Catching Up On The Classics: Carnival of Souls (1962)

Carnival of Souls is one of those movies that I've been looking forward to seeing for a long time. It is constantly being regarded as one of the best movies you've never seen, and a classic among black-and-white horror, despite its low budget and limited release. Already knowing the famous shock or twist ending to the movie, though, I wondered if this would hurt my first-viewing experience. And sadly, it kind of did.

After Mary is the lone survivor of a car accident that killed all her friends, she goes on with her life and moves to Utah where she has taken a job as a church organist. But strange happenings follow Mary wherever she goes, like seeing a ghostly man around corners and in mirrors. Mary also seems to be inexplicably drawn to an old pavilion in her new town: Does this place hold the answers to what's been going on with her?

Candace Hilligoss is surprisingly quite perfect in the lead role of Mary Henry. That still frame of her up there is one that I've been seeing around for years, and I have always just loved it - even though I hadn't seen the movie at the time. The look on her face and her body positioning almost looks like a painting to me, like an artist that captured a perfect moment in time, of confusion and fear. And now that I've seen the movie, I love that image even more. 

Anyway. Hilligoss does wonderful through the whole movie with a role that is never clearly defined. Sure, Mary seems somewhat confident and clear in her ideals and what she wants, but she's also very much a mystery. She doesn't much like the company of other people, and though she plays the organ for a living, she is not a church-goer herself and instead seems to see religion as a little silly and unimportant. But has she always been like this or is the result of her experience in the car crash? Mary is indeed a mystery and remains so until the end, and Hilligoss's mannerisms and facial expressions clearly convey all the conflicting personality traits of the character.

The only thing that bothered me about Hilligoss, and which in turn hurt some of the more possibly effective scenes, was that she did the "old movie scream." I hate the old movie scream. Do you know what that is? It's the really, really annoying way that women used to scream in old movies - hands flying up to the face or into the hair, screaming in a way that is far too dramatic for the situation. Hilligoss does this a couple of times here and it definitely annoyed the heck out of me. 

Sound becomes a important element in this film at times, or rather the lack of it in certain scenes. These are perhaps the best parts of the movie - the two scenes where Mary realizes that she has become invisible to those around her and that she cannot hear any noises in her environment. The sound of the pipe organ that Mary plays, a monstrous instrument that sounds incredibly creepy, is also important as it adds to overall eerie feeling of the movie. 

But the movie goes a little off from this feeling in the scenes with Mary's pervy neighbor, John Linden, which I frankly did not get the importance of. I get that she doesn't want to be alone because she fears that the ghoulish man she has been seeing will come after her if she is, but what of the rest of the scenes with this guy? Subtlety is not Linden's forte. In so many words, he quite boldly lets her know that he wants to get into her pants even though he doesn't know her at all, and that is the only purpose that this character serves - to be pervy and annoying. He is not needed and all his disgusting innuendoes take away from the main point of the story and Mary's character.

Some of the editing choices in Carnival of Souls were a bit hackneyed for my taste, as well. In the scenes with all the ghosts that Mary sees, whether real or when she goes into those weird trances, the editing and camera made things confusing at times. I hated the part where Mary jumps onto a bus and sees it full of the ghosts. There's an outside shot of her getting on the bus, then a POV of her seeing all the ghosts in the seats, and then a shot of her running away from the bus again. The lack of a reaction shot from Mary or something that established that she was on the bus with the ghosts made this part look very amateur, as if they forgot to get a shot during production but didn't really care during the editing process how it looked. 

At the same time, many of these scenes have wonderful individual shots that were very creepy and effective. Loved the scene of the ghosts dancing around all fast, and the shots of the various ghosts coming up one by one out of the water. Very cool looking. There's also a great overhead shot at the beginning where Mary is sitting at the pipe organ and you just see how incredibly massive this thing is and how small and insignificant she looks next to it. The scene where the ghost turns around in the doctor's chair could have been a lot scarier if Hilligoss didn't do that stupid old movie scream. And of course, my favorite shot of all is when Mary is emerging from the water after the car crash onto the muddy bank. I still don't know what it is about that shot, but I love it, and it's iconic, so you should love it too.

Now, I said before that knowing the ending to Carnival of Souls - that Mary actually died in the opening car crash - almost ruined the experience of watching it. I was very confused and frustrated throughout because, knowing she was dead, I was expecting a movie of her wandering around trying to figure out what happened to her or something. Instead, Mary almost immediately goes about her normal life, remembering the crash but just not how she survived it. If, as the title suggests, the ghostly man and the people at the carnival were other souls trying to take hers, and it was just her soul that went on living, how is she able to interact with other people and touch things? Wouldn't she be more like a ghost than a corporeal being if her body was still in the car?

So while this cult classic didn't completely live up to my expectations, I can't deny that I still love the story, the main character, and some of the really great standout sequences that make Carnival of Souls a movie worth a look for anyone who studies or just loves film. Some kind of variation on the twist ending has been done to death by now but this is one of the originals, and you should definitely watch it. 

Catching Up On The Classics: Black Christmas (1974)

December, y'all! 'Tis the season and all that jazz. I found the original Black Christmas on Netflix Instant Streaming (whoever invented Netflix, I will have your baby), and wanted to see if it was better than the horrible yet hilariously cheesy remake from 2006.

Probably the shortest synopsis I've written: During the holiday break, girls in a sorority house are terrorized by a series of menacing phone calls and the disappearance of one of their sorority sisters. Starring Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Olivia Hussey, and some other people that I don't care about.

Sadly, I wasn't as scared by the film overall as most reviewers said I would be. It's a good movie and all, but for me the scare-factor is grossly overrated. Perhaps it's because I've seen the whole girl-alone-in-house-receives-creepy-phone-calls scenario one too many times and I'm seriously over it. Perverted phone calls themselves are just not scary. I'm sorry. I mean, we know from movies like this and When a Stranger Calls and Scream that the person on the other end of the line really actually might be a psychotic serial killer, but if you can get upset from somebody saying gross things to you on the phone, you're just kind of a wuss. And there's a simple solution - hang up. Better yet, don't answer the phone again. Problem solved. If you call me and don't state your business right after I say hello, I'm hanging up on your ass, that's all there is to it.

If the film were paced differently, this plot might have worked out, but after the first girl's murder near the beginning, the movie drags on for more than an hour before anything really gets going again. We have too many side stories of Jess's bun in the oven and the other girl who was murdered in the park earlier that day, plus an overlong attempt at tapping the phone in the sorority house. We all knew from the beginning that the killer, Billy, was living in the attic, and later on John Saxon says something about there being two phone lines. Survey says: Phone calls were coming from inside the house, duh! But it takes the characters a hell of a lot longer to figure out what any audience member paying attention would already have known for the last hour. It was much too drawn out and led to a conclusion that was far from satisfying.

I might have been more creeped out by the nature of the phone calls themselves IF I could have actually fucking heard what was being said. Of course I heard the first call - the Penthouse Forum edition, if you will. I had to go back and watch all the phone call scenes again and turn the volume up before I caught all the stuff about Billy and Agnes.

See now, this is why people shouldn't make fun of me for watching almost all my movies with subtitles. I always like to put the English subtitles on a film that I'm seeing for the first time so I don't miss anything. Clearly, I could have used them here. Get on that shit, Netflix.

Anyway. The mystery of Billy the Killer is one of the film's strong suits. The remake gives him a full backstory as I vaguely recall, but in this original there is no explanation for who Billy is or what exactly he has done or been through to make him go all schizo and kill those girls. The sorority house looks like a regular house. Did Billy grow up here and never leave? Or did he come back and having all those girls around set him off? We never even really get to see Billy besides an eyeball and a shadowed outline. His motivations are unknown and hopefully you never bought Peter as the red herring, because the movie is mos def not over when Jess kills Peter in the basement. The ringing phone that can be heard as the camera zooms away from the house suggests that Billy has killed Jess as well (and why was she not taken to the hospital???).

I did kind of lose all respect for Jess when she still goes upstairs after the officer specifically told her not to. The calls were coming from inside the house, and from what the caller said, he is probably psychotic and the only other people in the house are not answering your repeated yells - you're in college, girlfriend. This is a no-brainer. LEAVE. But no, the dumb bitch is right at the front door and she still decides to go upstairs. At the same time, thank you for following steadfastly to the rules of surviving a horror film. There's comfort in that kind of consistency. Will we ever have a truly smart Final Girl who never makes any stupid decisions?

Also, and I'm sure this has been mentioned countless times before about this movie, but it is a leeeeeetle bit strange that Billy could have been going all crazy with his Norman Bates impersonation and screaming shit into the phone without Jess ever realizing that the dude is right fucking upstairs. And not in the attic, either, he had to make the calls from the house mother's room.

Sidenote: Thank goodness "house mothers" are not a part of normal sorority life anymore. I was in a sorority in college and that would have just been weird. What the hell would a house mother do all day, every day anyway? 'Tis unnecessary.

Olivia Hussey and her most beautiful face and voice make a wonderful leading lady and final girl in the character of Jess, and she is a nice character for us to follow. I hope Ms. Hussey knows that pretty much every woman in the world probably hates her guts and she should lock her doors at all times. It's the accent. And the hair. And the eyes. Mostly the accent. Margot Kidder is quite good as the sorority drunk with a sharp tongue - although I thought for a second that she was the house mother because she looks far older than the other girls. John Saxon seems to always be a cop in his movies and he seems to have got the role down pretty good.

All in all, this impressive cast makes up for the fact that the movie is - dare I say it - boring at times. There is tension throughout, but not enough action at the conclusion to relieve that tension. The final scene does leave me feeling very creeped as to what Billy is going to keep doing in the attic of that sorority house. You read in books about people "shuddering." I think I actually did that at the end of the movie.

Movie Review: Pieces (1982)

Ha ha! You don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre!

Pieces is not a film that I've heard that much about, but apparently it's kind of a big deal. In terms of pretty much ANYONE'S standards for technical achievement, this is a really bad movie in almost every aspect. But we horror fans are well-known for overlooking that sort of thing and appreciating a movie for what it does and what it is. I realized about 2 minutes into this flick that I was going to be doing just that.

This is the part where I tell you the plot: In 1942, a young boy brutally hacked up his mother with an ax after she chastised him for doing a puzzle with a nekkid lady on it. Cut to the present - well, 1982 - and some freako with a chainsaw is cutting up girls on a Boston college campus, only taking certain pieces (ha ha, get it? Pieces?) with him. A sweater-wearing nerd named Kendall, who also happens to somehow get hot blondes to proposition him for sex in the pool, gets involved in the investigation with Sergeant Dumb and Lieutenant Dumber. There's also a tennis player girl named Mary Riggs who's also a cop that goes "undercover" at the school to help catch the killer. This black glove wearing killer still has his favorite puzzle from childhood and is using its image to assemble a real lady puzzle. Why? Who cares.

Like I said, this movie is really bad. If I actually took the time to come up with a ratings system, Pieces would get something shitty like a 2 out of 5 or a 4 out of 10. But then I also kinda liked it. The casual movie-watcher who sees this film would probably dismiss it right away. Ah, but not weirdos like we horror fans. Bad dialogue, bad scripting, bad acting, and lots of tits and blood means that Pieces is not a bad movie - it is a CULT CLASSIC. It's "so bad it's good." It is cheese-tastic sleaze at its bloody best, and gosh darn it, we can love a movie like this AND think it's shit at the same time.

But exactly which crappy part of Pieces makes it crap (but good crap)?

I fear I would only permanently damage my brain by thinking too hard about all the things that don't make sense in this movie. Like, I'm not even going to ask for an explanation for the random appearance of an Asian dude throwing kung-fu kicks and punches at Mary when she's out "investigating" one night. There's just no point in trying to figure out where in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks that came from or what it has to do with the rest of the movie. Just watch it and laugh. That's what it's there for.

In the same fashion, at the beginning of the film we have a scene of the killer opening up his box of mementos from his murder of his mother. This is interspersed with another out of place action scene of a girl skateboarding down the sidewalk and running into a large mirror being carried by delivery men. I don't get it, and I don't want to.

The gore effects are actually not all that bad in Pieces, aside from the opening scene. In that instance, the ax the boy uses on his mother's head very obviously bounces off of her instead of actually sinking into her skull like it should, but it's all good later on. The part where the boy continues to do his puzzle whilst covered head to toe in blood makes up for that little bit. All the other kills are quite fun and wonderfully bloody. It's hard to pick a favorite. From the girl getting pulled out of the swimming pool by that bug and leaf scooper thing, to the waterbed attack where the killer shoves a knife into the back of the girl's skull and it comes out her mouth, to probably the best one where a topless girl is split in half in the bathroom, there is plenty of gore goodness for any horror fan to enjoy.

I always hate movies that portray police officers as morons but this was just ridiculous. Tennis pro/cop Mary never once says or does anything to make us believe that she is a cop. In fact, she doesn't even make us believe that she's a tennis pro, either, because in the one scene where's she's playing tennis, she kind of sucks. Lieutenant Dumber actually asks Kendall to keep an eye on Mary while on campus, and basically deputizes him when he should be one of their main suspects. I also love how they storm the dean's apartment when they know he's the killer. They bring no backup and Lieutenant Dumber shoots the lock on the door three, count 'em, THREE times to quietly announce that they've come to arrest him. Then when they find drugged Mary on the couch, they both leave Kendall alone with her to call the ambulance without even searching for the dean in the apartment. He's hiding behind the curtain, eejits.

I've never cared about giving away the ending to a film and I don't see why I should start now. After the killer dean is himself killed by police, Sergeant Dumb casually leans against a bookshelf revealing a freaky revolving door. Hanging up there is the real lady puzzle that the dean has been building from his pieces of girls and we get a great slo-mo shot of her falling on top of poor Kendall! Oh, but that isn't the end. After a random establishing shot, we're back in the apartment and as Kendall is walking out past the real lady puzzle corpse, she suddenly reaches up and grabs his crotch, managing to rip through his jeans with only her fingers and pull his balls off. Whuhhhhhh? Ah, we're back to the brain-hurting thing again. Best to just leave it alone like the rest of this movie and skip the wine for the cheese. The cheese is the best part.

Greatest line from Pieces: "Bastard! BASTARD! BASTARD!!!!!" Oh, this amazing dialogue was ingeniously delivered. Where is that girl's Oscar nod???