Carnival of Souls [1962]

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1962
Running Times: 78 mins 84 mins [Director's Cut]
Format: black and white 35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Harcourt Productions (uncredited)
Produced: Herk Harvey
Production Manager: Larry Sneegas
Asst Prod Managers: Lanny Fellers, Richard Walker

SCRIPT
Written: John Clifford

DIRECTION
Directed: Herk Harvey
Assistant Director: Raza Badiyi

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Maurice Prather
Cameras: Arriflex
Lab: General Labs, California, USA

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editing: Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette

MUSIC
Music: Gene Moore

SOUND
Sound: Ed Down, Don Jessup

VISUAL EFFECTS
Titles: Dan Fitzgerald

LOCATIONS
Locations: Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA; Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, USA; Lecompton, Kansas, USA; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

CAST
Candace Hilligoss [Mary Henry]
Frances Feist [Mrs Thomas]
Sidney Berger [John Linden]
Art Ellison [Minister]
Stan Levitt [Dr Samuels]
Tom McGinnis [organ factory boss]
Forbes Caldwell [organ factory worker]
Dan Palmquist [gas station attendant]
Bill de Jarnette [mechanic]
Steve Boozer [man at juke box]
Pamela Ballard
Larry Sneegas [drag racer]
Cari Conboy [lake zombie]
Karen Pyles
T.C. Adams
Sharon Scoville, Mary Ann Harris [Mary's girlfriends]
Peter Schnitzler [walking corpse]
Bill Sollner [lake zombie]
Reza Badiyi [bus ticket customer (uncredited)]
Ed Down [man at bridge (uncredited)]
Herk Harvey ['The Man' (uncredited)]
Wayne Shmille [Sheriff at bridge (uncredited)]

After being run off a bridge by a group of uncouth drag racers, Mary Henry is the only survivor of a car crash that kills her two friends. While recovering from the shock, Mary takes a job as church organist in a small town. But she soon starts to see strange figures and is drawn to the eerie, run-down carnival outside town. There she confronts the phantoms who are stalking her and learns some terrible truths about the original accident.

A genuinely strange and quite brilliant ultra-low budget shocker, quite unlike anything else that was being made at the time and it's still pretty unique, the dreadful remake notwithstanding. It's primitive, dreamlike images and many of its ideas are so potentr and unsettling that they have been used over and over ever since. Weird, enigmatic and quite wonderful.

Canada
Theatrical Distributor: Cinépix Film Properties Inc [1990 re-release]

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Herts-Lion International Corp
Video Distributors: Englewood Entertainment; GoodTimes Home Video; Gorgon Video; Sinister Cinema; Something Weird Video; Video Home Library
Laserdisc Distributors: Image Entertainment Inc; VidAmerica
DVD Distributors: The Criterion Collection [CC 1553D]; Rhino Home Video [RHI971491DVD]

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Finland
Rating: banned [in 1962]; K-18

UK
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: unrated [original release]; PG [re-release]

1962
September
26: USA - theatrical release in Lawrence, Kansas

November
2: Finland - theatrical release

1963
October
7: Denmark - theatrical release

2000
May
16: USA - DVD release [The Criterion Collection [CC 1553D]]

2002
July
30: USA - DVD release [Rhino Home Video [RHI971491DVD]]

Is there death after life?

A story so unusual it will burn itself into your mind

A weird tale of the unnatural

A picture that will haunt you

Helvetilliset - Finnish title
Da infernaliska - Finnish / Swedish title
Karnawal umarlych - Polish title
Tanz der toten Seelen - German title

REMAKE
Carnival of Souls [1998]

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Horrible Horror [1986]

SEE ALSO
Jacob's Ladder [1990]
Una notte al cimitero [1987]
Resident Evil [2002]
The Sixth Sense [1999]

MAGAZINES

Fangoria no.86 [September 1989] [USA]
interview with Herk Harvey [Death Comes to Kansas by Tom Weaver]

Fangoria no.118 [November 1992] pp.14-19, 59 [USA]
interview with Candace Hilligoss [Her Life Was a Carnival by Tom Weaver]

Videoscope no.16 [Fall 1995] [USA]
interview with John Clifford [Souls Survivor by Tom Weaver]

Videoscope no.26 [1998] pp.44-45 [USA]
interview with Candace Hilligoss [Souled Out: Candace Hilligoss on the Carnival Conspiracy by Tom Weaver]

Videoscope no.30 [1999] pp.30-31 [USA]
interview with Candace Hilligoss [Souled Out! Candace Hilligoss on the New Carnival of Souls by Tom Weaver]

BOOKS

Attack of the Monster Movie Makers [Jefferson NC: McFarland and Co (1994)] pp.145-56
interview with Candace Hilligoss [by Tom Weaver]

I Was a Monster Movie Maker [Jefferson NC: McFarland and Co (2001)] pp.88-95
interview with Candace Hilligoss [by Tom Weaver]

It Came from Weaver Five [Jefferson NC: McFarland and Co (1996)] pp.39-48
interview with John Clifford [by Tom Weaver]

Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes [Jefferson NC: McFarland and Co (1999)]
interview with director-star Herk Harvey [by Tom Weaver]

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

boarding houses; bridges; car accidents; carnivals; church organs; ghosts; hauntings; psychology; spirits; surrealism; zombies