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As human beings, we can’t accept death. Most of us have trouble reconciling the end of one’s existence and the afterlife. It’s a hard pill to swallow — but it’s an inevitable conclusion that comes sooner or later. In life, we love and are loved, hoping that we make some small dent in the world. In death, we hold fast to the people we once were, desperately straining to stave off such a brutal coda. With both Herk Harvey’s wonderfully-peculiar Carnival of Souls and Alejandro Amenábar’s dream-like The Others, the characters learn what it means to live and die and how dangerous holding on can be.

Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) works as a church organist but shows no interest in religion itself. She simply perceives it as just another job. “I’m not taking the vows; I’m only gonna play the organ,” she tells her new boss,...

Dislocation is something that everyone has experienced in their life, or at least can relate to; be it from friends, family, or co-workers. Sometimes we feel alone, or conversely wish that we were left that way. No horror film captures a sustained sense of isolation and dread better than Carnival of Souls (1962), Herk Harvey’s only narrative film and a low budget miracle.

Released by Herts-Lion International Corporation stateside in September as part of a double feature with The Devil’s Messenger (1961), Carnival of Souls was lucky to have any distribution at all on a budget of $30,000 (!) and it came and went with nary a notice. Until 1989, that is; a critical reappraisal was in order and the film was rereleased for a new generation to discover it through home video, where it rightly holds a place as one of the finest and influential horror films of the ‘60s. Not a...

Cinema Art from Lawrence, Kansas?   Industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey comes through with a classic horror gem for the ages. A haunted church organist begins to suspect that her hallucinations are more than just nerves. And who is that ghoulish man who keeps appearing in reflections, or popping up out of nowhere? Carnival of Souls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 63 1962 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 78 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 12, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Herk Harvey. Cinematography Maurice Prather Film Editor Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette Original Music Gene Moore Assistant Director Raza (Reza) Badiyi Written by John Clifford Produced and Directed by Herk Harvey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Herk Harvey's marvelous Carnival of Souls is an anomaly in screen horror, a regional effort that transcends its production limitations to deliver a tingling encounter with the uncanny. Harvey was a prolific producer of industrial films,...