This week in class we watched the 1962 horror film, Carnival of Souls. This being our first taste of cult horror was an interesting one. Although it wasn’t terrifying it had disturbing images and creepy scenes. The faces popping up in windows and scenes where people could not hear or see Mary, the protagonist, were nerve-wracking. Her battle in trying to understand her place in the world, why so isolated and alone was sad and evokes a sense of recognition in the audience. People can relate to feeling alone, or even like they don’t belong.

The film itself was beautifully crafted and executed. It introduced a new concept, MOS, or mit out sound. This means they shoot the scene with no audio and add it in after filming from a sound booth or other audio track. Often if people are speaking in the scene you don’t physically seen any mouths moving to hide the fact the audio was added in after. This technique was really interesting to learn about.

In our readings for class we learned about cult horror from Welch Everman in his essay, “What is a cult horror film?” from the introduction of his book on cult horror films.

“Cult horror films, then, are not classics and never will be. Classic horror films are those that have influenced the entire history of horror movies”(Everman).

Personally, I disagree with Welch Everman’s claims that cult horror cannot be categorized as a classic, unless it is derived from the classic stories of Dracula, Frankenstein, or Wolf-Man. To be considered a classic something must be of highest quality and have an impact, or establish value. Carnival of Souls does this. This film has influenced works of David Lynch and it is a high quality film, especially for its budget of only $30,000. In his essay Everman breaks down cult horror films into three categories: so bad they’re good, good despite restrictions, and just really bad. Carnival of Souls falls in the second category. It’s very low budget classifies it as a B-Movie, making one assume that it should not be all that spectacular and completely low quality. However, the film rebukes all of the usual standards for B-Movies and is a must see film.

Another essay we read was “Cult fictions: Cult movies, subcultural capital and the production of cultural distinctions,” by Mark Jancovich. He focuses on aesthetics and authenticity, debating on academic and fan based consumers, deciding which could be truly authentic. The comment he made that stands out the most to me was:

“The image of mass culture as the unauthentic Other, and of the consumer of mass culture as the simple conformist dupe, recurs again and again within this fan writing”(Jancovich).

He talks about creating the mainstream as if it were an outsider and this big show to pull the wool over people’s eyes. It amuses me that the ideas we find that are “supposed” to be the main culture aren’t actually what we enjoy the most, or the subjects we want. This puts a stronger desire for the cult genre, as it represents everything mainstream doesn’t or parody’s it. The idea that mainstream is just a hoax is fairly accurate. Mainstream is what society dictates “should” be enjoyed because it falls into their idea of right, or correct behavior. Cult doesn’t check off any of those boxes, as it isn’t for everyone, especially cult horror films, it takes a specific group of people to enjoy them. I appreciate that Jancovich doesn’t hold back in his criticize of mainstream media and consumption. It is a much longer read, but it does get its point across. Mainstream doesn’t mean authentic and it certainly doesn’t always mean the correct choice.

Carnival of Souls is a must see horror film, both for its authentic influence that was ahead of its time and for some really great running/chase scenes.