Carnival of Souls

John Chard

2014-03-29

⭐ 8

We open with a car crash... Mary and her two friends leave the road and fly off a bridge during a friendly dragster race. She is the only survivor and after her recovery she takes up a job as the church organist in a new town, but she is constantly blighted by a ghostly like visitor and periods of time when nobody seems to know she exists. A hinted spoiler follows. Carnival Of Souls has thankfully found a whole new audience in the new millennium, the advent of cheap triple pack DVDs and a lush Criterion release have brought it firmly to the attention of Horror/Ghost fans who were not …

Wuchak

2022-02-15

⭐ 7

_**Haunting early 60's movie, like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone**_ A young woman (Candace Hilligoss) survives a vehicle accident in Lawrence, Kansas, and then is troubled by a specter (director Herk Harvey) and other strange occurrences as she moves to the Great Salt Lake region for a gig as a church organist. "Carnival of Souls" (1962) is an eerie, moody cult flick shot in B&W, but not scary at all. It's similar in vibe to "Night Tide" (1961) with Dennis Hopper. The creepiest part is the girl's lecherous neighbor in Utah (Sidney Berger). Besides the haunting ambiance, wh…

CinemaSerf

2023-05-06

⭐ 7

When two groups of teenagers are racing their cars over a narrow bridge, an accident occurs and the car carrying the girls goes a-tumbling into the deep and muddy river below. It's during the extensive search process (a man with a bit of string with a weight tied to it) that "Mary" (Candice Hilligoss) emerges from the river, the sole survivor. Gradually, though, things start to become ambiguous - she is obsessed with a run down carnival nearby, is soon seeing apparitions and after a short while we all start to wonder if she is actually real or not! The acting from Hilligoss and from Art Elliso…

Filipe Manuel Neto

2023-06-17

⭐ 4

**Even bad movies deserve to have a place in history.** After seeing this movie, I'm left with the feeling that it's a bit overrated, even though it's undoubtedly a remarkable classic of psychological horror. It's more rudimentary than one would expect, and the lack of means and resources is evident. On a very tight budget, director Herk Harvey deserves praise for the way he made the most of what he had and made an authentic labor of love. After reading a little, I realized that this was the only feature film of him and actress Candace Hilligoss. Their careers took an unhappy course towards…