Carnival of Souls (1962)

Candace Hilligoss: Mary Henry

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Quotes 

• Mary Henry : It's funny... the world is so different in the daylight. In the dark, your fantasies get so out of hand. But in the daylight everything falls back into place again.

• Mary Henry : I don't belong in the world.

• 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.

• John Linden : [when Mary does not drink the glass of beer he ordered for her at a bar]  What's the matter? Don't you drink?

  Mary Henry : Not really.

  John Linden : Well, I do. And not only do I drink really, I really drink.

• Mrs. Thomas : [she runs the boardinghouse, she has just served Mary a late-night sandwich, and poured a cup of coffee, just before bedtime]  Now, you just go and eat that sandwich I made for you. Don't drink the coffee, if coffee keeps you awake.

  Mary Henry : It won't.

  [after Mrs. Thomas leaves the room] 

  Mary Henry : Coffee never keeps me awake.

  [quick cut to the next scene, Mary is lying in bed, owl-eyed, staring out the window, and unable to sleep.] 

• Mary Henry : [yelling into the void]  WHY CAN'T ANYBODY HEAR ME?

• Mary Henry : I don't belong in the world, that's what it is. Something separates me from other people. Everywhere... They're everywhere! They're not going to let me go. Everywhere I turn there's something blocking my escape. It's trying to prevent me from living! He's trying to take me back somewhere! I can't fight anymore. I don't know what's real anymore.

• Mrs. Thomas : That experience must have been a serious emotional shock.

  Mary Henry : You think I imagined all of it, don't you? You think I'm insane.

  Mrs. Thomas : I didn't say that. I don't mean that.

  Mary Henry : I'm a competent person. If anything, I'm a realist. I'm not given to imagining anything.

  Mrs. Thomas : Hogwash. All of us imagine things. Have you ever heard two men talking behind your back and imagined they were talking about you? Have you ever imagined you saw someone you knew and walked up to them and found they were a perfect stranger?

  Mary Henry : I don't see what this has to do with it.

  Mrs. Thomas : The point is this. Our imaginations play tricks on us. They often misinterpret what we see and hear. Do you agree?

  Mary Henry : I suppose so.

  Mrs. Thomas : If that can happen in ordinary times, go a step further. Look what can happen in a high fever or following a serious emotional shock.

• Mrs. Thomas : Do you have a boyfriend here or back home?

  Mary Henry : No, I have no desire for one.

  Mrs. Thomas : Never?

  Mary Henry : No. I'm surprised by myself saying that, but it's true. I have no desire for the closed company of other people.

  Mrs. Thomas : Have you always felt this way?

  Mary Henry : I... I don't know.

  Mrs. Thomas : Don't you want to join in the things that other people do? Share the experiences of other people?

  Mary Henry : I don't think capable of being very close to people. I do feel that perhaps I am trying to reach out for those other things.

• Mary Henry : It was more than just not being able to hear anything or make contact with anyone. It was as though... as though for a time I didn't exist. As though I had no place in the world, no part of the life around me.