I was home from work suffering miserably from the flu when I stumbled across this movie on cable TV mid-afternoon. Nevertheless, It was the bright spot of my day.
Vincent Price plays a coroner who is intrigued by the effects of fear on the human body. He makes a discovery that when people are frightened, a parasitic creature will invade their spinal column and destroy it. The only way to disable the parasite is to scream as a way to emote your fear and not keep it bottled up in side. Vincent Price non-chalantly names this parasitic creature " I guess I'll call it the tingler" to his lab partner upon examination of an x-ray of a frightened person. But how to obtain an actual "tingler" specimen ??? Ah my friends, that is when the schlocky late 1950's B movie horror fun begins ! Actually, i should not say that. I gained a lot of respect for this little horror movie while watching it. The plot line I thought was ingenious enough to make children or dim-witted adults to probably believe it. As mentioned from the other reviewers of the movie, and i must concur, there are some very interesting scenes in the film. 1)A pre psychedelic era depiction of an individual (Vincent Price) injecting himself with LSD in order to experience fright (i'm too intelligent to be scared by anything else he proclaims), 2) The star of the film, " The Tingler" itself. Disgusting yet depicted hokey enough for you to want to have one as a pet 3) The attempt to scare the deaf mute woman. The bathtub scene is undoubtedly so creepy you wont want to turn away or maybe you might ! Another thing I appreciated about this movie is a small detail I really enjoyed that nobody else seemed to comment on. I really liked it when the tingler is loose and people are starting to panic and film then incorporates a pounding heartbeat along with a repetitive same note organ score. I think that added a nice touch.
Im not going to go into all the film's gimmicks here since I was not even a thought when the movie played in the theaters (vibrating seats, people "fainting" in the audience, theater going dark and Vincent Price telling ticket holders " The Tingler is loose in this theater, scream, scream for your lives" However, I wish I was around to experience that theater going experience. It must have been a lot of fun.
I can see why this film is considered a classic. As i told you up front I was sick with the flu while watching it and it kept me awake and intrigued the whole hour and a half it was on. To me, that is the true test of whether a film is watchable or not. A footnote for some of the older folks reading this who live in the NYC area like I do...I recall WPIX Channel 11 showing reruns of this sleeper horror classic on Chiller Theater on Saturday nights when i was a kid. Why I did not watch it back then, I don't know. Must have been afraid of it. Im glad I finally did get the chance to watch it now though.
Vincent Price plays a coroner who is intrigued by the effects of fear on the human body. He makes a discovery that when people are frightened, a parasitic creature will invade their spinal column and destroy it. The only way to disable the parasite is to scream as a way to emote your fear and not keep it bottled up in side. Vincent Price non-chalantly names this parasitic creature " I guess I'll call it the tingler" to his lab partner upon examination of an x-ray of a frightened person. But how to obtain an actual "tingler" specimen ??? Ah my friends, that is when the schlocky late 1950's B movie horror fun begins ! Actually, i should not say that. I gained a lot of respect for this little horror movie while watching it. The plot line I thought was ingenious enough to make children or dim-witted adults to probably believe it. As mentioned from the other reviewers of the movie, and i must concur, there are some very interesting scenes in the film. 1)A pre psychedelic era depiction of an individual (Vincent Price) injecting himself with LSD in order to experience fright (i'm too intelligent to be scared by anything else he proclaims), 2) The star of the film, " The Tingler" itself. Disgusting yet depicted hokey enough for you to want to have one as a pet 3) The attempt to scare the deaf mute woman. The bathtub scene is undoubtedly so creepy you wont want to turn away or maybe you might ! Another thing I appreciated about this movie is a small detail I really enjoyed that nobody else seemed to comment on. I really liked it when the tingler is loose and people are starting to panic and film then incorporates a pounding heartbeat along with a repetitive same note organ score. I think that added a nice touch.
Im not going to go into all the film's gimmicks here since I was not even a thought when the movie played in the theaters (vibrating seats, people "fainting" in the audience, theater going dark and Vincent Price telling ticket holders " The Tingler is loose in this theater, scream, scream for your lives" However, I wish I was around to experience that theater going experience. It must have been a lot of fun.
I can see why this film is considered a classic. As i told you up front I was sick with the flu while watching it and it kept me awake and intrigued the whole hour and a half it was on. To me, that is the true test of whether a film is watchable or not. A footnote for some of the older folks reading this who live in the NYC area like I do...I recall WPIX Channel 11 showing reruns of this sleeper horror classic on Chiller Theater on Saturday nights when i was a kid. Why I did not watch it back then, I don't know. Must have been afraid of it. Im glad I finally did get the chance to watch it now though.