Carnival of Souls

For other uses, see Carnival of Souls (disambiguation).

Carnival of Souls
US film poster by F. Germain
Directed byHerk Harvey
Written byJohn Clifford
Story by
  • Herk Harvey (uncredited)
  • John Clifford (uncredited)[1]
Produced byHerk Harvey
Starring
CinematographyMaurice Prather
Edited by
  • Dan Palmquist
  • Bill de Jarnette
Music byGene Moore
Production
company
Distributed byHerts-Lion International Corp.
Release date
  • September 26, 1962 (1962-09-26)
Running time
80 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$33,000

Carnival of Souls is a 1962 American psychological horror film[3] produced and directed by Herk Harvey and written by John Clifford[1] from a story by Clifford and Harvey, and starring Candace Hilligoss. Its plot follows Mary Henry, a young woman whose life is disturbed after a car accident. She relocates to a new city, where she finds herself unable to assimilate with the locals, and becomes drawn to the pavilion of an abandoned carnival. Director Harvey also appears in the film as a ghoulish stranger who stalks her throughout.[4] The film is set to an organ score by Gene Moore.

Filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, and Salt Lake City, Carnival of Souls was shot on a budget of $33,000, and Harvey employed various guerrilla filmmaking techniques to finish the production. The film is loosely based on the French short An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961), an adaptation of the 1890 story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce, and Harvey was inspired by the visual style of filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Jean Cocteau.[5] Carnival of Souls was Harvey's only feature film, and did not gain widespread attention when originally released as a double feature with the now mostly forgotten The Devil's Messenger in 1962.

Since the 1980s, the film has been noted by critics and film scholars for its cinematography and foreboding atmosphere.[6] The film has a large cult following and is occasionally screened at film and Halloween festivals.

  1. ^ a b "Carnival of Souls (1962)". BFI. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  2. ^ Weldon 1996, p. 93.
  3. ^ Olson 2018, p. 36.
  4. ^ Brody, Richard (September 27, 2016). "The Front Row: "Carnival of Souls"". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast.
  5. ^ Godfrey, Good & Goodall 2009, pp. 17–18.
  6. ^ Immediate Family, The Bear, Dad, Next of Kin, Carnival of Souls, 1989 – Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews