jim mccrary and i share a few of the same passions. one of those passions is for the brilliant horror movie carnival of souls. a box-office dud at the time of its release, the movie has since (i think it belongs in the public domain now. there are several dvd versions you can get, my copy is a cheapie double-feature, the second movie is about a haunting from a woman burned as a witch in salem, ma starring christopher lee and called horror hotel, purchased for about five bucks.) become a classic. the story has been ripped off by many a horror film, the latest being the so-so the sixth sense by m. night shamalamadingdong (why, oh why do producers keep giving him money to make his crappy films?) . i even think there was a remake a few years ago by none other than the terrific director wes craven. not to diss craven but i tend to shy away from remakes of classic films for fear of disapointment. sorta like watching yr favorite book turned into a film, it usually is shite. there are exceptions, yes, such of the '04 version of george a. romero's dawn of the dead. both are brilliant, for different reasons. but then so, at any rate, i've not seen craven's version of one of my favorite films.

the film stars candace hilligos as a young woman who survives the trauma of a car crash. she is haunted by hallucinations, paranoia, lack of affect, which suits her icy exterior. i'll not give away the film, if you've not seen it yet, but you get the general gestalt when i compared shyamalan's film to it. the film reeks of atmosphere. it is genuinely chilling, creepy, with many images burned into yr retinas and then the mind. you won' t forget it, ever.

sounds like hyperbole, i know. the film does not escape the look of its miniscule budget, but the filmmaker used what little he had to such tremendous effect. i recall being told by anna's mother about the film long before i saw the movie. she remembered the movie as being the creepiest she had ever seen. she's not one to appreciate over much the horror genre, so i took that to be a ringing endorsement. anna and i caught the film on tv during a weeklong halloween movie-a-thon hosted by rob zombie. we went to bed freaked out, forced to agree that carnival of souls was one of the scariest movies we've ever seen.

the filmmaker herk harvey was a veteran director of industrial films before he made his one and only feature. that the film bombed might explain why harvey never made another one. which is a shame, since the man was a natural storyteller. he spent the remainder of his life making industrial and educational films in lawrence, ks. but i think harvey did have an inkling as to his growing fame. harvey, as 'the man' in souls, is the one presence you don't forget in the movie. that's him dressed as 'the man' in the wikipedia article. most of souls was filmed in lawrence, with a smaller portion shot at an old carnival beside the great salt lake in utah. the carnival has since sunk into the lake, but many of the lawrence features remain to this day.

back to mccrary, a long-time lawrence resident. he emailed me some memories of the film, its landmarks and of inviting harvey and his wife to a halloween party back in the ealy '90s. i've asked his okay to quote from his note, so here i'll end with mccrary talking about ol' herk and his film.

Harvey bits – the building, the organ factory, stands empty downtown where much of film made, a friend has the actually organ in his house. Beautiful old stone building. The department store is there, still has the “only escalator west of kansas city – when film made”. Some of other locations filmed here still look same, park scenes. Sometime, I think around 1991-2 I was involved at local art center and we threw a Holloween Party and on a whim invited Herk and wife to attend…not only did they attend, brought video of COS’s and arrived in full custome – he with famous white face goul makeup and his wife as another goul. What a great person.