The Tingler

William Castle was a great filmmaker. Many people would disagree because no one Castle film stands out as being great. Yet Castle was a great innovator that made going to the movies more than just a way to spend time to an experience. His gimmicks, although not usable today, are not what his movies are about. His films are about stories, pretty good ones at that. The Tingler is no exception. It is a tale of horror and science. It concerns itself with a doctor trying to prove that each of us has a tingler within us that gets bigger when we are in a state of fear and is repelled by our screaming. Although the scientific merit of this story seems somewhat implausible, Castle makes it seem very credible through his story-telling techniques. Some scenes in the movie are just wonderful. Vincent Price is excellent as the doctor questing for answers and then faced with a moral dilemma as to what should be done with his newly found knowledge. If you like science fiction, Vincent Price, or just a good old-fashioned horror yarn....The Tingler is for you!

The Tingler marks the second teaming for horror's greatest actor - Vincent Price, and horror's greatest showman - William Castle. This film was released later in the same year that their first venture - House on Haunted Hill - was unleashed upon audiences across the world, and the film sees the two men deliver more of what they did with their first feature. House on Haunted Hill was much loved then - and now - for it's ludicrous plot line and hammy performances, and The Tingler marks another successful fusion of these elements. The plot line is even sillier this time round, and it follows Vincent Price's scientist as he conducts his experiments into fear. He discovers that when we get frightened, a thing, which he called 'the tingler', manifests itself on the spinal column and the only way to rid oneself of this 'tingler' is to scream. Deaf mute's cant scream, however, and soon after discovering that his friend's wife suffers from that condition, and has an acute fear of blood, Price gets to work on attempting to isolate and remove the tingler.

William Castle shows his flair and passion for entertaining his audience throughout this film, with the whole film being, basically, a metaphor for the horror genre on the whole. Castle uses several different methods of getting his audience to scream, and while this film isn't very scary by today's standards - watching this master of entertainment weave his magic is always delightful. Another thing that's delightful about this film is the fact that Vincent Price is in it. Price has an amazing ability to command to the screen, and while this movie doesn't feature his best performance - he's always entertaining, and it's always a pleasure to see him on screen. Castle's special effects are hokey, with the central monster - the tingler - looking rather silly, but that adds to the fun effect of the movie and if the effects had been terrific examples of how good special effects can be - the film wouldn't have been nearly as fun as it is. The Tingler is silly throughout, and it gets really ridiculous towards the end, but if you watch knowing that this isn't to be taken seriously, you'll enjoy yourself just like Castle intended.

There is a real pleasure in watching old Vincent Price movies. There is little in the way of special effects, so you have to rely on the skills of the actor. he is and was magnificent.

The premise is just too ridiculous to comprehend - we have a tingler in our spine that reacts to fear. Screaming will neutralize it. It's a neat gimmick, and director William Castle took advantage of post war audiences to capitalize on it.

The "creature" looked like a runner centipede that was two feet long. It was so unreal that it was funny, but it made for a great movie, and a spine-tingling ending.

You can never go wrong with an old Price movie.

Plus you probably get to see the first LSD trip on film.

I was very young when this movie was originally released and my first encounter was when I switched on the TV (no remotes in those days, so I was right in front of the set) and a woman's face suddenly appeared, screaming right at me! It scared the living hell out of me --- and that was only a *commercial* for THE TINGLER! It was years before I saw the actual film and while it wasn't as scary as I imagined (nothing could have been) it had, as William Castle's films frequently do, an unsettling feeling of dread about it. Of course it's also absolutely ridiculous. The whole premise is insane, and the plot twists keep getting more and more loony, but that only adds to the fun! The titular creature itself is a mixed bag, crudely done (even for its day) but somehow effectively disgusting. The acting is uniformly good and the dialogue pretty intelligent. The only weak point for me was Judith Evelyn as the deaf mute wife, who overacted like hell but never seemed genuinely terrified by any of the bizarre goings on. The DVD contains an excellent short called SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES including (among others) co-star Darryl Hickman, now in his seventies, looking incredibly fit and happy and seemingly unable to talk about making THE TINGLER without constantly cracking up. Who can blame him????

Here is a true story that classifies as "Tingler Trivia." At a major studio-named Cinema palace in San Mateo, California, I saw an original exhibition of "The Tingler" back in 1959 with the theatre-Manager's nephew, a high school chum. His uncle related the distribution set-up for the film: army surplus vibration motors were electrically wired under every third seat in the first seven rows of this large theatre in the "orchestra" level, at considerable expense. At key points in the film the motors were clicked on, providing a "tingling" sensation to a viewer's rear end, at which point several plain-clothed ushers would scream out horribly! The implied intention was to cause a stampede in the auditorium, front to rear, toward the main lobby candy counters beyond the thrust-open theatre doors. While we were listening to the story, behind the Manager's back a curious-looking workman, looking very worried and clutching a small hat, was gesturing for the manager to turn around, which we mentioned. "Who's that?" we asked. "Oh, he's the retired electrician I found" was the reply. "Excuse me for a moment, boys." When the Manager returned, he seemed quite bemused, explaining "This idiot I hired to do the work just informed me, minutes before the film rolls, that he forgot to ground his connections. It seems the patrons in those seven rows are due for a REAL shock." Needless to say, my friend and I sat in row 11 and yes, seeing the film that way, in a packed theatre, was a real hoot! About 100 people, jolted and non, stormed the lobby at the given moments, several screaming or wondering out loud in pandemonium. When the film went "black screen" for a moment and the jolts shocked the audience, the scene was not to be believed and has, to this very day, never been forgotten. It was almost as humorous as a showing of "House on Haunted Hill" in the same theatre earlier in the year, but that is a story for another day.