The Tingler

The Tingler is a 1959 horror shlock monster send-up produced by exploitation gimmick auteur William Castle, whose stable of low-rent films always featured an added "bonus" for audience members: a free Rasputin beard, "life insurance" for anyone that should happen to die of fright during the viewing of his Psycho kock-off Homicidal (1961), and, in the case of The Tingler, select theater seats wired with joy buzzers or electrodes or some shit, to shock the asses of the American monster movie-going public. (Needless to say, he would have been sued, arrested, possibly deported, or even executed for trying such shenanigans in modern times, particularly if his little stunt resulted in some unsuspecting movie patron having a massive coronary. At the very least, he would have faced a civil suit due to "emotional trauma".

The Tingler is a film whose plot makes very little logical sense, but is clear enough point-by-point: Vincent Price plays a research doctor performing an autopsy on a condemned prisoner who died in the electric chair. Screaming on the way, we might add, and that is an important plot point, so remember it.

Because attending the autopsies of condemned murderers is where it's at (we're sure it's on the to-do list of more of our fellow citizens than we could imagine), friend Ollie, who owns a revival theater specializing in silent films, the current one being Tol-able David (1921), stops in, and they discuss the weird broken bones the body bears. And all of this means, Price surmises, that there is a weird supernatural force that crawls, like Kundalini, up the spine, when the fear factor reaches too much, right before death. It's only by screaming (which the executed man did) that this energy is dissipated. Remember that, too.

There's a subplot about Price's insufferable cheating wife, who has sort of high cheekbones and a chin that comes down to an anime point, and her sister who is the gal pal of Price's assistant. The next thing you know, Price is reading books about the effects of LSD25, and dosing Ollie's deaf and mute wife (who is terrified of blood and sees colored bathtubs full of it, in this black-and-white picture), who has some poltergeist stuff happen to her before seeing all that blood and having a machete-wielding guy in a rubber mask come out from behind the curtain. What gives, Pea and Em?

The most absurd section of the film has to do with when Ollie and Price find Ollie's wife lying dead on the floor, and instead of calling the paramedics, carry her back to Price's lab, where he pronounces her dead; which doesn't ruffle any feathers in Ollie, who remains rather unperturbable and with a limited affect (read: he looks as if her death is one giant yawn).

But then, she rises from the table with a shroud covering her face (an image Castle must have liked, as he used it twice in this picture), and Price has to cut The Tingler from her body (being deaf and mute she couldn't scream, you see), and the big, meaty rubber monster alien caterpillar that looks as if it's momma was raped by a lobster, hooks itself to Price's arm, and is sort of bloody and gooey, and even though it's clearly strung along by a fishing line, the viewer is left to think, "Yeah, if that pulsating, gooey thing attached itself to my arm, I'd scream like a twelve-year-old girl."

Anyway, in the end, we have a showdown with The Tingler in the silent movie theater, and they most graciously cut in scenes from Tol-able David (which was probably the only film at the time Castle could use for free, perhaps), and then the lights go on and off, and Price encourages everyone to be quiet and calm at first but then the second time he encourages them to "Scream! Scream! SCREAM!" And they oblige.

I don't remember how this ends, and I don't care. It was passable, and quick fun getting there, but the final destination was a little bit of an abrupt let-down. Maybe no Tingles in Tijuana, huh? Whatever that means.

The Tingler is the only movie in history that shocked the asses of the movie-going public. The title sounds like something you'd buy at an adult bookstore that requires two D-Volt batteries. I scream you scream, but I scream for ice cream, so next time, that oozy little caterpillar-lobster better be sculpted from Rocky Road.

Filed Under; When movies came equipped with electric chairs.

I guess I should add credits, huh?

Starring: Vincent Price as Dr. Warren Chapin, Judith Evelyn as Mrs. Martha Ryerson Higgins, Darryl Hickman as Dave Morris, Patricia Cutts as Isabel Stevens Chapin, Pamela Lincoln as Lucy Stevens, Philip Coolidge as Oliver 'Ollie' Higgins.

Written by Robb White. Produced and directed by William Castle, the Hitchcock of B-movies.

Little Buddy AI had this to say about my incomparable review:

Overall, the critique effectively conveys a sense of amusement and conveys the reviewer's perspective on the film's quirks and shortcomings. It successfully blends humor with insightful commentary, making it an engaging read for those familiar with the film or curious about its unique qualities.

More fun than a barrel of Tinglers.

The Tingler (1959)