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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 8:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Disappointed with Netflix. Wanted to rent Carnival of Souls, but despite showing the cover for the Criterion release, which is a two-disc set--and the director's cut is on the second--they only list one disc, and it's the first without the director's cut (which I know because of the running time listed). Does Netflix regularly do this with two-disc releases?
Wanted to complain in the review section, but interestingly the site will not accept a reveiw with the word "Netflix" in it.
You can still complain; just say "the disc I received" or something. People will get it. But...
...this is not the usual case with Netflix. Many movies have two discs available. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| Thanks. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:15 am |
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By the way, I can't post my review there for some reason, and I think it's a pretty good one so, minus the complaits about what Netflix makes available, I'm reproducing it here:
Carnival of Souls is wonderfully eerie. While there are some fun shock images, for the most part this is a low key mood piece. I'm not sure it deserves too much credit for originality since
***SPOILERS***
The story is clearly derived for the old radio play and Twilight Zone episode "The Hitch-Hiker." Even down to the heroine being put into a life-threatening car accident AFTER she's already dead and doesn't yet know it.
***END SPOILERS***
But it deals with familiar material in an entertaining and evocative way. The cast is right, if not great. I don't mean to say they are bad or untalented, it's just...think 50's-60's era television drama for the kind of performances you get here.
The budget is a real aid. Filmed on drab everyday locations or conversely that impossible-to-intentionally-create creepy abandoned pavilion, and filled largely with seemingly non-professionals (I bet most of the people in this movie had never acted before, or have since), the movie has an odd sense of authenticity. And a bigger movie would be a more bloated movie: even the expanded director's cut doesn't reach 90 minutes, which is all to the good. This movie is lean and to the point, like a well-told ghost story.
And yet this movie has one quality even the most prestigious Hollywood film of the time would probably lack: existentialism. It's fascinating the way the heroine intentionally isolates herself from life throughout, has no desire for contact with anyone or anything (including religion), yet is constantly in terror of, and running from, figures of death. What does she cling to life so desperately for, when she doesn't want any part of it? It's a fascinating conceit that could lead to any number of possibilities (is death so awful because she has no religion? there's nothing pleasant about those figures who chase her or the world the want to drag her into, yet nothing we see of her suggests she's a sinner to be damned, so what does that say about the vision of an afterlife traditional religions posit?). And happily not dwelt upon or belabored. It's just there.
A nifty picture. Not perfect, and not to be approached with impossibly high expectations. But very effective. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:35 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Joe,
Haven't seen CoS, but will now. I like that TZ-ish, existential stuff, so you've sold me. Have you seen "Ink" by any chance? It's a recent release, 2008 or 2009, and concerns a father and daughter in Denver (filmed there, low budget and yet artistically very inventive) dealing with some estrangement and metaphysical problems with bad souls bent on soul-sucking. It starts out a bit shakily, but sort of (cough) sucks you in. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| Haven't seen or hear of Ink, but will look for it now. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 1:44 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Carnival of Souls is a real cult item. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 5:17 pm |
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Quote: Carnival of Souls is a real cult item.
Not anymore. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 5:27 pm |
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Guest
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:16 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Cat's out of the bag -- even Joe's seen it by now.
Carnival of Souls is oddly effective.
For another low-budget suspense treat, try Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). Terrific acting by Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley. Impressive camerawork. Real creepy tale, well-told. Very impressive. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:52 pm |
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Quote: How come, not anymore?
It was a cult item 20 years ago. It's emerged from cult status. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:25 pm |
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Marc wrote: Quote: How come, not anymore?
It was a cult item 20 years ago. It's emerged from cult status.
That's true, but its low budget and amateurishness still make it seem very cultish. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| So.......Gromit.....ARE you wearing pajamas? |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 10:48 pm |
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| I don't think being well known has anything to do with a movie being a cult film. I think it's the general reception of said movie. And Carnival of Souls is still primarily popular among horror fanatics, not much attention given to it by the average movie-goer. So I'd say its cult status is still intact. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 11:10 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| POOP ON IT. |
Last edited by Marc on Thu May 20, 2010 3:23 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 3:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Befade wrote: So.......Gromit.....ARE you wearing pajamas?
Well, it's kind of in between flannel and cotton season, and ... wait, Where did that question come from? |
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