Very best movie i ever watch

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Producer: Herk Harvey. Not copyrighted. A Harcourt Production. U.S. release through Herts-Lion International: September 1962. No New York showcasing. U.K. release through Tony Tenser: April 1967 (sic). Sydney opening on the lower half of a double bill at the Victory. Original running time: 91 minutes. Cut to 80 minutes in the U.S.A., 75 minutes in England. 71 minutes in Australia. Released in Australia through Regent: 22 November 1964 (sic). Australian video length: 86 minutes. SYNOPSIS: After surviving drowning when her car is forced off a bridge into a river, a young lady tries to resume her life as a church organist, but is haunted by visual and aural phantoms.NOTES: Despite its enormous cult following, Carnival of Souls seems to be the only film made by Herk Harvey and most of his players and technicians. (Candace Hilligoss has a smaller role in 1964's Curse of the Living Corpse). PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Highly spooky special effects achieved on small budget. COMMENT: Independently made (for less than $100,000), this stimulatingly directed, off-beat little weirdie has become something of a horror classic. Obviously inspired by such previous nightmares as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, it makes chillingly atmospheric use of some haunting natural locations, especially a long-deserted amusement pavilion. Candace Hilligoss gives an unforgettable, mesmerizing performance as the seemingly bewitched heroine. The other players are likewise sympathetically natural. Aided by suitably misty cinematography, a powerful music score and rhythmically smooth film editing, Carnival of Souls is more than the professional equal of any similar Hollywood offering. And that goes double for entertainment quality.

While there were plenty of spooky settings used to great effect, the episodic plot line just felt like several segments unfolding. The logic of the story is also hard to believe. Three girls are drag racing against some guys before their car goes off a bridge. Why three girls? Why would girls in this time period be so openly daring, aggressive, and foolish? She drives away in a car after the crash, but where did it come from and whose car was it? Mary is haunted by some mysterious guy (Herk Harvey) but we never know who he is or where he came from. Why not put the guy in the car when it crashed? The carnival grounds keep drawing Mary there, but why? How did she know where they were? Director Harvey who played the ghost said in an interview he did not know a reason for these events or who the guy was, but wanted viewers to fill in the blanks. Some claim this is based on the "girl at the bridge" legend where a girl keeps haunting the same bridge she leaped off of before.

I'd heard of this film for years but just saw it for the first time. There's something to be said for that process; it lingers in the back of your mind as something you intend to watch "some day", and then when you finally see it, it's somehow satisfying. I'm sure there's probably an official term for this phenomenon.The acting isn't that great but it doesn't have to be; the film draws you in with its close-ups, oppressive music, simple but effective special effects, and attempt to make the main character normal when she clearly isn't. Long after you've seen the film, questions about the world it created linger, such as: was it all a dream, or was she lingering halfway between life and death, or was she just a ghost trying to live a normal life doing normal things like moving into a boarding house, finding a job, and getting hit on by a creeper? Was she just a walking corpse the whole time? This movie poses more questions than it answers, which is the hallmark of really good horror.

I first saw this on a 50 movie DVD set of public domain horror movies and was very pleasantly surprised by it, it was probably the only real gem in a lot of trash. It really pulled a lot of the right strings with me and I was mesmerised by its enticing mystery and striking dark visual lore, I really needed to find out what big ghastly surprise was waiting at the heart of this sad and surreal old fable of a young woman who, after she and her friends plunge off a rickety bridge and into a river following a drag race, emerges from the dark waters as the soul survivor and apparently unscathed apart from an aloof demeanour and emotional distance from everyone she talks to. She tries to move on with her life and listlessly goes about on an aimless quest to find her place in a world that she strangely no longer seems to even be a part of as she is continually haunted by the corpse-like ghost of a man as well as visions of a mysterious abandoned old carnival that is the only thing she seems to have any real interest in. The pacing is odd and the story-line is vague and low on narrative structure, but the way it was filmed and how the story progresses it's like you're there with her inside her frightened and confused state of mind as she helplessly drifts like a sleepwalker towards her final resting place, and to wander in such an unhearing lightless wasteland would be a true nightmare... I thought Candice Hilligoss gave a strong terrific performance that really carries the picture and I doubt very much it would've been quite as effective as it is without her. To me it was the enchantingly grim and strange tone of encroaching doom and the intriguing mystery elements of it that I enjoyed more than anything else, that atmosphere for me more than made up for the inadequacies. That's what makes it stand out, the intense surreal dreamlike mood, the scenes when the picture wavers for a second and all the sound except her echoing footsteps disappears are so claustrophobic and spooky and weird! The atmosphere was so fantastic for such an old and inexpensive movie, and the monochrome colour and ever-present organ music enhanced it so beautifully, and how it looked together with that music created an effect that I found hypnotic at points. I love the old deserted carnival promenade, it was so lonely and desolate yet strangely peaceful at the same time. There's something I always found striking about what were once places of colour and merriment becoming so deteriorated and empty that's very compelling and humbling to me, for whatever reason.. And the final dance of death when she sees herself with all the cavorting ghoulish spirits who see and chase her down and get her on the beach is so beautifully ethereal and macabre. Very ominous and solemn, with a lot left unanswered and left to the imagination... it's surreal but it's surrealism done right as it feels like it's all heading somewhere startling and it does, it's not just abstract mindless haziness that makes you angrily scratch your head as it floats from one bizarre scenario to the next. I recommend it but you have to be in the right kind of mood, and have a liking for the slow-burning metaphorical and atmospheric supernatural style of horror. It requires patience to enjoy, and although I still don't quite fully know what to make of it myself, I still find it fascinating, and I feel strangely drawn to the film and enjoy the experience of it from time to time. It just excels in the art of the kind of fine atmosphere that's always worth so much more than a handful of cheap jump scares, and it certainly lives up to the old saying of "less is more." It excellently showcases what sheer atmosphere and mood can do, and what a resourceful and passionate director can create.