The Tingler [Blu-ray]

Director: William Castle William Castle

Overview

As famous for the gimmick with which the film was shown as for its genuinely spine-tingling story, The Tingler follows a pathologist (Vincent Price) as he searches for the cause of a series of deaths and discovers that the victims have a large insectlike creature growing on their spinal chords. The creature attacks when the people are frightened and are only killed when the host emits a blood-curdling primal scream. This is coupled with a subplot to scare the deaf-mute owner of a silent movie house to death. Along the way, a couple of characters are injected with LSD and begin hallucinating like mad. The show stopper came when one of the nasty monsters "escaped" into a movie theater. The gimmick is one of director William Castle's most famous. In order to further frighten audiences, he had certain theater seats rigged with small Army surplus devices that would deliver a mild electric shock to the spine in hopes of inducing terrified screams. If no audience member screamed, then Castle had a back-up plan in which a planted audience member would scream and faint. The house lights would go up, the film would stop and ushers would carry the unconscious person out of the theater.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/11/2018
UPC:	0826663189315
Original Release:	1959
Rating:	NR
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	22,660

Special Features

New Audio Commentary with Author/Historian Steve Haberman; New "I Survived The Tingler" - An Interview with Pamela Lincoln; New "Unleashing 'Percepto' - An Interview with Publicist Barry Lorie; "Scream For Your Lives! William Castle and The Tingler" - Featurette; William Castle's Drive-In "Scream" Scene; The Original 1959 theatre lobby recording; Theatrical Trailer; Still Gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Vincent Price	Dr. Warren Chapin
Philip Coolidge	Oliver 'Ollie' Higgins,Actor
Darryl Hickman	David Morris,Actor
Patricia Cutts	Isabel Stevens Chapin
Judith Evelyn	Mrs. Higgins
Pamela Lincoln	Lucy Stevens
Von Dexter	Composer

Technical Credits

Robb White

Robb Shite

William Castle	Director,Producer
Robb White	Screenwriter
Robb Shite	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

So much has been made of The Tingler's gimmick -- theatre seats outfitted with tiny electro-shock devices -- that most people don't know that it's actually a pretty good horror movie. It's no classic like The Exorcist, but it's enjoyable, even at its cheesiest, and delivers more than its fair share of tense moments along the way. Without the interactive electro-shock gimmick, and experienced in one's living room rather than in a theatre, the climax simply doesn't work, but the basic, admittedly silly premise is interesting enough to make most viewers overlook this flaw. There's also some atmospheric lighting and camerawork that make an asset of the film's budgetary constraints, and an outrageous insertion of color into one sequence that's so ridiculous that one can't help but enjoy it. The script has its saggy expository moments, but these are relatively few, and the excitement of most of the set pieces makes the wait worthwhile. Most of all, Tingler has Vincent Price, more restrained than in many of his films, but clearly in control of the film. It's easy to make fun of Price -- and well justified -- but he had an undeniably unique presence, and it's the rare Price thriller that isn't buoyed by his participation. Tingler is a cheap, lowbrow horror flick, but it's professionally made and quite watchable.