MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Up 5,245 this week

The Tingler (1959)

 -  Horror | Sci-Fi  -  29 July 1959 (USA)
6.6
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 6.6/10 from 3,375 users  
Reviews: 77 user | 50 critic

Dr. Warren Chapin is a pathologist who regularly conducts autopsies on executed prisoners at the State prison. He has a theory that fear is the result of a creature that inhabits all of us.... See full summary »

Director:

Writer:

Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 615 titles created 08 Jul 2011
 
a list of 175 titles created 15 Jan 2012
 
a list of 64 titles created 30 Apr 2011
 
a list of 53 titles created 3 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Tingler (1959)

The Tingler (1959) on IMDb 6.6/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Tingler.

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Them! (1954)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

Director: Gordon Douglas
Stars: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.

Director: Christian Nyby
Stars: Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies.

Director: George A. Romero
Stars: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato
Tarantula (1955)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

A spider escapes from an isolated desert laboratory experimenting in giantism and grows to tremendous size as it wreaks havoc on the local inhabitants.

Director: Jack Arnold
Stars: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll
The Blob (1958)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

An alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.

Director: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.
Stars: Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe
Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

Larry Talbot chips Frankenstein's monster out of a block of ice. When Talbot changes to the Wolf Man, the two creatures do battle.

Director: Roy William Neill
Stars: Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein (goaded by an even madder scientist) builds his monster a mate.

Director: James Whale
Stars: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
Scanners (1981)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.

Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan
The Brood (1979)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.

Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
From Beyond (1986)
Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

Scientists create a resonator to stimulate the pineal gland (sixth sense), and open up a door to a parallel (and hostile) universe. Based on a story by H. P. Lovecraft.

Director: Stuart Gordon
Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel
Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and ultimately New York City.

Director: Eugène Lourié
Stars: Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway
Sci-Fi | Horror
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

An ancient Martian spaceship is unearthed in London, and proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.

Director: Roy Ward Baker
Stars: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
Judith Evelyn ...
Mrs. Martha Ryerson Higgins
...
David Morris
Patricia Cutts ...
Isabel Stevens Chapin
Pamela Lincoln ...
Lucy Stevens
Philip Coolidge ...
Oliver 'Ollie' Higgins
Edit

Storyline

Dr. Warren Chapin is a pathologist who regularly conducts autopsies on executed prisoners at the State prison. He has a theory that fear is the result of a creature that inhabits all of us. His theory is that the creature is suppressed by our ability to scream when fear strikes us. He gets a chance to test his theories when he meets Ollie and Martha Higgins, who own and operate a second-run movie theater. Martha is deaf and mute and if she is unable to scream, extreme fear should make the creature, which Chapin has called the Tingler, come to life and grow. Using LSD to induce nightmares, he begins his experiment. Written by garykmcd

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

fear | scream | creature | autopsy | experiment | See more »

Taglines:

When the screen screams you'll scream too...if you value your life! See more »

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Country:

Release Date:

29 July 1959 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

A bizsergető  »

Box Office

Budget:

$250,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(RCA Sound Recording)| (partial)

Color:

(one scene)|

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

William Castle toyed with other ideas to frighten audience members, in addition to 'percepto'; among them: rolling bean bags to brush against the legs of audience members, speakers mounted at different areas that would give a 'screech' when the tingler appeared, and possibly even using 'shills' to operate some type of mechanical device to tickle the legs of the audience members; but the only viable way of doing it was by attaching buzzers in select seats to coincide with the appearance of the tingler- 'percepto'. See more »

Goofs

The title on the book that Warren is reading as he is waiting for Isabel to come home from her date is on the back cover instead of the front cover. See more »

Quotes

David Morris: You say get a cat, get a cat, you say get a dog, I got a dog.
Dr. Warren Chapin: We don't need him, come on I want to show you something.
David Morris: Bet you in a fair fight that cat could lick this dog.
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Strange But True Football Stories (1987) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

A Gem for Castle and Price!
8 February 1999 | by (NC) – See all my reviews

William Castle was a great filmmaker. Many people would disagree because no one Castle film stands out as being great. Yet Castle was a great innovator that made going to the movies more than just a way to spend time to an experience. His gimmicks, although not usable today, are not what his movies are about. His films are about stories, pretty good ones at that. The Tingler is no exception. It is a tale of horror and science. It concerns itself with a doctor trying to prove that each of us has a tingler within us that gets bigger when we are in a state of fear and is repelled by our screaming. Although the scientific merit of this story seems somewhat implausible, Castle makes it seem very credible through his story-telling techniques. Some scenes in the movie are just wonderful. Vincent Price is excellent as the doctor questing for answers and then faced with a moral dilemma as to what should be done with his newly found knowledge. If you like science fiction, Vincent Price, or just a good old-fashioned horror yarn....The Tingler is for you!


9 of 9 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
The original in the theater deadaimcarlos
Favorite Line in this Movie? Big_McLarge_Huge
Vertigo Score? longsa64
remake? mynameisRoxanne
lost something at the end mrsramthun
They don't make movies like this anymore mattie0218
Discuss The Tingler (1959) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?