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| Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection | 
 enlarge | Director: Herk Harvey
Actors: T.c. Adams, Pamela Ballard, Sidney Berger, Steve Boozer, Forbes Caldwell
Studio: Criterion
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.95
Buy Used: $13.73
You Save: $26.22 (66%)
New (23) Used (26) Collectible (2) from $13.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 21168
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 161
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.9
MPN: 1553
ISBN: 1559409002
UPC: 715515010221
EAN: 9781559409001
ASIN: 1559409002
Theatrical Release Date: 1962
Publication Date: May 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: MOST DISCS LIKE NEW, 1 HAS MINOR MARKS. ALL DISCS GUARANTEED TO PLAY LIKE NEW, CASE LIKE NEW, FAST SHIPPING WITH FREE DELIVERY CONFIRMATION, ALL ITEMS GUARANTEED FRIENDLY CUSTOMER SERVICE!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
An ultra-cheap B-horror movie, filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1962, with a really creepy Twilight Zone-style premise and some great shoestring atmosphere. Wandering into a small town after an auto accident, to begin her new job as a church organist, young Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) begins to pick up strange vibes: none of the normal people in town seem to be able to see her, and she keeps being accosted by freakish pasty-faced types who seem to be dead on their feet. The nightmarish finale benefits from its one-of-a-kind "found" setting, an empty amusement park rising like a ghostly castle from the prairie landscape. This is much less aggressive and violent film than George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead, but for sheer skin- crawling spookiness, it's in the same class. --David Chute --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Description
Herk Harvey's macabre masterpiece gained a cult following through late night television and has been bootlegged for years. Made by industrial filmmakers on a modest budget, Carnival of Souls was intended to have the "look of a Bergman" and "feel of a Cocteau," and succeeds with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) survives a drag race in a rural Kansas town, then takes a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she becomes haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her to an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Criterion is proud to present the ultimate special edition of this eerily effective B-movie classic that continues to inspire filmmakers today.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 141 more reviews...
 CRITERION vs. IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT DVD (FANS WILL WANT TO CHECK THIS OUT) April 10, 2008
Get ready, `cause this is gonna get complicated (real fast, lol).
Okay, so you have both Criterion and Image Entertainment releasing the same movie in the same year; a film that until then, had only known cruddy, "Public Domain", hell (on TV, $0.99 VHS and $1.99 DVD's) and with pretty much the same remastered picture quality, right?
Well here's where it gets very odd; the, Criterion set, has two versions of the film, a 78 minute theatrical version and an 83 minute Director's Cut, where as the Image Entertainment DVD has a running time of 82 minutes (note: all of the actual discs, corroborate, the DVD cases, printed running times).
So, one would assume that the Image disc, was culled from the same print used to create the Criterion, Director's Cut, seeing as the run times are so close, and as previously mentioned, the prints look very much the same...
...but you would be wrong.
The reason being, is that both of the Criterion versions have a scene near the beginning of the film where a police/detective, person, is interviewing the driver of the second car in the opening drag race, asking the driver his version of the events on the bridge, but this scene is absent from the Image version.
Now granted, this is a little 10 second scene, but it dose rise the question as to where Image got this pristine print from (as there are no restoration notes on the Image packaging) and why does it very from the theatrical version in this one scene (possibly others as well, but I've yet to do any serious, frame-by-frame, comparisons to all three films because, well, I do have a life, lol).
The scene in question is actually quite redundant, as we already have witnessed the events on the bridge, and know what happened, and it's non-inclusion in the Image version is seamlessly done, making it look, for all the world, like the scene was an added scene for the Director's Cut of the, Criterion version, but since this scene is also in the theatrical cut, one has to wonder (once again) where the Image print came from (and how much more is different between the three versions, for that matter).
Then there's the running time issues, as you would assume that the Image DVD would be the theatrical cut (possibly licensed from Criterion to provide a cheap alternative to the Criterion set, as was done with the movie, Zombi, which both Blue Underground and Shriek Show paid to have the film restored, and one put out a low priced, movie only DVD at the same time that the other put out a two disc special edition version) but where as the theatrical cut is 78 minutes, and it's Director's Cut is 83 minutes, the Image disc is 82 minutes (and is missing at least one scene that both the theatrical and Director's Cuts have).
This is curious, and just thought that fans might want to know, or might even have some ideas, as to the nature of the Image DVD.
 AHEAD OF IT'S TIME February 29, 2008
THIS IS A MUST SEE FOR ANY HORROR FAN SEEKING TO FULFILL A LONG COLLECTION OF DIVERSITY AND GREAT FILMS. THIS FILM HAS POOR DIRECTING AS WELL AS ACTING, BUT THE OVERALL PURPOSE OF THE FILM IS AMAZING. THERE ARE KEY MOMENTS THAT ALLOW YOU TO WONDER,"WOW, HOW DID THIS FILM MAKE IT DURING IT'S TIME". ENJOY....
A rare gem February 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Carnival of Souls is very subterranean, going underneath our merely verbal senses. The plot is of little importance, but atmosphere is everything. The eerie music, strange people and oddly shot black and white scenes grab at our fears of loneliness and death. You know (but more importantly, feel) that Mary is inexorably doomed. The effect is powerful because it succeeds in making Mary a proxy for ourselves. The effects are subtle, not depending on "special effects" in the usual sense. Rather, they rely on creative use of camera composition, restrained acting (where less is more), and hauntingly strange music.
Early Stage Proto-Zombies! January 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a zombie connoisseur to other zombie fans, I must point out that Carnival of Souls should not be missed. Here are some of the earliest images of the walking dead on film. Check it out for the early makeup effects and general zombie styling, which has evolved into the look of zombies in today's films.
Also, it's worthy of watching as a traditional ghost story: girl dies, but doesn't realize it for a while & tries to go on living. Very cool vintage horror. Criterion picks great films!
gotta love the oldies January 14, 2008
if you are a fan of oldies horror, this is a must purchase. the two films go well together for a double feature of horror
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