As an LGBTQIA+ ally, I’m always looking to better understand (and support) my brothers, sisters, and nonbinaries.
One way that I try to do this, small as it may be, is to introduce people to entertainment that features people all across the rainbow. Not too long ago, I talked about the Macaulay Culkin-led Party Monster, which features gay culture. I also covered Velvet Goldmine, which circles around bisexuality. Well, today, I want to focus on asexuality, and I bring you none other than the 1962 horror cult classic, Carnival of Souls.
Now, while asexuality is never directly mentioned in Carnival of Souls, I think there’s a case to be made that it’s actually (accidentally or not) in the film, and here’s why.
Mary Shows No Desire Whatsoever To Sexual Advances, And Even Seems Annoyed By Them
I don’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Carnival of Souls. Even though I love it, it’s often not considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time, unless you’re talking about indie horror movies, to which it’s highly regarded. The plot concerns a woman named Mary (Candace Hilligoss) who seems to be the sole survivor of a car accident after her two female friends and she go flying off a bridge during a drag race.
Mary wanders out of the water, all ghoulish-like, after a search party looks for the three of them. She moves on from her traumatic experience the best she can by heading to Salt Lake City and taking on a job as a church organist. She rents out a room near the church, and ends up having a creepy male neighbor named John (Sidney Berger) who immediately hits on her. She’s immediately put off by him.
Now, you might think that this doesn’t directly spell “asexuality.” However, it’s how she’s put off by John that paints this possible picture. She’s frequently haunted by strange visions, and goes on dates with John just so she won’t be alone.
But, once on these dates, it’s not just that she doesn’t have any attraction to him. It seems like she wouldn’t have any attraction to anyone, both male and female. She’s mostly aloof with pretty much everybody in the movie, and seems to want to be left alone, but also wants to fit in with people. In the end, she just seems…distant, and she doesn’t quite know why.
Mary Even Acknowledges At One Point That "I Don't Belong In The World...Something Separates Me From Other People."
At one point in the film, John gets sick of Mary because she can’t seem to make up her mind. She says she wants to be with him, and you can tell that she’s making an effort, but it’s entirely forced. It’s not forced for his sake, but rather, for her own. Throughout the film, she visits a doctor, who admits he’s not a psychiatrist, and tells him that she doesn’t belong in the world, and that something separates her from other people.
Now, this of course has to do with the narrative itself, as similar to The Sixth Sense, Mary really might not be of this world anymore following her accident. However, looking deeper into the narrative and how Mary is distant with everyone - especially those who wonder why she isn’t romantically involved with anybody - you could make a case that she is really speaking to how she doesn’t understand why she isn’t attracted to anyone, and that she’s always just been that way, for as far back as she can remember.
That’s important, because this movie isn’t queer-coded, as we never get a sense that Mary might just like women like Shirley MacLaine’s character in The Children’s Hour. Instead, Mary feels socially, and romantically, distant with everybody.
And, for a movie from the ‘60s, where women were typically always viewed as a romantic interest, Carnival of Souls is that rare movie that, even if it wasn’t intending to do so, still manages to create asexual subtext, which I think is pretty cool.
