The Tingler
by William Castle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Darryl Hickman, Judith Evelyn, Pamela Lincoln, Patricia Cutts, Vincent PriceDirector: William Castle
Brand: Sony
Producer: William Castle
Cinematographer: Wilfred M. Cline
Editor: Chester W. Schaeffer
Writer: Robb White
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 82 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-09-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of The Tingler
Movie Review: "I've been trying to scare myself, but nothing works."
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps the crown jewel in producer/director/huckster extraordinaire William Castle's catalog of films, The Tingler (1959) featured a couple of gimmicks, one of them he dubbed `Percepto'. The gag was he had an army surplus motor rigged up to some seats within the theater that was showing The Tingler, with a control button in the projectionist's room and at a certain point in the feature, the projectionist would push a button sending a mild, electrical shock to some unwitting patrons to give the impression the creature in the movie was actually skulking around in the theater...it was an expensive gag, one many theater owners weren't willing to shell out the bucks for, so it didn't see widespread use...I doubt something like this could be done today in our overly litigious society, but I sure would have loved to have been there back in the day to witness the spectacle that must have ensued. Produced and directed by Castle (House on Haunted Hill, Homicidal), and written by Robb White (House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts), the film stars Vincent Price (The Fly, Scream and Scream Again, The Abominable Dr. Phibes) in the second of two features he made with Castle (the first was House on Haunted Hill). Also appearing is Darryl Hickman (Tea and Sympathy, The Iron Sheriff), Patricia Cutts (The Man Who Loved Redheads), Judith Evelyn (The Brothers Karamazov), Pamela Lincoln (Anatomy of a Psycho), and Philip Coolidge (The Mating Game, North by Northwest).
The movie opens with director Castle appearing on screen, issuing a warning to the audience that if they feel a tingly sensation, they should let out a scream as it just might save their lives. Now we see a prisoner being taken down a hallway, headed for the electric chair to be juiced up...after a dimming of the lights, we then see Dr. Warren Chapin (Price) preparing to perform an autopsy on the deceased. Prior to his starting, a man named Ollie Higgins (Coolidge) enters the room, stating he's the dead man's brother-in-law. During the autopsy Warren notes the dead man's vertebrae is cracked, a mysterious but not uncommon phenomena within people who die in fear, as if some unseen force were at work (Ollie gives it the name of The Tingler). Seems Warren, when not performing the occasional autopsy for the state, is engaging in experiments involving fear and postulates if enough fear tension is built up without being released (i.e. screaming), it might actually kill a person...Ollie wheedles a ride home from Warren, whom along with his creepy, bug-eyed, deaf-mute, germophobic wife Martha (Evelyn), run a movie theater specializing in old timey movies. Eventually Warren heads home and we meet his sister-in-law Lucy (Lincoln), who's dating his assistant David (Hickman). Turns out Warren's wife Isabel (Cutts), Lucy's older sister and guardian, doesn't approve of the relationship, specifically because she doesn't want Lucy to make the mistake she did involving herself with a scientist (she seems hardly one to be making judgments on others since she spends most of her time unfaithfully tramping around on her husband), and seeing as how she controls the purse strings, it creates a problem. Warren continues his experiments, convinced there's a physical entity present when someone is in a state of fear, one that grows along with the level of terror, but the problem is once the person screams, the entity disappears...what he really needs is someone who can't release their fear tension, thereby allowing the entity to grow...hmmm, sounds like Martha might fit the bill...
One of the things I like about William Castle, who tended to emulate Alfred Hitchcock, and this is entirely my own perception, is that the man seemed to have no illusions about what he was doing, or the films he was making. There aren't any attempts at grand, artistic statements here, only solid filmmaking with an eye towards entertaining audiences and making a few bucks in the process. I'm not saying he couldn't have been more than what he was (with his last film, Shanks, released in 1974, he seemed to go beyond a bit), but he knew his talents and capabilities, used what he had, the result being some of the more memorable B films of the time...again, that's just my impression after seeing a number of his later features, so I could be way off base. As far as The Tingler, apparently the idea for the story related in this movie came about after writer Robb White saw a worm-like prop intended to be used in the film House on Haunted Hill (1959). Also, I believe the financial success Castle saw from House on Haunted Hill allowed him to have the better than average production values for this film. The direction her is very strong, the performances solid, and the dialog sharp and sometimes witty. The story is actually fairly complex, as are a few of the characters, some of whom are interested in Warren's research for their own gain. I don't know what it is about Vincent Price and his characters, but it seems rare they ever have decent relationships with their wives, and here is no different...the benefit is it allows for some deliciously caustic exchanges including the following...
Isabel: There's a word for you.
Warren: There are several for you.
Along with this one...
Isabel: The only way Dave Morris will marry my sister is over my dead body.
Warren: Unconventional but not impossible.
As far as the creature itself it's black and looks like a cat-sized slug, sporting numerous legs and two, large antennae on one end. It's kinda hokey, but it works for the movie. While this is a black and white feature, there is an effective sequence that does use some color...I won't spoil it by going into detail, but it is one of the more interesting bits of the film. One of my favorite sequences is when Price's character, in an effort to scare himself enough to experience the effects of his own Tingler (seems everyone has one), doses himself with a whopping amount of acid, making this one of the first features to depict the drug's usage. As I said, the story is solid, but things do get a little weird by the end as Warren realizes his folly and tries to set things right. The quest for scientific discovery is important, but sometimes the end results are not worth the price.
The picture quality on this DVD release, presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), looks very sharp and clean, and the Dolby Digital audio comes through excellent. Extras include both English and Spanish audio tracks, a featurette titled `Scream for Your Lives', an original scream scene sequence with voice-over by Price, another scream scene sequence made for drive-ins with voice-over by Castle, subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, liner notes on the insert, and a trailer for this film along for one for Night of the Living Dead (1990).
Cookieman108
Just a note, the scream scene sequences included as part of the extras involved another gimmick, one where, at a certain point in the movie, the film would be interrupted and audiences would hear Price's voice stating The Tingler is loose in the theater, and the patrons had to scream as loud as they could to avoid being the creature's next victim (the idea was to have a plant in the audience, one who would scream, faint, and subsequently have to be carried out of the theater). Castle, using his own voice, created a similar voice-over for the drive-in crowd.
Summary of The Tingler
Vincent Price stars as an obsessed doctor who discovers that fear manifests itself as a parasitic creature which grows on the spinal cords of terrified people. If they scream, the Tingler can be destroyed. If they don't, it will sever the spinal column and kill them. He successfully isolates and removes the Tingler from a deaf mute (Judith Evelyn) who has been scared to death by her devious husband. Once captured, the Tingler escapes and runs amok in a crowded movie theater. Terror is loose, but can it be stopped? The Tingler is legendary horror director William Castle's magnum opus. After the success of The House on Haunted Hill, Castle devised a new gimmick called "Percepto" for The Tingler. Participating theaters would wire seats so that random moviegoers would get a tangible electric shock during climactic moments in the film. Another novelty used to maximum effect is the short color sequence depicting blood pouring from a faucet and filling a bathtub. Castle went on to direct more cult classics like Homicidal and 13 Ghosts and gained some mainstream credibility by producing Rosemary's Baby.Similar DVD Movies
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