"Required viewing."
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film by Charles Beesley

"Carnival of Souls is a creditable can of film considering it was put together for less than $100,000... It isn't enough story to prevail, but there is a fair share of suspense and some moments of good comedy... and Hilligoss with a sort of misty quality about her does creditably as the lovely soul without a heart."
Variety

"A chilling ghost story with artistic pretensions."
TV Guide

"Low-budgeted thriller filmed in nightmarish black and white atmosphere and weirdly ambiguous style... Deserves more recognition."
Horrors: From Screen to Scream by Ed Naha

"... it's possible that it plays better today than when it was released. It ventures to the edge of camp, but never strays across the line, taking itself with an eerie seriousness."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

"A genuinely chilling ghost story... There is an oppressive sense of unease and dread throughout, which is actually enhanced by the employment of amateur actors, whose natural awkwardness before the camera merely adds to the disquieting mood."
The Horror Film edited by James J. Mulay

"First of all, it's a zombie movie. It's not about 'existential angst,' 'a bizarre concoction of Cold War idealism and paranoia,' or 'a symbolic parable.' It's a zombie movie. In fact, the star of the movie, Candace Hilligoss, is the most beautiful zombie ever to appear in a zombie movie. The fun of the movie is that you're never really sure when she's being a zombie and when she's just being a ditzy stuffed-shirt church organist. (Think about it. Doesn't your church organist look like a zombie?)... In the Drive-In Hall of Fame. Four stars."
Joe Bob Briggs

"... an excellent independent creepy..."
Kim Newman, Nightmare Movies

"... a real oddity with some genuinely unnerving moments."
Stephen Graham Jones, The Essential Monster Movie Guide

"Candace Hilligoss is excellent in the part. Perhaps one of the great crimes of the age is that Hilligoss never went on to become a major Hollywood star... she certainly had the strong looks for star potential. Both in her attempt to cope with the inexplicable and her strong-minded and coolly aloof independence, Hilligoss is highly convincing – this is one of the genre's few mature women characterizations of the 1960s."
Richard Scheib, The Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Film Review

"One of your more insane B-grade horror movies... Carnival ... is unsettling in the way that only bad movies can be: At a certain pitch, amateurishness verges on dislocation, and the film's feverish intensity hits you like a blunt stick."
Sam Adams, Philadelphia City Paper

"Don't be fooled by the almost nonexistent budget and a cast of no-names; this is actually a nice little work of quiet horror, an effective, genuinely creepy little film that may leave one feeling slightly uncomfortable afterwards."
Steven Puchalski, Slimetime

"... Harvey's direction has a weird flair, sometimes suggesting a throwback to the silent days and drawing a kind of awkward honesty out of the amateurish cast. The film is a real curiosity with strikingly used locations, in particular the derelict amusement park isolated among the mudflats, its machinery rusting and its vast ballroom still hung with dusty streamers."
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

"Even after the distance of forty years, Carnival of Souls remains an impressive and assured bit of filmmaking... directed by Harvey with a sense of style that never swamps the modesty or personality of his pet project. His fondness for form-cutting adds an invigorating zest to his simple, money-saving setups, but also hints at a world where one thing leads inevitably to another."
Video Watchdog

"Carries an eerie chill..."
Stephen Holden, New York Times

"In its own quietly lurid way, Carnival of Souls is a sophisticated piece of character psychology..."
Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Times

"Carnival of Souls is one of the finest low-budget horror movies of the 1960s"
Gary Johnson, Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith