William Castle was known for his movie gimmicks, and The Tingler featured one of his best: "Percepto" a gimmick where Castle attached electrical "buzzers" (small surplus airplane wing deicing motors left from World War II) to the underside of some seats to provide "tingling" sensations during certain scenes. To enhance the climax even more, Castle hired fake "screamers and fainters" planted in the audience. There were fake nurses stationed in the foyer and an ambulance outside of the theatre. The "fainters" would be carried out on a gurney and whisked away in the ambulance, to return for the next showing.
Are those gimmicks just an attempt to help sell an otherwise mediocre movie?
only one way to find out...
The Tingler is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle. It is the third of five collaborations between Castle and writer Robb White, and starring Vincent Price. Dr. Warren Chapin is a pathologist who regularly conducts autopsies on executed prisoners at the State prison. He has a theory that fear is the result of a creature that inhabits all of us. His theory is that the creature is suppressed by our ability to scream when fear strikes us. He gets a chance to test his theories when he meets Ollie and Martha Higgins, who own and operate a second-run movie theatre. Martha is deaf and mute and if she is unable to scream, extreme fear should make the creature, which Chapin has called the Tingler, come to life and grow. Using LSD to induce nightmares, he begins his experiment.
I have nothing much to say about this movie, it just rules.
10/10
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