I've just finished watching 'Carnvial of Souls' for the very first time and I've already made up my mind that it's an absolute masterpiece. This movie manages to be incredibly atmospheric on a shoestring budget of just a couple thousand dollars and achieves something that most of today's movies don't even manage on a multi-million dollar budget: To completely draw the viewer in and mesmerize them.
This movie proves that you don't necessarily need tons of practical and special effects, big action sequences or an overly complex plot to make a good movie, but merely a group of dedicated people with a vision and the expertise to realize it. Herk Harvey, John Clifford, Candace Hilligoss and their colleagues probably didn't realize what exactly they were creating at the time, but they all had lots of talent and expertise as is evident in the final movie. It's a piece of art.
The cinematography and direction of 'Carnival of Souls' are phenomenal, Gene Moore's organ score is haunting, and the acting is surprisingly captivating, especially Candace Hilligoss in the lead role. Her facial expressions in the scene where she's playing the organ as if possessed are chilling. The grand finale at Saltair is something that is burnt into my mind now. Such beautiful and haunting images. A brilliant movie!
'Carnival of Souls' is an exceptionally moody motion picture that absolutely deserves its cult following.
Man, I feel like I must be one of the only people who didn't like this movie. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a fitting name for it because that's what this movie throws at you and for me it just didn't work. It's for the most part a tale of finding family across the multiverse which I think could've worked fine on its own. Instead, it's got this scifi "jumping" element where in order to switch multiverses you have to do a "statistically improbable action". So you go from artsy shots and the protagonist discussing divorce with her husband to some guy sitting on a buttplug in an office or a universe where people have fingers made of hotdogs. I only laughed once or twice during the movie; the overall tone wasn't comedic and the "wacky" bits were quite tame compared to what's been done in Rick and Morty to much greater effect. You're also constantly jumping around, martial arts gets thrown in...it's all a bit incoherent.
I would rate Eternal Sunshine higher for emotional time travel, About Time higher for romantic time travel, Rick and Morty higher for comedic time travel, The Butterfly Effect higher for thought-provoking time travel...in summary; this movie is not more than the sum of its parts; it's more like the average of its parts and each part isn't as strong as it could be on its own.
I have been baffled for years as to why this is ranked so high in the Hitchcock canon. I've always remembered this as being a bit slow and boring like nothing happens, so I decided to give it another chance on Blu-ray. The good news is...the Blu-ray restoration looks amazing. Seeing a late 1950s San Francisco on film is truly spectacular. The bad news is...this movie is just as boring as I remember. Nothing happens! Guy follows a lady, this lady may or may not be nuts and is related to a lady who committed suicide. This lady kills herself, Jimmy Stewart is tried in court by the most asshole judge ever, then is crazy for a scene, then finds a lady who looks like the lady, turns out that is the lady, then boom, she is spooked off the tower. Okay, when I say it all like that, stuff does happen. And when written, those twists seem interesting. But putting them in a two hour movie, there is a whole lot of padding....including a scene where his platonic best friend paints herself into the painting of the famous lady. Man, that was awkward. Also, that end scene is so abrupt and out of nowhere. I know we're watching this with 2016 eyes, maybe it wasn't as jarring to a 1950s audience. But that scene is shot as if the nun was spying from the corner where the husband hid. She approaches in the shadows, gives one creepy line, then Kim Novak falls off for real. I get why the nun was shot like that, it's supposed to make us think its sinister and supposed to scare Kim Novak, but I'm just not buying it. It's too much of a stretch. And then BOOM, credits.
I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't be so hard on this movie if it wasn't ranked so high. This bumped Citizen Kane form the 2012 Sight and Sound poll and in previous years was ranked at #2. The idea that this is better than Citizen Kane is just impossible. It's not even in my Top 5 Hitchcock! Psycho, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt and Suspicion all rank higher. I even want to say Dial M For Murder and The Man Who Knew Too Much are better, but I need to rewatch those again too. Anyway, Vertigo is a beautiful movie. Watch the Blu-ray.
