An unapologetic mixture of camp and arthouse cinema, Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) has emerged as a cult sleeper film that still influences filmmakers today. Though its production values are B-movie status, it has gained notoriety and respect for its atmosphere of dread and surrealist imagery, even being imitated by filmmakers such as James Wan, George Romero, and M. Night Shamalyan. Jackson Cooper argues that, while Carnival has its shortcomings due to its production values, it is an incredibly mature film that mixes post- Psycho (1960) horror film paranoia with supernatural imagery. Cooper also argues that Harvey's film continues to influence modern horror films while riffing on the horror films of World War Two as well as Harvey's own educational films. This is the first book-length study of the film.