Date: Saturday 23 January
Venue: Foyer Bar
Time: 6.30pm
Tickets: £7.50
Carnival of Souls
Year: 2015 Running Time: 60
Director: Bren O’Callaghan
Produced by Sally Folkard
Script adapted by Len Horsey
Music and sound design by Euan Rodger
Starring: Matt Aistrup, Baby Dee, Henrietta Fusi, Amanda Hennessy, Len Horsey, Kate McCabe and Daniel Wallace.
Cert: 15
A new, unique adaptation of director Herk Harvey’s 1962 experimental feature film oddity, Carnival of Souls has been stripped and adapted to become an audio-only experience inside a darkened cinema, inspired by classic fantasy adventure radio serials of the 1930s-40s alongside sensory deprivation methods.
Commissioned by Film Hub North West Central with an advisory group of blind and partially sighted audience members, the broadcast is relayed across wireless headsets incorporating binaural audio – a technique that creates the illusion of the action happening to and around the listener, forming a sense of intimate proximity.
Binaural sound is discerned ‘outside’ the head, projected into physical space, with additional properties of direction, distance and range. Carnival of Souls attempts to explore to what end you, the audience, contribute to the cinematic experience by way of a largely unconscious understanding of form and audio foundations – from sound effects to musical composition, locative prompts and dialogue.
Mary (Amanda Hennessy), escaping a traumatic past, attempts to establish a new life in a sleepy Utah town, site of a derelict carnival and dancehall. Subjected to the attentions and lure of a mysterious figure, Moroni (Baby Dee), Mary finds herself drawn to the ruins of the former pleasure ground… about which the local Mormon congregation know more than they choose to reveal.
Please note this performance takes place in near-darkness with the optional invitation to wear an eye mask for blotting out remaining light spill. It is therefore not suitable for those who may feel uncomfortable in this setting.
Special thanks to Matthew Irvine for permission to adapt from the original film treatment.
Thanks to Filmhub North West for their assistance with bringing this event to Blackpool.
If you like this, why not see the full feature film at our Carnival of Souls screening later on in the Opera House?
Tickets available from the Winter Gardens Box Office, Church Street or online via Ticketmaster (booking fee applies).
Doing the double bill offer? Buy your £2.50 ticket at the Cinema in the Dark event.
Take a look at the Facebook event.
