The Tingler

The Tingler...1959...82 minutes...starring Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Philip Coolidge, and Patricia Cutts...written by Robb White...directed by William Castle

Pathologist Warren Chapin is studying fear...or rather the cause of fear. Is there something...some creature...that lives within us, a creature that grows on fear? By screaming, a person expresses his or hear fear and thus represses this creature's growth. These are the ideas that the good doctor is considering when he meets Mr. and Mrs. Higgins, a couple who run the local movie theater. Mrs. Higgins is deaf and mute...and by being unable to scream, the "Tingler" inside her would be fully grown and incredibly strong if she was afraid enough. Mad science, anyone?

"The Tingler" was brought to us by the same team who did the original "House on Haunted Hill", and this film is something to know about even if you don't watch it. When this movie came out, William Castle had a device he called the Percepto attached to certain seats in movie theaters, simulating the sensation of the Tingler creature and hopefully encouraging people to scream. Ringers were also put into certain audiences to scream at appropriate points and build the tension. Said gimmicks may or may not have helped the movie, but certainly they created some notable movie history.

The movie is pure schlock. It's enjoyable schlock if you like watching Vincent Price in his element...and watching his character inject himself with LSD to induce fear is priceless. It's also amusing to note that in a mostly black and white movie, certain scenes have blood in crimson red. The plot is laughable (a parasite that flees from screaming? Really?), the creature is an obvious prop, and the performances are, well, average. But still, I just can't completely hate a movie with the heartfelt line "Scream! Scream for your lives!"

"The Tingler" gets 2 electrocuted corpses out of 5.