Back Carnival of Souls Welsh Tanz der toten Seelen (1962) German Carnival of Souls Spanish Carnival of Souls Basque کارناوال ارواح Persian Helvetilliset Finnish Le Carnaval des âmes French O carnaval das almas Galician Carnival of Souls (film 1962) Italian 恐怖の足跡 Japanese
| Carnival of Souls | |
|---|---|
.jpg) US film poster by F. Germain | |
| Directed by | Herk Harvey |
| Written by | John Clifford |
| Story by |
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| Produced by | Herk Harvey |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Maurice Prather |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Gene Moore |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Herts-Lion International Corp. |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| 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.
- ^ a b "Carnival of Souls (1962)". BFI. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ Weldon 1996, p. 93.
- ^ Olson 2018, p. 36.
- ^ Brody, Richard (September 27, 2016). "The Front Row: "Carnival of Souls"". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
- ^ Godfrey, Good & Goodall 2009, pp. 17–18.
- ^ "Immediate Family, The Bear, Dad, Next of Kin, Carnival of Souls, 1989 – Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews". Archived from the original on July 12, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2021.