The Tingler

The pathologist Warren Chapin is working on a theory: there is a parasite in the human body that feeds on fear, lodged along the spine and growing as the fear grows. Screaming shrinks it; anyone who cannot scream dies. To prove it Chapin first experiments on himself, and then encounters a woman who cannot speak. What the film does is wire the screen to the auditorium. In the last section the creature escapes into a cinema, and Vincent Price on screen addresses the audience and tells them to scream. William Castle carried this into the release itself: vibrating motors salvaged from surplus aircraft wing defrosters were fitted under some seats and switched on at the right moment. The gimmick was called Percepto and became his best-remembered trick. There is another first here: the doctor Price plays takes LSD, generally counted as the drug's first appearance in cinema. William Castle produced and directed, with Vincent Price in the lead. Made for four hundred thousand dollars, it took over two million. Who it is for: anyone who likes late-fifties horror, theatrical gimmicks and Vincent Price. Who it is not for: anyone looking for real fear. The scientific explanation is nonsense, the pacing is uneven, and watched without the gimmick the film loses half of its own idea.