 
An
organ player named Mary Henry (Candace
Hillgoss) is enjoying a day car cruise
with her two friends but suddenly there's
a challenged drag race and the women
accept but when they do their car
suddenly loses control and falls off a
bridge.
After trying to retrieve the vehicle by
some inspectors and encounter Mary rising
from the river while her friends
supposedly drowned.
After
Mary recovers she accepts a new job in
town by being a church organist but sees
an image of a mysterious phantom that
seems to reside in an old closed down
carnival nearby where she rents a suite.
Also
she goes through hallucinations when she
thinks that people don't notice her
presence and Mary must confront the
personal demons of her spiritual
insouciance.
Is she really alive from the accident or
just a wandering spirit?
The film starts
off nicely with 3 men and women in a car
doing a drag race as there's not much
dialogue used but yet it makes you wonder
as to what will happen which leaves an
impression that it won't be good and
suddenly a car falls off a bridge into a
muddy river as in today's standards
looked a little too obvious than
suspenseful.
Then later on while people all around the
area trying to find the vehicle the
character Mary Henry arises out of the
river dazed as you wonder how the hell
she survived being in the muddy river for
so long.
In the story there's a long moment with
her driving alone in the night on a
silent road. Things seem suddenly too
quiet and peaceful along with a distance
look at a closed down carnival residing
which things start to seem creepy but
what is more scary is a reflection of the
phantom figure in her rear car window in
which today's standards would still look
spooky and effective.
Later on in the story the Minister takes
Mary up to the carnival in which all of
the settings looked deserted as this
worked very well to make the plot seem
very mysterious as well as spooky too.
There's a moment when Mary asks to check
out the carnival and he tells her that
the place isn't safe since it's boarded
up as the film makes you watching for
more hoping for some scary moments about
to happen later on.
A real great scene that is scary to watch
is the Phantom slowly walking up some
stairs in a house that Mary is renting
and she panics by running away into her
room while he follows her and she locks
her door. Then you can hear the footsteps
growing loudwer closer to the door making
you wonder as to what will happen next.
A nice screen effect looking like a
flashback sequence occurs during a moment
when Mary is in a clothing store and
later on tries to talk to anyone but
everything is silent and don't notice her
as well as everything it mute which
seemed very weird but was well put in
making you wonder even more as to why
this is all happening.
There's also moments when she talks to
her counsellor about all of this when
things are back to normal and he gets
aggressive with her making out she's
imagining this. You don't see someone
doing this to a patient almost making you
think that this gal isn't really in the
real world at all and making the story
seem even stranger.
I got excited when she decided to go and
look around the abandoned carnival hoping
something really shocking would happen
but everwhere she goes the place is
deserted. Then later on we spot good ole
Phantom lying in some water asleep in the
back ocean of the place.
Then there's good moments on Mary playing
a church organ and clips on zombies
rising from the ocean and dancing in a
fast motion in a hallway of the carnival
as all of this looked hauntinglike and
twisted too. Plus a good hallucination
sequence with the Phantom stopping her
from playing only to really be one of the
owners at the church getting aggressive
with her for playing nasty music. This
drew in nicely like she was losing it big
time.
Mary starts to lose her sanity even more
spotting this Phantom stalking her on and
off as well as things going silent again
while she tries to take a bus to run away
from the terrors happening only to find
that the bus is full of zombie's in which
alot of this had some nifty writing for
the story making it more suspsenseful and
in a neat horror fashion too.
But near the end is what looked really
exciting is when the final terror happens
to Mary when she sees the zombies dance
in a carnival hall and then invade on
her. However during the end when the
story tries to explain itself it's still
difficult to know what was what.
Bottom line is that this is a truly
chilling tale in the same taste as a Hitchcock
movie almost mixing in some Psycho
elements in certain scene's. Also with
the Phantom stalking Mary looked like
where John Carpenter might have
borrowed the same chemistry for Halloween.
Some scenes are weak though and lacks
inspiration but it does pick up too and
the picture is one of the clearest
B&W films of the early 60's too as it
almost even gives you a radio play type
of feel when you listen to the creepy
music throughout it as well as the
dialogues in it and the sound effects but
the writing is a little bad in certain
spots.
The acting is
excellent for it's time. Candace
Hillgoss (Mary Henry) does a
marvellous job in her role as a troubled
survivor who is an organ player and knows
how to behave paranoid. Plus she really
draws in some good screams as well as
really bolting from one moment to the
other. She really knew how to put
charisma to her part in the movie. Her
looks were a bonus too fitting her
character.
Frances
Feist (Mrs. Thomas) seems to do well
with her role as the nice landlady and
knowing how to prove her point by being a
character actress with a nice
wholesomness with her looks as well as a
good friendliness too. All in all she
really comes across well into what she
did as well as getting good and dramatic
really knowing her craft as a serious
actress. You can tell that she was a
stage actress with her performance in
this one which is a compliment.
Sidney Burger (John Linden) was
terrific as the sleazy and flirtatious
drunken womaniser in the film as he knows
what he's doing for his part. He brings
on a nice energetic charm to his role as
someone who is not the least bit shy and
really getting what he wants. He does a
believeable job by acting drunk in
certain scene's along with getting upset
too. He was one of the most energetic
actors showing a ton of spunk and really
making his part memorable too.
The directing by Hark
Harvey is in tip top terrific shape
making the stroy very clear.
He shows a nice beginning with two cars
racing together and a nice shot on one of
them falling off a bridge into the muddy
river.
There's good camera takes around the
muddy river showing the opening credits.
The shot on Candace Hillgoss looked
very impressive when she rises from the
waters onto a sand dune reacting as if
the wind was knocked right out of her.
There's a good shot on Hillgoss
playing the organ in a church practising
her music and has a nice dialogue between
small actor Tom McGinnis as he
was well directed with his wods towards Hillgoss
making him sound like a realistic
generous boss at his organ factory and Hillgoss
has good reactions by making it clear
she's not returning as she really seemed
troubled.
There's a good shot on Hillgoss
driving in the night and trying to change
the radio station and suddenly an
uncredited Herk Harvey appears
by her window which looks very ghostly as
well as showing him appearing during
other moments too which looked equally
creepy.
We spot a shot on supporting actor Sidney
Burger looking in the doorway of a
room acting smart as well as a good shot
on his eye.
We have a great shot on the camera
panning in on both Hillgoss
looking frightened at the top of a
stairway at a house as well as Harvey
with the camera panning in on him at the
bottom of the stairway with an evil grin
on his face about to walk up the stairs
and Hillgoss really shows her stuff
behaving frightened running into her
room. All together it looked very
frightening.
A perfect camera shot on Hillgoss with
her eyes wide open staring at the window
and then walking over to it.
There's a nice dialogue starting off with
Burger acting flirtatious while
having coffee with Hillgoss and
she isn't impressed. It is funny and
amusing
There is a great setting in a clothes
store when we see a wavy picture and then
Hillgoss hears nothing but silence
and the people around her doesn't even
thinks that she exists and does well by
behaving paranoid running around the the
area of the town.
There's nice shots on her at the
abandoned carnival looking around and
some of the stuff seems to move by
itself. The shot on the whole front of
the carnival entrance looked impressive
too.
There's a perfect setting on Hillgoss
playing the organ in a church and has
great blocking as if something is taking
over her body along with some paranoid
expressions on her face. During this
moment we see a nice cast of extras as
zombie's rising from the water and
entering the carnival doing some fast
paced dancing routines which works well.
Supporting actor Art Ellison
shows great anger towards Hillgoss
when he tells her that she's fired from
playing at her church as it looks very
believeable at someone being fired.
Hillgoss trips out terrifically when
she spots a reflection of Harvey
in her bedroom mirror and freaks out
towards Burger's character as he
even does well by going ballistic against
her actions.
She shows good non expressions when she
walks down to the bottom of the stairs
with a suitcase in her hand when Frances
Feist tries to talk to her and she
says nothing as if she were a zombie
herself.
Hillgoss
is at it again behaving paranoid running
around the town and not hearing anything
while trying to take a bus. There's nice
shots on the extra's in a bus getting up
and chasing after her.
We see a great camera shot on Harvey with
his cold grin while dancing around at the
carnival ballroom plus a nice shot on
Hillgoss outside near the sand crawling
to the ground with the zombies grabbing
at her.
However during the end when it shows her
in the car that the people pulled up from
the muddy river and she was supposed to
look dead it looked very fake as if she
was pretending to.
The music was composed by Gene
Moore and did a good creepy job at
it too with the icy organ music as it
sounded extremely original and necessary
for a film during this time era. Plus it
does sound like he'd be good using music
like this for those radio plays giving it
a operfect old fashioned creepy feel to
it.
Mary
Henry: I don't belong in the world.
Mrs.
Thomas: You just let your imagination
run away with you.
Mrs.
Thomas: You can take all the baths
you want.
Mary
Henry: In the dark, your fantasies
get so far out of hand.
Minister:
You cannot live in isolation from the
human race, you know.
John
Linden: You're gonna need me in the
evening, you just don't know it yet.
John
Linden: [pours whiskey in his
morning coffee] What do you think,
I'm an alcoholic? I just like to start
the day off in a good mood.
Mary Henry: You must be hilarious
by noon.
Zombies:
Come with us. Come and dance.
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