points become quite clear: First and foremost, Linden is very much outclassed by Mary who, in her particular way, is too educated, too deep and too respectable for a man of such limited horizons. Secondly, Linden aspires to be successful with women but, in actual fact, in that regard he is clearly something of a failure. This becomes evident through his tendency to leer through peep-holes and the way he pushes his way through Mary's door uninvited. Linden is delighted by the presence of the new female lodger but totally clueless and out of his depth. Mary declines an invitation to eat out and locks the door.

However, it soon becomes clear Mr. Linden doesn't represent the true threat to her peace of mind in the rooming house. Standing on the landing and looking down the stairs, she once again catches sight of the ghoulish man. Mrs Thomas soon arrives with a tray of sandwiches, only to find her new lodger suffering a fit of hysteria. She insists that there was nobody else in the house and suggests Mary must have seen Mr Linden in the corridor.

The next morning Mary is woken by her alarm clock and Mr Linden knocks on her door again with two cups of coffee. Mary accepts the coffee and the two of them enjoy a brief conversation. We learn that Linden works in a warehouse and was only ever interested in football and the opposite sex at school. He also shows signs of having a weakness for alcohol. Mary shares she is employed at a church as an organist. The two characters, therefore, are juxtaposed. Linden is a flesh-and-blood character who is focused upon the realities of work, money, football and women, despite the fact his lack of social refinement has reduced him to a solitary figure, with a drink problem. Mary, on the other hand, is charming, very attractive, musically gifted and educated. Despite all of that, she too is very alone, has no connection to the practical side of life and no awareness of the values and aspirations others might have. This assesment is brought home by the stark fact that, to her, playing the organ in church is just a means to pay the rent. The overall thrust of Herk Harvey's movie is the suggestion Mary doesn't have a soul, and that those people she begins to encounter in Salt Lake City are fated to discover this stark reality.

After the coffee and brief exchange with Mr Linden, the film plunges into the phenomenon of derealisation. Mary decides to go shopping and enters a large department store. At first she finds everything as normal but suddenly experiences a total disconnect from those around her. None of the customers or sales staff can see her or be made aware of her presence in the store. Walking out into the street, she becomes aware life is running its course without any connection to herself. Part of this sequence fits in with the term "derealisation", used in psychology, as well as hallucination.

"The format based around hallucination is spectral and unreal, creating an impression of sketched images and not flesh-and-blood creations. Sometimes the figures move in a cinematographic fashion. " (V.A. Gilyarovskiy).

So far as the film is concerned, the main implication of this scene is to show how Mary was never fully rescued from the car-crash, so her physical connection with the world of the living remains very flimsy. Other people can only interact with her some of the time and, at that, only on a purely intellectual level (not at the spiritual level of the soul). During other periods, there is no perception of her as actually existing.

Wandering along to a small urban park, Mary stops to take a drink at a water-fountain. As she stoops down to drink, a man approaches the same fountain, giving her a fright. At this point she becomes hysterical and runs straight into the arms of another passing stranger, who happens to be a qualified doctor. This second passer-by attempts to restore calm and introduces himself as Doctor Samuels. He offers to take Mary across the street to his office to give her a free consultation and this offer she willingly accepts. The two of them then make their way over to a block of buildings.

The next scene shows Mary sitting in a comfortable office, where the blinds are open but the outside world temporarily pushed aside. Dr. Samuels sits in a large chair, surrounded by shelves of books and a filing-cabinet in the background. Here, we get some insight into Mary. She explains how she feels unable to establish any connection with other people and has the conviction she has no place, or part, in the world around her. As if, in fact, she doesn't exist. She asserts the main cause of her anxiety relates to a mysterious man, who has been following her since her arrival in Salt Lake City. Dr. Samuels, thereupon, draws a connection between the possible after-effects of the car-crash and the supposed hallucinations that seemed to have been triggered since that accident took place. Mary is reluctant to accept that all her strange experiences are the result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, distorted imagination or sensory overload. Despite that, as Samuels probes deeper into her past, it becomes clear Mary has never had any serious, intimate relationship with another person. She confesses to having no desire for deep relationships, or companionship, and lacks any motivation to share in collective experiences, joys or disappointments. Mary, in effect, lacks empathy. Dr. Samuels suggests that possibly the ghoulish man is a visual hallucination, triggered by his patient's deep-rooted guilt, which in turn is associated with her inability to empathise or share her feelings with others. The Pavillion is also referred to as somehow connected with the turmoil. Mary decides that possibly her mind is playing tricks on her after the accident and decides to go to the Pavillion and face up to her fears. Samuels offers to go with her but she feels the need to do what she must by herself.

Leaving Dr Samuel's office, Mary drives to the Saltair Pavillion, this time on her own. She enters the interior of the building through a cylindrical tunnel and notices some hanging barrels and a large chute. She walks along a passage, where a sign advertising "Salt Water Bathing" is still intact. As she wanders around the area, some sound effects are utlised to emphasise ghostly footsteps, as well as the whistling of the wind. At the end of this scene, shot at Saltair, Mary pauses to gaze at the beach and smiles, satisfied that there is nothing sinister about the deserted site.
The next highly significant scene shows Mary back at the church to practise on the organ. "

Publish it! I'd love to read that.