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7/13/2014

Carnival of Souls (1962) - Herk Harvey's one movie is an inspired, nightmarish classic



Drawn, eerie and not even lying (!) poster for Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls

QUICK REVIEW:

After a car accident, Mary, our organ player heroine, moves to small time America, where she soon finds herself in a frightening alone-in-the-world soul limbo!
Despite miserable sound quality, an at times inordinately scratching, - but atmospheric, - organ music score and a weirdly abrupt beginning, Carnival of Souls has an intensely discomforting air to it. It presents a creeping, Twilight Zone-reminiscent situation that will crawl under your skin!

Beautiful, despairing Candace Hilligoss in Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls

Candace Hilligoss (The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)) plays well and is very beautiful in this weird, nightmarish film by Herk Harvey, an infomercial director behind short documentaries like What About Prejudice? (1959). He also stars in the film as the main male ghoul:

Herk Harvey in his own film, Carnival of Souls

Harvey never made another feature, but boy, the one he made is inspired! 
It was made on a mere 33,000 $ budget with a crew of just 5 people besides Harvey himself. It wasn't highly regarded at its release, but has since been remembered by many and grown through TV airings and video and DVD releases, and is now something of a psychological horror cult movie. It is in public domain and can be seen free and legally here.

Related post:

Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the great, original trailer here 


Carnival of Souls has even made itself into this unofficial, alternate music video for Lana Del Rey's Video Games

Budget: 33,000 $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Carnival of Souls?
Any stories regarding the movie?

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