All month long I'll be presenting Creepy Moments, just short bits from horror films, or otherwise, that I find eerily effective. The first comes from Carnival of Souls (d. Herk Harvey, 1962). I've cut it off right after the change occurs because it is the moment of the change that I find so effective. One second the sounds of everyday life surround her. The next... silence.
29 comments:
Great with that little shimmer. It really doesn't take much, does it?
Looking through my selections for this month's Creepy Moments I realize almost none are achieve using any kind of special effect. Rather, they're achieve through sound, atmosphere and acting. You're right, it really doesn't take much, a lesson many modern filmmakers could stand to learn.
What happened to your Halloween names? Did you two already give up on that?
Also, this is a good movie.
I didn't give up, I just thought it was understood that "Greg" is a very creepy name.
Also, yes, this is a good movie. I love the shots at the old Saltair Pavillion. Wish it was still there, I'd make a pilgrimage to see it.
If I remember correctly, Herk Harvey saw that pavilion and thought, "Hey, I should make a movie that uses that." And off he went.
It's a little more complicated than that, probably, but I still think that's an interestingly ass-backwards way to go about it.
I think I'm gonna like this series...
Total agreement regarding how little it takes to be effectively creepy. Sound is so key, in particular the absence of it or the sudden dropping out of ambient noise. I love how Kiyoshi Kurosawa uses sound as well (or the lack of it sometimes).
Here's a post I made for the Kurosawa (Kiyoshi) Blog-a-thon last year that shows 3 scenes from his films that all use sound very subtlely. Japanese directors seem to have a great feeling for this (Teshigahara, Shimizu's "Ju-On: The Grudge" films, etc.).
I love me some creepy.
Bill, that is pretty much the story. I often see things and am inspired to make a movie around them but don't have multiple cameras, actors, budget, etc. so I don't. But oh the films I've made in my head.
Bob those scenes are great! I especially love the one in the restaurant. I'd seen these before (probably on your post) but still haven't actually seen the movies. But it does take so little. For instance, in the restaurant scene the final shot using special effects is the least effective for me. The two most effective are the ghosts appearance in the booth and then, especially, when she slowly rises up behind the waitress. Great stuff.
Did anybody else feel a bit of disappointment that that mannish floorwalker didn't go into the dressing room with Mary Henry and help her slip out of that dress as her eager hands insinuated themselves under the fabric of Mary's slip and cupped her ample breasts, squeezing ever so slightly Mary's nipples, causing them to harden and Mary to elicit a barely audible groan?
Arbo, get out of my head man...
Arbo, I'm sorry but I just don't find that description creepy at all.
You would if you had accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. But you didn't, so you can go to Hell.
13th comment!
I accept him as my neighbor, does that count?
This is probably as good a time as any to ask, especially since no one has brought it up: Anybody get the banner?
It's a sweet banner all right.
That's the song... but you got the movie too right?
I got skeered the moment she walked into the dressing booth..I thought the dangling price tags or the other dress might try to strangle her
Of course I got the movie! I got two versions of it on the shelf right here.
So yeah... that wasn't too convincing but anyway, for everyone else who doesn't know that's Melissa the vengeful girl ghost of Mario Bava's multi-titled Kill Baby Kill. Get it? See the words in the banner are lyrics from the Allman Brothers' Melissa. God I'm good at this! I'm like some kind of a benevolent banner God!
oh yeah..Kill Baby Kill may be my fave Bava horror next to Black Sabbath..or is it Planet of the Vampires? or Whip and the Body?..Blood and Black Lace?..anyway..Kill Baby Kill was my favorite last year..and may still be..love the link up to Melissa.."knowing many loving none,bearing sorrow having fun,but back home he'll always ruuuuun....
Next year I need to concentrate on more Bava. I just watched Kill Baby Kill and that will probably be my choice for the Italian Horror Blog-a-thon that Kevin will be hosting soon.
I used a different window shot from Kill, Baby... Kill in my "Look through any window" photo collection a while back. I was tempted to use the one of Melissa Graps but there is so much captivating imagery in that film (and any film by Bava) that I wanted to pick something more obscure.
It has such a great look and feel to it. Right now my wife and I are entering a 60's horror phase that happens every few years. For a few years it will be all about classic thirties stuff, then, for me not her, modern era stuff and then, now, we just can't get enough 60's horror with all the colors and false lighting and leisurely pacing that builds on itself. Hammer movies, Bava movies, Corman movies, etc. etc. etc.
Going back to Carnival of Souls... It bothers me that some people fob this off so readily as "cheesy low budget horror" because the movie is so remarkably sensual - not in a Showtime After Dark, ice cube on the nipples, candle wax on the back way - but in a way that really does reflect a female sensibility. (I smell a meme coming up: the Horror Film as Women's Picture.) Bravo to John Clifford and/or Herk Harvey for this, especially since neither of them were industry insiders. What brilliance. Harvey saw the pavilion on a business trip (presumably), got the idea to make this movie and he made the goddamn thing and almost 50 years later it has lost none of its mesmeric power. The brilliance of that scene in the department store lies in its banality, the teasing of weirdness out of the most familiar situation.
I've seen it listed, as I'm sure you have too, as a camp classic which is galling. This isn't Mars Needs Women or Manos, the Hands of Fate! The acting and writing may not be up to the standards of your A-list production (although we all know that many times neither are they) but Harvey does remarkable things on such a low budget. When she leaves the dressing room and can only hear herself... great effect! Or at the garage later. And the Pavillion at the center of it all, especially in the first shots from a distance, as Harvey first saw it, is really mesmerizing.
This movie really needs to be grouped in with stuff like The Three Faces of Eve and The Snake Pit rather than, say, The Haunting. It's a horror movie by style, sure, but it's also a classic story of a woman struggling with her identity and her destiny.
That's true. I suppose I knew that without ever thinking about it overtly. It is the story of a woman struggling with her identity and destiny, not accepting her lot in "life" but not knowing what alternative she would prefer. Even in the opening drag race scene, especially given what we see of her character throughout the movie, she doesn't really belong. Why is this introspective woman in that car with those juvenile behaving dullards?
Why is this introspective woman in that car with those juvenile behaving dullards?
Have you ever been to Kansas?
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