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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,...

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,...

Guest writer Bill Shaffer takes us back to Lawrence Kansas in 1989, for a cast and crew re-premiere of Carnival of Souls. By Bill Shaffer Note from Glenn Erickson: I think I first crossed emails with Bill Shaffer around 1998, when I was still the editor for MGM Home Video and just beginning to write MGM Video Savant. Bill sent along info that helped me convince the MGM restorers to include a flashback at the end of Duck You Sucker. Although I didn't find out until much later, Bill was a producer at the PBS station Ktwu in Topeka, Kansas, and had actually interviewed Eli Wallach once about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Bill became a major source for info and connections when it came time to do the extras for the MGM releases of the Sergio Leone movie; all just to help out. I think the fact that...