The Tingler (1959)

"The Tingler" is the second film to come out in 1959 that was directed and produced by William Castle and starring Vincent Price. This time around the movie opens with a monologue by Mr. Castle, who is speaking directly to the audience, encouraging them to scream out loud because it just might save their lives. Castle had installed a buzzer to the bottom of many of the seats in the theaters that were screening "The Tingler", which would go off at the right moment. A silhouette of the Tingler creature was also made to move in front of the movie projector to indicate that the creature was there in the theater itself. While full of gimmicks, "The Tingler" isn't nearly as dull as "The House in Haunted Hill" although the effects in the movie were just as silly. The one exception is a scene where the water in the sink, bathtub, and a hand rising from the blood filled tub are filmed in color against a black and white setting. The film itself was purposely filmed in black and white just so this scene could have that moment of intensity and awe.

This was the fifth horror film that Vincent Price had appeared in and this is when he earned the moniker as the "Master of Menace".


Dr. Warren Chapin has discovered a parasite attached to the spine of every human that is responsible for the tingling sensation that people feel when they're scared. He becomes obsessed in wanting to know what real terror is like and even tries some LSD to see if he can enter a terrified state of consciousness. Meanwhile, a deaf and mute woman that Dr. Chapin had prescribed some sleeping pills for has died; her husband, an owner of a movie theater that screens only silent movies, is actually the murderer. Dr. Chapin performs an autopsy on the wife and removes her Tingler, which is still alive. The Tingler breaks free and runs amok within the theater, causing terror and panic. Dr. Chapin is able to capture the creature and announces that the only way they can contain it is to place it back into the deceased body in which it came from. Doing so temporarily animates the corpse, which gets it's revenge on it's former husband.