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."