Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls

Criterion Collection Edition #63

A young woman (Candace Hilligoss) in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she is haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her toward an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Made by industrial filmmakers on a small budget, the eerily effective B-movie classic CARNIVAL OF SOULS was intended to have “the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau”—and, with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score, it succeeds. Herk Harvey’s macabre masterpiece gained a cult following on late-night television and continues to inspire filmmakers today.

Carnival of Souls
  • Carnival of Souls

    Directed by Herk Harvey • 1962 • United States
    Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger

    A young woman (Candace Hilligoss) in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she is haunted by a bizarre ...

Extras

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Edition Intro

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Deleted Scene 1

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS was trimmed slightly before its 1962 release. In 1989, director Herk Harvey edited that material back in for home video, but as the best source for it was one-inch videotape, it was not included in the restored 2K master of the film. Here is one of the longest of the cut scenes,...

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Deleted Scene 2

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS was trimmed slightly before its 1962 release. In 1989, director Herk Harvey edited that material back in for home video, but as the best source for it was one-inch videotape, it was not included in the restored 2K master of the film. Here is one of the longest of the cut scenes,...

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Deleted Scene 3

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS was trimmed slightly before its 1962 release. In 1989, director Herk Harvey edited that material back in for home video, but as the best source for it was one-inch videotape, it was not included in the restored 2K master of the film. Here is one of the longest of the cut scenes,...

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Outtakes

    The following outtakes from CARNIVAL OF SOULS are presented with composer Gene Moore’s original organ score.

  • CARNIVAL OF SOULS Selected-Scene Commentary

    This selected-scene audio commentary features a 1989 interview with director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford.

  • Final Destination

    In this 2016 piece, writer and comedian Dana Gould discusses CARNIVAL OF SOULS.

  • The Movie That Wouldn’t Die!

    Made in celebration of the 1989 theatrical rerelease of CARNIVAL OF SOULS, the following documentary was produced by Bill Shaffer of KTWU Channel 11 in Topeka, Kansas. A brief tour of the modern-day locations follows.

  • Regards from Nowhere

    This video essay on CARNIVAL OF SOULS by critic and filmmaker David Cairns was produced in 2016.

  • Saltair: Return of the Salt Queen

    Veteran broadcaster Ed Yeates made a documentary about the Saltair resort for Salt Lake City’s KCPX-TV in 1966, adapting it from a radio version he’d made while a college student. The excerpts shown here feature the dilapidated resort around the time CARNIVAL OF SOULS was shot there. Note that th...

  • Star 34

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron, from which the following segment has b...

  • Rebound

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron, from which the following segment has b...

  • Case History of a Sales Meeting

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron, from which the following segment has b...

  • To Touch a Child

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron, from which the following segment has b...

  • Centron Commercial

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron. Presented here is a commercial the pai...

  • Signals: Read ’Em or Weep

    CARNIVAL OF SOULS director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford were employed for over thirty years by the Lawrence, Kansas–based industrial film giant the Centron Corporation. Between them, Harvey and Clifford made over four hundred films for Centron, from which the following segment has b...

  • The Centron Corporation: History

    This essay on the history of the Centron Corporation appears in author Ken Smith’s Book “Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945–1970.” It is read here by writer and comedian Dana Gould.