feelsalike.comSign in
Carnival of Souls poster

Movies that feel likeCarnival of Souls (1962)

Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.

If you loved Carnival of Souls, the closest films we have are The Uninvited (1944), Next of Kin (1982) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943). All three share Carnival of Souls' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Even the Wind Is Afraid (1968).

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Herk Harveydreadunsettlingtwistydreamlike
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

See it on the Mood Map

When is Carnival of Souls streaming? →

If Carnival of Souls hit the spot, these will too

The Uninvited poster
The Uninvited
1944 · dir. Lewis Allen
🍅 95%★ 7.2mystery · horror · fantasy

Both land dread and unease at once

The difference: Leans harder into romance than Carnival of Souls does

A pair of siblings from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price—and soon they’re caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave.

Next of Kin poster
Next of Kin
1982 · dir. Tony Williams
🍅 100%★ 6.2horror · mystery

Twisty where it counts, dreamlike underneath

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 1980s show

After Linda inherits a retirement home, she witnesses a series of strange events which seem connected to a dark and unspeakable evil.

I Walked with a Zombie poster
I Walked with a Zombie
1943 · dir. Jacques Tourneur
🍅 85%★ 7mystery · horror · drama

Both lean on dread more than on horror

A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.

Vampyr poster
Vampyr
1932 · dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
🍅 98%★ 7.4horror · fantasy · mysteryMax

Unsettling mystery in both cases

Allan Gray, a young man fascinated by the supernatural, goes to a small village where he feels a sinister force descending upon him. There, Allan meets an old man who asks him to protect his two daughters, for one of them has been bitten by a vampire.

House on Haunted Hill poster
House on Haunted Hill
1959 · dir. William Castle
🍅 80%★ 6.7horror · mysteryPrime VideoMax

Fantasy built on twists, twice over

The difference: Takes it somewhere less dreamlike than Carnival of Souls does

Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.

The Innocents poster
The Innocents
1961 · dir. Jack Clayton
🍅 95%★ 7.7horror · mystery

Dread-soaked horror, and it commits to that

In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.

The Sentinel poster
The Sentinel
1977 · dir. Michael Winner
🍅 45%★ 6.3horror · mystery · fantasyNetflix

Mystery with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

As a young girl, Alison Parker attempted suicide after being traumatized by her father's sexual exploits. Now an elite fashion model, she moves to a Brooklyn Heights apartment building where she encounters a number of bizarre, eccentric tenants and attempts to uncover the building's sinister secret.

Footprints on the Moon poster
Footprints on the Moon
1975 · dir. Luigi Bazzoni
★ 6.6thriller · mystery · drama

Unsettling fantasy in both cases

Alice, a young translator, finds the real world slowly merging with her recurring nightmares as she tries to solve the puzzle of her recent memory loss. A postcard leads her to the island of Garma where the locals seems to know her. Is she who she thinks she is? And what significance does her dream of an astronaut abandoned on the moon have?

Even the Wind Is Afraid poster
Even the Wind Is Afraid
1968 · dir. Carlos Enrique Taboada
★ 7.2mystery · horror · drama

Twisty horror, and it commits to that

A group of college students, led by Claudia, decide to investigate a local tower that has figured prominently in disturbing reoccurring dreams Claudia has been having. They are suspended from school for their antics, but Claudia learns from one of the female staff members that the person in the dream is a student who killed herself years before and that the headmistress has seen her ghost.

Good Manners poster
Good Manners
2018 · dir. Juliana Rojas
🍅 96%★ 6.7fantasy · horror · mystery

Dreamlike mystery in both cases

Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but soon Clara discovers a terrifying secret about the child.

Viy poster
Viy
1967 · dir. Georgi Kropachyov
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · fantasy · horror

The fantasy is handled with the same confidence

A seminary student on monastery holiday kills an old witch in a remote village. The hag then transforms into a beautiful young woman whose dying wish is for him to watch over her wake for three nights. With terrors occurring and his faith waning, he reads prayers on the overnight watch and tries to survive the supernatural encounters.

The House That Screamed poster
The House That Screamed
1969 · dir. Chicho Ibáñez Serrador
★ 6.8horror · mystery · thrillerPrime Video

Horror of the same temperament

Southern France, 19th century. Teresa, a young girl, arrives at an isolated female boarding school that is tyrannically mastered by Mrs. Fourneau, the strict headmistress, whose protective shadow haunts Luis, her weak son.

In the mood for more dread?

all dread movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Carnival of Souls’ defining feeling.