MovieChat Forums > Carnival of Souls (1962) Discussion > The one thing that ruined the entire mov...

The one thing that ruined the entire movie for me (SPOILERS)

posted 18 years ago by drdebacle
24 replies | jump to latest

***Disclaimer***

Do not read unless you are possibly willing to have the movie ruined for you as well:

During the final shot, you can see one of the girl's eyelids twitch. Also, the first shot of the dead girls shows them positioned in one direction, then when it shows them again, they have changed positions!

Arggghhhh!

I know this may be anal, but I can't help disliking the movie because of this minor (but very much preventable) mistake.

Sorry.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pgrass24 18 years ago

haha zing!

http://www.imdb.com/boards/

[–] bloodymaryhorror 17 years ago

Actually it probably wasn't preventable. By the time they got around to shooting that scene, it was late in the year, and the water was very cold. The director said the water temperature was 35 degrees. He had to forcibly drag Candace into the water because she couldn't walk into the water on her own. He's lucky he got any footage at all. On the commentary someone commented that her teeth were chattering and she had goosebumps, too. I'm sure she couldn't help her eyelids twitching, either.

Try listening to the commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD - if you listen to them tell the circumstances of making the movie, by the time you get to that scene, it probably won't bother you anymore.

[–] ryfighter 17 years ago

yeah, drdebacle. take that.

[–] besmellah 15 years ago

I know what you mean, and literally during the last second or two! But I suppose you can pretend as if she's to be the next one to experience what Mary did (i.e. she's still "alive"). That's kinda the thought I've entertained when I've watched it recently, despite what questions arise from that possibility...

[–] Janebo 15 years ago

What do you want for $30,000.? That's actually a shame to base your whole enjoyment/entertainment/opinion of a pretty good, independent, almost 50 year old movie on a one second scene.

If that's the case, you must not like very many movies because it's not too difficult to pick out mostly preventable "goofs" in just about every film I can think of...and we're talking mega-million dollar movies at that!

I'm not locked in here with you..You're locked in here with me

[–] Danespina 14 years ago

It isn't nit-picking, it is one of the biggest goofs in the history of cinema history. I get that the water was cold, but that doesen't excuse how essential this shot was, and how badly it was done. I watched it with my girlfriend and enjoyed it, but still that shot was borderline a movie ruiner.

[–] enigmatic_man2 14 years ago

How are you supposed to get a girl risking hypothermia to stop shivering? Just take a step back and breathe a little bit.

--
¡No hay la banda!

[–] blackwood_sugar 14 years ago

There's no 'la' in No hay banda.

[–] skiop 13 years ago

Whoa, languages are indeed tricky. (I'd have to look up what "banda" means.)

[–] blackwood_sugar 13 years ago

No hay banda - there is no band.

I assume you've seen Mulholland Drive?

there was this screw wot really had it in for me

[–] Eyeball_Chambers 13 years ago

I'll bet her name wasn't even Mary, the liars LIARS!!!!!

[–] blackwood_sugar 13 years ago

Eyeball Chambers, you have the best IMDb screen name I've seen in a long time.

there was this screw wot really had it in for me

[–] Ore-Sama 14 years ago

It isn't nit-picking, it is one of the biggest goofs in the history of cinema history.

Maybe if your cinema history is limited to 5 or 10 movies.

I get that the water was cold, but that doesen't excuse how essential this shot was, and how badly it was done

One twitch, big whoop, it doesn't really ruin anything. God's sake there are far worse.

but still that shot was borderline a movie ruiner

Is this the first movie you've ever payed attention to? If that little goof is a border line ruiner, then 99% of films should be ruined because they usually contain far bigger goofs.

"Don't bother the government with the Constitution"

[–] The_Dim_Reaper 14 years ago

Totally agree with that - how can that ruin the film... Ridiculous...

[–] MrBook_ 14 years ago

Yeah, man, people get way too hung up on spotting goofs lately. Get over yourselves. I've watched this movie five or six times and I've never even noticed it. You know why? Because when I'm watching a movie, I'm trying to get immersed in the story, not trying to find little mistakes so I can pretend I'm better than people who made an immensely interesting work of art out of nothing but will.

This is my new sig. Do you like it?

[–] gunforanarm 13 years ago

This is a b-movie. This was probably the best shot they could get with the money/technology they had available to them at the time. Really - if you're going into a b-movie expecting high art you're watching the wrong kind of movie.

[–] kaysild 11 years ago

Besides the body can twitch long after its dead...so just chop it up to that and move on.

[–] BIOSphereopts 13 years ago

Did you also know that when the car went over the bridge, none of the girls were actually in it? And...those were not real zombies, just people wearing makeup?

I may not have a big tricked out name tag, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[–] michael797 13 years ago

The actors can be seen laughing when she is being chased near the end. Because one whole reel of film was accidently destroyed and Herk couldn't afford to re-shoot the lost scenes, he would have had to use some out-takes.I think this adds to the charm of this particular film.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gunforanarm 13 years ago

I've played a dead person on camera before. It's extremely difficult to prevent every little movement or twitch your body might make under the best conditions -and from what I've seen (even in some of the posts on this thread) they filmed this scene when the water was very cold.

Considering those factors and that this was a low budget film... this was probably the best they could do. Film costs money and on such a tight budget they probably couldn't afford to shoot the scene again.

[–] TCMer 13 years ago

Perfection is expensive.