Comic-Con coverage on Spout
Advertisement

Carnival of Souls
  • 0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Rate this movie.

Buy it now on DVD
Starting at $4.93
trailerWatch trailer

Rent it, watch it, find it

Advertisement

Directed by Herk Harvey.
A drag race turns to tragedy when one car, with three young women inside, topples over a bridge and into the muddy river below. The authorities drag the river, but the search is fruitless and the girls are presumed dead until a single survivor stumbles out of the water with no recollection of how she escaped. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) decides to forget her strange experience and carry on with her plan to move to Utah to accept a job as a church organist. She rejects the notion that because her profession leads her to work in the church, she is obligated to worship as part of the congregation, and this cold approach to her work unnerves many around her. While driving to the new city, she experiences weird visions of a ghoulish man who stares at her through the windshield, and passes an abandonded carnival on a desolate stretch of highway outside of town to which she feels strangely drawn. Mary tries to live her life in private, ignoring invitations to worship by the minister of her church and the leering propositions of a neighbor in her rooming house. Soon the ghostly apparition from the highway is appearing more often, and she experiences eerie spells in which she becomes invisible to people on the street. A doctor tries to help, but he too is rejected, and eventually Mary realizes that the deserted carnival holds the secret to her destiny. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
[more]

Reviews and discussions

Write a review

divinemsjunebugdivinemsjunebug Mediocre or some B Movies that ...
by divinemsjunebug in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"We've talked a lot about the "horror" of seeing our favorite movies from the past being remade. What are some okay movies that you've seen and liked and thought - Wow, that would be SOOOOO cool if this was made again with today's technology. " [More]
divinemsjunebugdivinemsjunebug Re: Really Cheesy (a.k.a. Drive ...
by divinemsjunebug in HORROR MOVIES 101
loved it.
"Hey Greg, that is a really nice story about you and your dad. It sounds like the two of you had a great relationship. I wish my dad and I would have been close but he had issues. But we did stay up late and watch Friday Fright Night together, etc. But that is about as close as we got.I can just imagine about your LOVE MACHINE station wagons. You would probably say, it's so much more comfortable if we just lay down back here, I PROMISE I will be a gentlemen...he he. Most of the drive-ins in Kansas City are all gone too. I think there is one out here in Seattle, but I don't think it's in the best neighborhood. Anyway, my friends and I would go in high school to the late, late night drive in show. Believe it or NOT they would show 1970s PORN at the DRIVE IN. The screen must have faced away from the highway because I can just imagine driving by with your family and you look up to see a sex scene. Anyway, that is where I saw Debbie Does Dallas, Deep Throat, The Gr ... " [More]
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
In the 1960s, there were dozens of regional filmmakers cranking out low-budget horror and sci-fi pictures, but while most of them were hoping to become the next Roger Corman or William Castle, Herk Harvey obviously had something more grand in mind. Kansas-based Harvey fancied himself an artist, and if his only feature, Carnival of Souls, is more than a bit pretentious, it's also strong and stylish enough to support his ambitions -- Carnival of Souls has a look and feel decidedly different than that of any horror movie of its time. Concerning itself with a woman caught in a spiritual netherworld between life and death, Carnival of Souls has a cool, slightly forbidding tone and a desolate beauty in its visual style that stands apart from most B-horror pics of the period (or A-horror pics, for that matter), and the icy emotional remove of leading lady Candace Hilligoss suggests a character out of Ingmar Bergman rather than the usual screaming damsel being chased by monsters who graced drive-in screens of the period. Harvey's years in industrial filmmaking certainly served him well while making Carnival of Souls, which looks surprisingly glossy and distinctive given its shoestring budget, and if some of the material seems just a shade overdone, more than enough of it hits the target (especially the slightly surreal dance of the ghouls, and Hilligoss' panicky final reel) to make one wish Harvey had been able to make a few more features before retreating back to movies about proper classroom etiquette. Carnival of Souls is that rare cult movie that truly deserves its reputation; while the film is available on home video from a number of sources thanks to its public domain status, the double-disc Criterion Collection DVD is certainly the best way to go, offering a pristine transfer that makes the most of the film's excellent camera work, and plenty of bonus features which tell you everything you might want to know about the making of Carnival of Souls, its locations, and the career of Herk Harvey. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
 



Community ratings

mavens
Spout mavens
liked it.
most people
Most people
are neutral about it.

Other opinions

patches
patches
loved it.
divinemsjunebug
divinemsjunebug
loved it.
TheWorkingDead
TheWorkingDead
loved it.
razordead
razordead
is not interested.
mpcp24
mpcp24
is not interested.
dragonreborn
dragonreborn
is not interested.