31 20-Something Days of Horror:The Movie-a-Day Horror Movie Halloween Countdown, Day 15

Okay, okay. So it turns out that thirty-one movie posts in thirty one days was a classic case of biting off more than one can chew. Especially when you throw a five-day weekend into the mix. It seems counter-intuitive, but booze-soaked vacations in tropical locations are not conducive to blogging. Who knew?? Anyway, let's get back to the spookin'...

Last night Kim and I turned off all the lights and I popped in The Tingler. Uh, let me rephrase that...


Last night Kim and I turned off the lights and I put in a DVD of William Castle's 1959 schlock-horror masterpiece, The Tingler. Vincent Price stars as Dr. Warren Chapin, a moderately creepy pathologist who takes time from his busy autopsy schedule to conduct research into the physiological manifestations of fear. His "experiments" (which include shooting himself up with massive doses of LSD) lead to the ever-so-plausible discovery of a parasitic creature that grows along the base of the spine during moments of terror, a creature that disappears when its host inevitably lets out a scream. After a hapless deaf-mute woman is frightened to death, the good doctor is able to remove one of the creatures, which promptly starts creeping around in a crowded movie theater.


And at this point the genius of William Castle shines through: "Amazing NEW TERROR Device Makes You A Living Participant in the FLESH-CRAWLING ACTION! PERCEPTO!" Ever the master of schlocky marketing gimmicks, Castle invented Percepto, which was essentially just a vibrating buzzer contraption installed in select theater seats. So, once the Tingler is released in the theater on screen, the buzzers go off and mayhem ensues. Castle even went so far as to hire "nurses" to wait in the lobby, lest all that terror should prove too much for some poor patron. The film also includes a brilliant scene in which a sink and a bathtub fill with bright red blood... even though the film was in black and white; the sequence was shot in color, and everything, including the actress' face, was painted in black and white.


Of course, The Tingler loses much of its charm in your living room, but it's still worth watching for the hilarious creature effects and some genuinely nasty dialogue between Warren and his cheating wife (check out the B-Movie review for sound clips, etc.). Besides, a film that so deeply influenced John Waters has to be good, right?