Haunted influences

[Ezra]

Disney is fond of touting classic horror films like Robert Wise's 1963 film The Haunting as reference material for The Haunted Mansion attraction — and the influence is clearly evident — but I suspect that many lesser films or "B movies" also had some small influence. When viewing Marc Davis' humorous concept sketches for The Haunted Mansion, for example, I'm reminded of the ghostly lion and lion-tamer in William Castle's 1960 gimmicky 13 Ghosts (13 Times the Thrills! 13 Times the Fun!).

Rolly Crump recalls watching a lot of horror films during the early 1960s. Imagineers watched every spooky film that came out, and ordered prints of every older film they could lay their hands on. "We watched everything!"

Today I'm going to submit a terrible B movie for consideration as possibly influential to the development of The Haunted Mansion: 1962's Carnival of Souls, a film with an amateur cast and minuscule budget made by production company that specialized in industrial how-to films. After inexplicably surviving a serious auto accident unscathed, a young woman is plagued by brief glimpses of a ghostly, corpse-like figure, seen chiefly in reflections "out of the corner of the eye" so to speak.
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A second glance usually reveals her own reflection instead.
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The Haunted Mansion's hitchhiking ghosts, seen a reflections in mirrors, is brought to mind. I am also reminded of the ghostly images that briefly appear in portraits when a flash of lightning falls on them. This also reminds me of the intermittent appearance and disappearance of transparent ghosts in the ballroom.

If this were the only similarity, I'd pass it off as coincidence, but it isn't. Our heroine is attracted by the abandoned Saltair Amusement Park on the Great Salt Lake, which she explores. She is drawn to return at the end of the film to find a crowd of the dead frolicking there. The idea of ghosts having a party definitely reminds me of the last half of The Haunted Mansion attraction: which is one big shindig.

In the dilapidated dance pavilion, she finds a party in progress. Ghosts are dancing to a "spirited" waltz.
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Look familiar?

If that isn't enough to convince you that this is more than just a coincidence, there's the movie score... The main character, you see, is a musician; specifically an organist. In the beginning of the film she's employed demonstrating the enormous instruments in a pipe-organ factory.
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It's a little character detail that justifies Glen Moore's remarkable score for the film, comprised almost entirely of pipe-organ solos. Even the pop music emitted from a car radio is pipe-organ. Similarly, The Haunted Mansion's score, while not entirely organ solos, features the pipe-organ quite heavily. The organ is nearly always part of every music ensemble in some small capacity, even in the "swinging" graveyard scene.

After our heroine's near-fatal accident, she takes a job as a church organist. While practicing hymns, she daydreams about the abandoned amusement park. She falls into a trance and begins to play an urgent, frenetic, carnival-like waltz.
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The same music is repeated later on in the dance pavilion, where the dead are waltzing to it. While none of the music in the film has melodies similar to that of Grim Grinning Ghosts, it has a strikingly similar feel and character... especially the carnival waltz.

This ascertation of mine that Carnival of Souls was an influence in the development of The Haunted Mansion is solely based on conjecture. I have no references to present that link this film to the attraction. I am merely pointing out similarities between the attraction and the film. But these traits are not common to all "old dark house" horror films: The qualities that make this film similar to the attraction, also make this film unique.

[adrianne]

What fun, Ezra -- thank you! And also thanks for mentioning my favorite, "13 Ghosts". I actually have a copy on VHS, but alas, no VCR.

[disneylover]

Wow, so cool Ezra! My mom LOVES horror movies! I will have to ask her if she has seen any of the ones you have mentioned. Thanks for all the neat information :)

[DaddyB]

Wow! Leave it to our Ezra to bring something like this to our attention! What great stuff!

[crystaltink]

I've never seen this movie. I'm thinking I need to find this, if at all possible. This was a fun read!

[ShrunkenNed]

Now I feel a need to go and find this movie! Thanks for the insight, EZ!

[Horbigast]

I have GOT to see this movie now. I'm a big fan of suspenseful horror, and it sounds right up my alley. Carnival of Souls was filmed on the grounds of an old victorian waterfront Amusement Park on Salt Lake in Utah called Saltair. I looked it up, and I couldn't believe what a tumultuous history it has, it almost seems cursed! Built in 1893, it's the perfect setting for something out of Haunted Mansion lore!

1925 - Destroyed by fire and rebuilt
1931 - Another fire decimated it
1933 - Salt Lake receeded, forcing them to built a small railway out to the water for the swimmers
1942 - Like many other leisure businesses, forced to close due to WWII
1957 - Rollercoaster destroyed in a windstorm
1970 - Burned down yet again thanks to an unidentified arsonist
1980 - Flooded by the rising of Salt lake, which would receed yet again several years later

Just the kind of place to find Grim, Grinning Ghosts, don't you think?

Thanks Ezra!

[#1DisneyFreak]

Saltair is creepy haha. Just driving by it you get this feeling that it's abandoned shell has something going on inside.

I need to find this movie as well! I say we have a screening at the hunt this year haha!