Review: Carnival of Souls (1962)

"As you say, Doctor, I'm a person of strong will.  And the time to go out there is now.  And if I have to, I can go alone."

So states our main character in Carnival of Souls, Mary, while discussing herself and her desire to go to an old pavilion that seems to call to her.  Mary has been out of sorts since inexplicably surviving a car crash - one where she was underwater for three hours - trying to move on by relocating to another city.  However, she still feels disconnected, while also constantly haunted by a strange man who seems to be stalking her since her accident.

Carnival of Souls is very much a film about mood, with a pervasive eeriness that only fades for the briefest of moments.  From the very beginning, where we get credits that are slanted and off-center, there is a feeling that something is amiss: what we see shouldn't be happening, but not in a way that can easily be pointed out or articulated.  Coupled with a disorienting score, it's hard to imagine anyone watching this film and not being affected.

Our main character is played by Candace Hilligoss - who criminally did not have much of a career outside of this and one other movie - and I cannot express enough how perfect a match of performance and direction Hilligoss gives us.  Nothing about this movie would work if she made even a few missteps, but it is a damn near perfect performance.  Hilligoss not only manages the feat of feeling genuinely disconnected from the rest of the world she inhabits, but also plays the contradicting emotions of being coldly distant while desperately trying to reach out.  It's a complicated, sometimes unlikable performance that is about half of what has helped this movie last.

The other half comes from director Herk Harvey (who doubles as The Man in the film itself), who has no other directing credits outside of this one.  Able to tease tension out of the most mundane of shots, he also somehow makes everyday life at times seem hallucinatory.  This ability to spin uncanniness out of something as simple as a shopping excursion adds to the overall otherworldliness of the movie.  Harvey, along with editors Dan Palmquist and Sidney Berger, also has some interesting transitions between scenes.  It further puts off the audience, without alienating them.

I would definitely recommend this movie.  It does have a certain arthouse feel to it, and I could understand it leaving some people cold, but this is a gem of a film.

8.5 out of 10

Published Oct 23, 2026