The Tingler

Year: 1959

Director: William Castle

Written by: Robb White

Threat: Parasite

Weapon of Choice: Fear

IMDb page: IMDb link

      The Tingler

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
"Scream for your lives!!"
William Castle's most famous film, The Tingler was made famous by using "Percepto," a gimmick in which devices were hooked up to some theater seats, emitting light electrical shocks at key points in the film, at the moment the creature gets loose in the theater within the movie.
In The Tingler, The great Vincent Price plays an autopsy doctor (technical name, tyranist?) [tyranist: Coroner. You know, like the 1999 B-grade flick.] who's a bit of a mad scientist. And if the narrative hadn't shifted halfway through, I would've listed that as the Threat. When he discovers that the source of all fear is a gruesome, centipede-like parasite, he begins to experiment with fear, culminating in a sadistic test on a deaf/mute woman. Turns out that the only thing that can stop the parasite's growth is the sound of screaming. Which, I suppose, is why no Tinglers can be found around Pauly Shore.
The film is dumb, but pretty fun and stylishly done. Poor Ollie, his wife dies, and he's a little upset about it. Price's character is saddled with a young, rich, beautiful, but hateful, conniving, and unfaithful wife. Taking a page out of real life, she is evil, and at one point, she tries to kill him, but Price just shrugs it off as par for the course. Ahh, love.
It's a mediocre film, but remains completely memorable because of the famous gimmick. The creature is cool-looking. Sure, it's just a rubber slug with a string pulling it, but it moves in a sick and realistic way. He's playing an immoral doctor, but it's so hard to dislike Vincent Price. Or really, any movie with him in it. Oh, and his assistant is Dobie Gillis himself, Darryl Hickman.
The ending is weak and anti-climactic, with important subplots remaining unsolved (the Tingler lives, the wife lives, justice isn't done, etc.). It's not a great movie, and not a classic, even though the gimmick was, and somebody once told me this was the first movie to show somebody using LSD. The coolest moment in the flick comes when a character bursts into the bathroom to find the sink and tub filled with bright red blood. Quite a feat for a black & white film!
Line To Remember: As William Castle tells us before the film, "Anytime you feel a tingling sensation, you may obtain immediate relief . . . by screaming."

Total Skulls: 8

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut skull
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door skull
Victim locks self in with killer skull
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare skull
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision skull
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask skull
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots skull
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell? skull