Film
The Tingler
- Director
- William Castle
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 81 mins
Boffin Vincent Price discovers that the spine-tingling feeling of extreme fear has a physical origin. Specifically, everyone has a centipede-like parasite residing at the base of the spine, which feeds and becomes stronger when they’re afraid. The only way to disarm the beast is with a hearty scream. Oh, and now there’s a Tingler on the loose in a cinema…
One of the most enjoyable of the late, great huckster William Castle‘s campy horrors, 1959’s The Tingler naturally came with its own gimmick: Percepto! What Castle did was to wire up cinema seats at random to a device that would give punters a buzzing sensation at appropriate moments. It’s not clear whether the killjoy forces of modern elf’n’safety will permit the Watershed to recreate this effect for its Halloween late night screening. But this still promises to be an evening of pure schlocky fun that could only be improved by being part of a double-bill with Joe Dante’s magnificent Matinee.
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
