Being a wuss, I took along a cool, unflappable companion to this 1962 B-grade horror which screens with live music, live dialogue and live sound effects. But even her nerves of steel failed, and at one point we clutched each other and screamed like teenagers.

The Herk Harvey movie itself is not particularly scary, being more a surreal, suggestive take on small-town seediness (there’s a great close up of a creepy neighbour’s beady eye). Even I can watch possessed church organists and a zombie chase through beautifully shot chequered light and shade without flinching. But after an unexpected crack of live drums, we were on edge for the rest of the film. [More]
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The promotional material screeches: “Live Cinema. Carnival of Souls is the best film you’ve never seen and what better way to see it than with an entirely new, totally live soundtrack.”

I’m disinclined to agree with the “best film I’ve never seen” claim – I am absolutely sure there are other classic B grade horror films out there which have a good deal more action and more evocative settings than the cult classic Carnival of Souls on which our entertainment centres on this occasion. But the live soundtrack – a newly composed score for a seven piece orchestra, foley-delivered sounds, vocalisation and enacted script – is certainly a wonderful thing to experience. Hence, I am sure, the enduring success, especially in the festival setting, of the concept: live live cinema. 

The once-plush surroundings of the Mercury Theatre – most recently home to an evangelical congregation – are a fitting setting for this production. It still feels like a theatre, and the plush-covered seats look the part. A big screen high up on the back wall of the stage shows the projected movie. On the stage below, the orchestra is arrayed at stage right, the actors occupy centre-left, and a brightly lit, object strewn foley booth sits to stage left.

The movie is a black and white cult classic directed by Herk Harvey in 1962. It was praised for having “the look of a Bergman … and the feel of a Cocteau” and it is certainly atmospheric. The quality of the original sound score was not up to the same standard, so it has been abandoned on this occasion, replaced by the brand new “live live” score composed by Leon Radojkovic, live foley by Gareth Van Nierkerk, and with actors Chelsie Preston Crayford, Cameron Rhodes, Charlie McDermott and Bronwyn Bradley delivering the original text and related vocal sounds for 20 or so characters. 

The film follows the life of a young woman (on screen Candace Hilligloss, in person Chelsie Preston Crayford) whose world turns nightmarish following a nasty car accident in which her car is pushed off a bridge into the river by another. She picks up her life by moving to a new town where she has a position as a church organist. She drives a Chevvy Impala, and she lives a solitary life, cold and aloof, lacking social graces and disliking being touched. 

She is haunted by glimpses of a white-faced man on all kinds of reflective surfaces – her side window as she drives, the bathroom mirror, a basin of water – and then starts to see him standing around watching her. She seeks help from the minister of her church and the doctor he recommends, but to no avail. She loses her job – for playing demonic music while in a trance-like state – and is accused of having no soul.

Her dreams slowly fill with groups of such ghoulish figures, and eventually she is hallucinating them in broad daylight. At the old carnival site on the outskirts of town, she is surrounded by dancing ghouls who whirl and twirl her in their midst before chasing her away. Her car is found the following day, but of her there is no sign… until her body is found in the car which is winched from the river back in the other town. 

The score is terrific (though much too loudly amplified for the space), with an extensive range of music to match locations ranging from domestic interiors to the wide open spaces of the highway, and interactions ranging from private conversation to the manically whirling, celebratory dance of the dead. Long sequences of more or less action-less film demand music that keeps the audience’s attention moving forward with the film, and this was well achieved. Both pipe organ and church organ are a significant element of the film, and these are also convincingly evoked.  

Top marks to the foley artist for the panoply of sounds created – everything from the throaty roar of the Chevvy Impala to running taps and squeaky door handles. His high heel shoes need some attention though – all footsteps sounded much the same whether the walkers were leather-brogued men or high-heeled women, but this is a minor detail. 

The actors are letter-perfect in syncing with the on-screen delivery of text in the array of accents you would expect from the American mid-west setting as well as the array of people they have to portray. All due credit must go to director Oliver Driver and Jumpboard productions for bringing the project to reality.
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