Carnival of Souls
Description
After miraculously surviving a devastating car accident, Mary (Candace Hilligoss), an organist, relocates to Salt Lake City to continue her career. But soon terrifying visions of ghoulish men torment her, relentlessly pursuing her to the ends of the earth—and the ends of her sanity. Herk Harvey’s timeless low-budget horror classic received little attention during its initial 1962 release but over the intervening decades it gained new life as it went on to influence and inform artists across generations and artistic mediums. Carnival of Souls’ spellbinding atmosphere, nightmarish imagery, and menacing manifestation of the macabre have bewitched artists from Lana Del Rey to Phoebe Bridgers. —Jordan Klein
Biographies
Herk Harvey (1924-1996) made only one feature film, the hugely influential Carnival of Souls (1961). Based in Lawrence, KS, he spent most of his career with the Centron Corporation as a prolific maker of industrial, educational, and documentary shorts. His final credit was a 1983 episode of Reading Rainbow.
