Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection
by Herk Harvey
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Forbes Caldwell, Pamela Ballard, Sidney Berger, Steve Boozer, T.C. AdamsDirector: Herk Harvey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 161 minutes
Published: 2000-05
DVD Release Date: 2000-05-16
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: CRITERION vs. IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT DVD (FANS WILL WANT TO CHECK THIS OUT)
Summary: 5 Stars
Get ready, `cause this is gonna get complicated (real fast, lol).
Okay, so you have both Criterion and Image Entertainment releasing the same movie in the same year; a film that until then, had only known cruddy, "Public Domain", hell (on TV, $0.99 VHS and $1.99 DVD's) and with pretty much the same remastered picture quality, right?
Well here's where it gets very odd; the, Criterion set, has two versions of the film, a 78 minute theatrical version and an 83 minute Director's Cut, where as the Image Entertainment DVD has a running time of 82 minutes (note: all of the actual discs, corroborate, the DVD cases, printed running times).
So, one would assume that the Image disc, was culled from the same print used to create the Criterion, Director's Cut, seeing as the run times are so close, and as previously mentioned, the prints look very much the same...
...but you would be wrong.
The reason being, is that both of the Criterion versions have a scene near the beginning of the film where a police/detective, person, is interviewing the driver of the second car in the opening drag race, asking the driver his version of the events on the bridge, but this scene is absent from the Image version.
Now granted, this is a little 10 second scene, but it dose rise the question as to where Image got this pristine print from (as there are no restoration notes on the Image packaging) and why does it very from the theatrical version in this one scene (possibly others as well, but I've yet to do any serious, frame-by-frame, comparisons to all three films because, well, I do have a life, lol).
The scene in question is actually quite redundant, as we already have witnessed the events on the bridge, and know what happened, and it's non-inclusion in the Image version is seamlessly done, making it look, for all the world, like the scene was an added scene for the Director's Cut of the, Criterion version, but since this scene is also in the theatrical cut, one has to wonder (once again) where the Image print came from (and how much more is different between the three versions, for that matter).
Then there's the running time issues, as you would assume that the Image DVD would be the theatrical cut (possibly licensed from Criterion to provide a cheap alternative to the Criterion set, as was done with the movie, Zombi, which both Blue Underground and Shriek Show paid to have the film restored, and one put out a low priced, movie only DVD at the same time that the other put out a two disc special edition version) but where as the theatrical cut is 78 minutes, and it's Director's Cut is 83 minutes, the Image disc is 82 minutes (and is missing at least one scene that both the theatrical and Director's Cuts have).
This is curious, and just thought that fans might want to know, or might even have some ideas, as to the nature of the Image DVD.
Summary of Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection
An ultra-cheap B-horror movie, filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1962, with a really creepy Twilight Zone-style premise and some great shoestring atmosphere. Wandering into a small town after an auto accident, to begin her new job as a church organist, young Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) begins to pick up strange vibes: none of the normal people in town seem to be able to see her, and she keeps being accosted by freakish pasty-faced types who seem to be dead on their feet. The nightmarish finale benefits from its one-of-a-kind "found" setting, an empty amusement park rising like a ghostly castle from the prairie landscape. This is much less aggressive and violent film than George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead, but for sheer skin- crawling spookiness, it's in the same class. --David Chute --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Herk Harvey's macabre masterpiece gained a cult following through late night television and has been bootlegged for years. Made by industrial filmmakers on a modest budget, Carnival of Souls was intended to have the "look of a Bergman" and "feel of a Cocteau," and succeeds with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) survives a drag race in a rural Kansas town, then takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she becomes haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her to an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Criterion is proud to present the ultimate special edition of this eerily effective B-movie classic that continues to inspire filmmakers today.
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