Carnival of Souls premiered on 26 September 1962 in Lawrence, Kansas. And then, like Mary Henry herself, the film disappeared. It was never properly released in the United States.

I’ve always loved Carnival of Souls. But I can say more. It is the best horror film of all time. From the crash to the final reveal, it provides nonstop unease. It also delivers more traditional scares.

The story is simple: a woman dies and it takes her a while to figure it out. She exists in two different worlds. One is the regular living world. Ghouls exist in the other world. And she attracts them in a very unsettling way.

But it’s more than that. It’s that she works as an organist in a church. It’s that her neighbor is a creepy guy who seems like he’s one hint away from sexual assault.

But above all, Candace Hilligoss in the lead role is fantastic. She makes the most banal things seem threatening. The film lives and dies on her performance.

There’s more to it, of course. The simplicity of the production — like the make-up for the ghouls. The non-threatening lighting. The film is shot beautifully. It would be an art film with a different context. And perhaps the biggest technical element: the all-organ score.

But another thing is critical to me. I love that it doesn’t explain anything. The final reveal raises more questions than it answers. The film keeps me off balance throughout. And the ending provides just enough clarity to send me away happy.

It is sad that the filmmakers didn’t get any money from this film. But they lived long enough to be recognized for their achievement. (Candace Hilligoss is still alive at the age of 90.) And now the film belongs to us all since it fell into the public domain.

---

Carnival of Souls poster via Wikipedia. It is in the public domain.