47 years on, this one off experiment in embarrassingly low budget and high horror class, remains a truly unique motion picture. Herk Harvey, the director of more than four hundred features (be it documentary, fiction, or TV work), never came close to his ghost story of phenomenally twisted ending, one wisely served by 85 bad sounding, trashy looking and, indeed, brilliant preceding minutes. And yet, despite the amateur looks of it, Carnival remains a testament to the true powers of cinema mechanisms. All works for, not against it. Creepy makeup, uninvited apparitions, haunted organ-only soundtrack, clueless acting, all, lead up to a carnival of souls resurrecting and dancing sadly around an unsuspected one. Romero and Shyamalan (to name two) couldn't be without it.
Review of Carnival of Souls
