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Originally Posted by Dr. Eugene Felikson
It's funny how Romero gets so much credit for taking horror out of it's gothic-age, and adding a real grittiness to it, with Night of the Living Dead, when a film like Carnival of Souls came out 7 years prior. Also, what about all of the 1950's mutation flicks? They may not have the grit of NoTLD or CoS, but they certainly aren't "gothic" - arguably even less-so than either film.
Maybe it's because Carnival of Souls went unnoticed during it's original run, and Night of the Living Dead hit it big initially? Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter - seeing as they're both widely considered classics now. But Night of the Living Dead was obviously strongly influenced by Carnival of Souls for many of the traits it is so heavily praised for.
Carnival of Souls creeps the hell out of me though, which, ironically, very few films actually do. The cinematography is stunning, and obviously inspired by early German expressionist horror like Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu (I still have yet to see Vampyr). It also feels uncannily modern at times, given all the fluid camera movements.
Has anyone ever seen the atrocious 1998 remake produced by Wes Craven? What a disaster that is. Yuck!
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Interesting your points about Carnival of Souls but I'm really hard pressed to think of any impact it had on the genre. It stands out primarily because to this day there's really nothing else like it. In that sense, I put it in the same category as something like The Wicker Man or Eraserhead or moving out of horror, Repo Man. Films that have a massive culf following but which've never had much influence on other filmmakers.
And yeah, Carnival creeps me out too. Big time. Jacobs Ladder with quiffs.