Month of Horror Masterposts: Carnival of Souls

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Carnival of Souls: Final Thoughts

Along with Running Scared, Carnival of Souls was one of the movies I’ve looked at on this blog that I’d genuinely never seen (or heard of) before.  Going in, I really didn’t know what to expect, other than the fact that it was an independent horror film from 1962. Having finished the film, I’d say

Carnival of Souls: Facets of Filmmaking

The behind-the-scenes of Carnival of Souls has one thing in common with the story itself: a central focus around a building.  An old, abandoned pavilion that seemed to be just begging for a movie to be made there. Herk Harvey, (director and producer) while returning to Kansas after shooting a film in California, passed by

Carnival of Souls: Facets of Film

The chief difference between watching a movie and reading a book is that in one, you have to make up your own visuals (unless you’re reading a picture book), and in the other, you get to see someone else’s visuals.  This can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, and the difference is made entirely

Carnival of Souls: A Product of the Times

By 1962, horror had long been a staple of cinema. Going back as far as Nosferatu and Universal’s monster universe, horror in the movies was by no means new, even almost sixty years ago.  From Dracula to Psycho, the art of terror in cinema had gone through quite a bit of changes already.  Not only

Carnival of Souls: The Characters

Every film, no matter how big or small, needs characters. You can have a killer plot, amazing special effects, and a great musical score, but without compelling, interesting characters, it won’t be enough to hold your audience’s attention.  Even in cases like Carnival of Souls, where the characters appear to be quality over quantity. The

Carnival of Souls: Genre and Themes

A Haunted Heroine drawn to an Amusement Park of Doom, while being pursued by what appears to be The Grim Reaper?  Can Carnival of Souls be anything but horror? Every story ever created, no matter how unconventional, has to fall into at least one category of something we call genre.  Put simply, genre is the

Carnival of Souls: The Story

At first glance, the story of Carnival of Souls doesn’t seem like anything special.  In fact, if anything, it seems a little….off.  Almost empty, at times.  Unlike many of the other movies we’ve looked at in the past months, in Carnival of Souls, there is only one storyline, focused on exactly one character, and even

Carnival of Souls: Legacy and Impact

The year was 1962 when a little gothic-horror independent film by a director nobody had heard of, with a tiny cast (with only one professional actress!) and an even tinier budget debuted in Lawrence, Kansas, the same place it was filmed in.  The movie didn’t make much of a splash, largely ignored by critics and

Carnival of Souls (1962) 1 hr and 18 min After a traumatic car accident of which she is the lone survivor, a woman takes up a job as a church organist in Utah.  Her attempts to move beyond the accident are thwarted by mysterious visions of a man stalking her, and she finds herself inexplicably