Carnival of Souls (1962)

Two cars are drag racing in the American countryside when one of them – containing three young women – crashes off the side of a bridge into the water below. It appears they are all killed.

But after three hours, one of the three – an attractive young woman named Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) – emerges out of the water. She is cold, wet and dirty but otherwise completely unharmed.

The following day, Mary leaves her hometown to work as a church organist in a faraway city in Utah.

While regularly driving past an abandoned dance hall and fun fair near her new home (in reality, the Saltair Amusement Park outside Salt Lake City, Utah), she begins to see a ghostly white-faced figure (played by the film’s producer/director, Herk Harvey). Although the locals suspect she is crazy, she is determined to investigate.

She subsequently descends into a surrealistic hallucinatory nightmare, and the film’s uneasy and foreboding atmosphere – like an elongated episode of The Twilight Zone – will haunt viewers for weeks.

With a total budget of just $30,000 (raised from private backers in Lawrence, Kansas), Candace Hilligoss was the only professional actor in the film. She was paid $2,500 for her role, and her agent refused to represent her anymore after she made this film.

When released in 1962, Carnival of Souls was a box-office failure, and director Herk Harvey (who was never paid by the distributors) never made another feature film, devoting himself instead to educational and industrial documentaries.

Subsequent airings on late-night television helped it gain a strong cult following, and it is now regarded as a landmark in psychological horror. Director George A. Romero later revealed this film inspired Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Wes Craven produced a dire remake in 1998.

Mary Henry
Candace Hilligoss
Mrs Thomas
Frances Feist
John Linden
Sidney Berger
Minister
Art Ellison
Dr Samuels
Stan Levitt
Organ Factory Boss
Tom McGinnis
Carpenter 
Forbes Caldwell
Gas Station Attendant
Dan Palmquist
Mechanic 
Bill de Jarnette
Chip 
Steve Boozer
Dress Saleslady
Pamela Ballard
Drag Racer
Larry Sneegas
Lake Zombies
Bill Sollner
Cari Conboy
Dancing Zombie
TC Adams
Mary’s Girlfriends
Sharon Scoville
Mary Ann Harris
The Man
Herk Harvey
Sheriff
Wayne Schmille

Director
Herk Harvey

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