For all its odd haunting moments, Carnival of Souls is best appreciated knocked off its pedestal.

| Sep 26, 2022

Its imagery evokes not a horror of blood, but a horror of loneliness.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 26, 2022

If not quite a neglected masterpiece, it shows what could be done by atmosphere and suggestion before the days of slash and splatter.

| Sep 24, 2022

A memorable chill without resorting to cliched horror devices.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 24, 2022

The movie evokes menace, a nameless dread, without ever resorting to explicit violence.

| Sep 24, 2022

It is the limited B-picture format which gives the film some of its distinctiveness, for better as well as worse.

| Sep 23, 2022

Few real chills, but plenty of atmosphere.

| Sep 23, 2022

Carnival of Souls has clear earmarks of its genre and price: reels don't match and some of the acting is amateurish, although Sidney Berger is effective as a leering slob who has his eye on Mary Henry.

| Sep 23, 2022

A strangely eloquent artifact.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2022

Sublimely creepy, a disorienting tale from the dark side with an uncanny knack for making your spine itch.

| Sep 23, 2022

This bad movie is just plain awful.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 23, 2022

Its mix of art-house ambiguity and genuine creepiness make it a must see.

| Sep 22, 2022

A study in minimalism.

| Sep 22, 2022

With boldly imaginative effects that defy the scant budget, Harvey leaps out from the company of Ed Wood and George Romero to join that of Michelangelo Antonioni as a poet of post-industrial alienation.

| Oct 30, 2020

It retains an atmosphere of melancholic, surreal dread.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 21, 2007

Occasionally a feature film emerges from the midwest, although this is the first ever out of Lawrence, Kans, where a group of commercial film pros veered off into a try at producing theatrical entertainment.

| Sep 21, 2007

There isn't very much here to sustain interest.

| Sep 21, 2007

The mesmerising power of the carnival and dance-hall sequences far outweighs the corniness of the awkward intimate scenes.

| Jun 24, 2006

Carnival of Souls works well enough as chill-up-the-spine cinema.

| Jan 1, 2000

It depends on crisp black-and-white photography, atmosphere and surprisingly effective acting.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000