The Tingler: Vincent Price Tripping on Acid? Yes Please.

I've never considered myself a huge William Castle or Vincent Price fan. I know, I know I can feel your seething rage from here. The fact is, I had never really seen anything that made me truly want to erect a poster in bedroom--which as we all know is the highest honor I can bestow upon something I love. You should also know that I'm talking about my virtual bedroom that I store inside my head. My real bedroom only has one actual poster and it's of Desmond from LOST, for obvious reasons, mainly being that I believe he is the 2nd coming of Christ. There's also a sticker of the cat from Hausu for the same reasons above.

Anywho, I think in the back of my mind I always knew that I would really love The Tingler. Reading about the premise, the gimmicks, and seeing that shot of what I had always falsely assumed was the pink goo from Ghostbusters II rising out of the bathtub,



I just knew that my love would be instantaneous. So why did it take me so long? Hard to say. Maybe I didn't want to embrace the William Castle and Vincent Price love so easily. I'm just soo controversial that not loving two people that tend to go hand in hand with the horror genre sounded like the right thing to do. But who am I kidding? The Tingler was my downfall--because I am now in love.

The Tingler deals with pathologist Dr. Warren Chapin who is strangely attracted to studying the idea of what causes that...tingling sensation in our bodies when we feel fear. After some handy X-ray work he finds that the cause of the tingling is in fact a parasite that latches onto our spinal cord, growing bigger and bigger the longer we go without screaming.

I was surprised myself to find that The Tingler was very Sci-Fi in its details, and this thrilled me. Even more thrilling is finding out that there IS really a parasitic creature in this and it's not just someone pretending to be one--which would admittedly be very hard to pull off. But you see, I think that was one of the turn offs for me about William Castle. I love ghost stories, but when suddenly you find that there were no ghosts, I start calling shenanigans.

Whether or not my love is owed to the parasite remains to be seen however, but I do want to make it very clear that the single best thing that happened to me all week was seeing Vincent Price tripping on LSD. Yes, behold the wonder and mystique of one of the greatest scenes of all time!

Wasn't that just magical? It was like rubbing it in all those peoples faces that said, "Andre, you'll never be able to see a cinematic icon tripping out on acid EVER" and it felt good.

Aside from that wonderfulness, The Tingler just left me feeling deeply jealous that I was never able to attend a real William Castle screening where his gimmicks were in full effect. The Tingler is probably one of the more famous gimmick ridden movies as it employed Percepto, which allowed him to attach electric buzzers to the underside of several of the theater seats. At the critical moment in the film where the tingler escapes into the theater, a blackout ensued consisting of Vincent Price's voice yelling, "The Tingler is loose in THIS theater! Scream! Scream for your lives!". At this moment the buzzers would be activated and screams inserted into the picture's sounds were heard, making it sound like an ultimate portrayal of hysteria. The whole time this was happening I was just SO jealous.

It really makes me think about how we should be doing this instead of crappy 3-D. That's really putting your audience into the film, and forcing them to experience it if you ask me. It would be truly delightful. As kooky as William Castle appeared to be, there is no denying that this was awesome. He would even sometimes have nurses stationed as gimmicks and people pretending to faint and then get wheeled off. Man, I really missed out.

Aside from the gimmicks, the rest of The Tingler, is still just as effective. I even had to stifle my own scream when Ollie's wife experienced her own "tripping" and found this creature lying in the bed.

I'm guessing this is where Jason's pond look came from.

This whole scene was actually really spectacularly "spooky" in a fun way.

It sadly put Vincent Price's crappy fuzzy skeleton tripping to shame (for unfair reasons I suppose). The blood in the sink was absolutely lovely

and the bloody bathtub was probably the best thing ever.

And then right when we are getting all spooktastic, and such--Vincent Price performs an autopsy and finds.....The Tingler!

In the flesh! At first I figured we would only get to see the shadow of this great creature, but low and behold

it lives!! Even though the mystique of the tingler is sometimes ruined by the appearance of the wires used to pull it along, I still could greatly appreciate it. I completely love the idea that this thing is suppose to be inside all of us when we get scared. It's indestructible! It's strong! And if we don't scream, it could kill us! YES.

The Tingler to put it simply, exceeded all of my expectations. I knew I would like it, I had a feeling that I would love it but I had no idea that I would be so entranced throughout its entirety. I love you The Tingler. And I don't care who knows! You know...I've been in love a lot lately I admit it. But that's what happens when you realize that you've missed out on so many good movies in your life. The Tingler with all of its silliness, gimmicks, and wonder will forever now be in my canon of favorite films. Rejoice!

And now to relive the brilliance of William Castle's opening words...

I am William Castle, the director of the motion picture you are about to see. I feel obligated to warn you that some of the sensations— some of the physical reactions which the actors on the screen will feel— will also be experienced, for the first time in motion picture history, by certain members of this audience. I say 'certain members' because some people are more sensitive to these mysterious electronic impulses than others. These unfortunate, sensitive people will at times feel a strange, tingling sensation; other people will feel it less strongly. But don't be alarmed— you can protect yourself. At any time you are conscious of a tingling sensation, you may obtain immediate relief by screaming. Don't be embarrassed about opening your mouth and letting rip with all you've got, because the person in the seat right next to you will probably be screaming too. And remember— a scream at the right time may save your life

Ah, pure poetry.