Horror Daily Double: Dementia, Carnival of Souls

A woman (“The Gamin”) wakes up in a hotel after troubled sleep. She wanders into the city night, finds newspapers with headlines about a mysterious stabbing, gets abducted by a pimp, visits jazz clubs, and does some killing herself. It’s revealed at some point the Gamin was abused as a kid, suggesting Dementia is a 50-minute nightmare in which a young woman is doomed to bear the sins of her father forever. This movie is enigmatic to the max: Not just because the plot is dialogue-free, but because nothing is known about writer/director John Parker. Ditto main actress Adrienne Barrett, who has no other acting credit except for an unseen 1986 drama. That Dementia is a cinematic dead-end gives it more haunting strength; it’s a wicked glimpse into an insane mind Hollywood could only bear to produce once.

Available on Amazon Prime Video, Internet Archive (Note: These are the Daughter of Horror release, which add style-inappropriate narration.)

Another movie from a one-and-done director: Herk Harvey who, between making hundreds of instructional and educational videos in Kansas, managed to put together this disquieting feature. It begins with a drag race gone deadly, as passenger Mary emerges from the river where her friend’s car has sunk. She moves on to the Salt Lake area, attempting to hold down a job or some human companionship, but is dogged constantly by creepy organ music in her head, becoming invisible and mute in public, and random appearances by pasty ghouls and their disheveled leader (played by Harvey himself). Chock full of dread and, like Dementia, another keen look at imperiled women trapped in nightmarish unreality. Watch this and you can see where George A. Romero picked up how to pressurize unease for Night of the Living Dead.

Available on Amazon Video, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu