The Tingler (1959) User Reviews

Brilliant campy fun from William Castle and Vincent Price

[The_Void · 8/10 · 20 July 2005]

The Tingler marks the second teaming for horror's greatest actor - Vincent Price, and horror's greatest showman - William Castle. This film was released later in the same year that their first venture - House on Haunted Hill - was unleashed upon audiences across the world, and the film sees the two men deliver more of what they did with their first feature. House on Haunted Hill was much loved then - and now - for it's ludicrous plot line and hammy performances, and The Tingler marks another successful fusion of these elements. The plot line is even sillier this time round, and it follows Vincent Price's scientist as he conducts his experiments into fear. He discovers that when we get frightened, a thing, which he called 'the tingler', manifests itself on the spinal column and the only way to rid oneself of this 'tingler' is to scream. Deaf mute's cant scream, however, and soon after discovering that his friend's wife suffers from that condition, and has an acute fear of blood, Price gets to work on attempting to isolate and remove the tingler.

William Castle shows his flair and passion for entertaining his audience throughout this film, with the whole film being, basically, a metaphor for the horror genre on the whole. Castle uses several different methods of getting his audience to scream, and while this film isn't very scary by today's standards - watching this master of entertainment weave his magic is always delightful. Another thing that's delightful about this film is the fact that Vincent Price is in it. Price has an amazing ability to command to the screen, and while this movie doesn't feature his best performance - he's always entertaining, and it's always a pleasure to see him on screen. Castle's special effects are hokey, with the central monster - the tingler - looking rather silly, but that adds to the fun effect of the movie and if the effects had been terrific examples of how good special effects can be - the film wouldn't have been nearly as fun as it is. The Tingler is silly throughout, and it gets really ridiculous towards the end, but if you watch knowing that this isn't to be taken seriously, you'll enjoy yourself just like Castle intended.

Price Is Right, But I Liked 'Ollie' Best!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 22 February 2009]

"Ollie" was my favorite person in this movie. What a strange dude! He was full of surprises, including reactions to things, comments he makes and, of course, deeds he commits.

Yeah, Vincent Price proves again what a fine actor we was, and is the star of the film, but I really enjoyed Philip Coolidge's (Ollie) performance. As for Price, watching this other day made me scratch my head and wonder how such a good actor could play in so many cheesy films?

Whatever, those two along with Patricia Cutts (the tramp wife), Judith Evelyn (Ollie's deaf-mute wife), Darryl Hickman and Pamela Lincoln all did a pretty nice job, although Price's acting talents stand out among the cast.

It also would have fun to see this in the theater 50 years ago when they rigged the seats to tingle during certain scenes! That really happened! Director William Castle really tried everything to get the audience. He even stopped the film and asked the audience to scream! It must have been hilarious. You have to give it to the man for his effort to promote his "horror" films.

The movie begins slowly so one has to have patience with this story. Once it kicks in though, it's very good with some shocking scenes (including a color scene or two) and some interesting twists. However, to be fair, there are a lot of holes in this story and really, really corny things......but that's part of the fun. It's like Ed Wood films - so bad, you have to laugh.

The DVD looks good. This is a nice transfer, which is important with all the lights and shadows. You can see some alternate scenes, too, which are interesting.

reasonably well made for a cheesy B horror flick with a true gimmick

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 29 July 2009]

At the start of the Tingler, William Castle walks out and lets the audience know about being scared and screaming - and that this will be a case where it's more than just suggested, it's all but required for the audience (then shots of screaming teens pop up on the screen). Seeing as how I was watching the film by myself on a rainy day, it might be rather insane to just scream on my own, especially when it came time to actually see the Tingler creature itself. But the movie is a splendid concoction of scientific ballyhoo. If you are just getting into these kinds of "mad scientist does this" 1950s/60s movie, this is a good place to get acquainted.

And what better way than with Vincent Price? Price is such a good actor that he makes this doctor's hunt for capturing fear in human beings- and finding the weird organism that does it- into a quest, one that he even tries to propel from himself. The idea of the Tingler is something interesting more than the usual fare, anyway, because it's psychosomatic: instead of it being experiments creating a man or woman into a monster or beast or animal, it's a manifestation of something that's already there. In this case the tingler monster is like some weird centipede-lobster thing (compared to some of Corman's productions like 'Crab Monsters' it doesn't look or move to shabbily either), and it's extracted by Price from a deaf woman who can't scream and so all the tension built up by a fear drug causes the tingler to grow and not shrink down.

There's a lot of fun stuff here, and some solid scenes as well. Early on we see that Castle is at least competent in his craftsmanship if nothing too special, but the writing helps keep things moving in a professional manner; not much time is wasted, and the acting around Price is decent enough (my favorite would be his wife, whom he uses as his first test subject). But the "shocks" come with trippy scenes where Price thinks he sees skeletons come to life, and then with the deaf woman's visions in the bathroom, with tinted-red blood against black and white (why this is done aside from the gimmick I can't say, but it looks cool anyway), and then that ridiculous, self-conscious hoot in the silent movie theater where the wicked fear-beast (who can only be quelled by screams, by the way) slithers around the theater and all the way up to the projectionist, leaving his mark on the screen!

It would be advantageous, of course, to see this in a theater where Castle's gimmicks could be done. Maybe a step bellow (or above) smell-o-vision, but it doesn't detract from the fun within the material itself. It's goofy and silly, and by the end all you learn is never to get too scared that you won't scream. Oh, and you have a meddling creature on your back that is activated whenever you're frightened. Boo.

Classic '50s b-grade surrealism.

[Infofreak · 27 December 2001]

William Castle's 'The Tingler' is one of the most extraordinary horror movies ever made. Low budget, silly script, bad dialogue, uneven acting, gimmicky to the extreme (with or without "percepto"), but it STILL manages to amaze. It's a kind of trojan horse, being a cheesy b-grade thriller with a hidden core of surrealism almost worthy of Bunuel or Cocteau.

Memorable performances from horror legend Vincent Price as the scientist obsessed with explaining the strange phenomenon he labels "the tingler", and Judith Evelyn (who had a bit part in Hitchcock's 'Rear Window') as a bizarre deaf mute who owns a silent movie theatre, elevate this above most of Castle's overrated output. The classic acid trip scene (I think the first ever), the memorable short colour sequence, and the William Burroughs-like monster make this something really special. Not to be missed!

If You Ever Feel Fear, Scream to Save Your Life!

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 10 October 2006]

The coroner and scientist Dr. Warren Chapin (Vincent Price) is researching the shivering effect of fear with his assistant David Morris (Darryl Hickman). Dr. Warren is introduced to Ollie Higgins (Philip Coolidge), the relative of a criminal sentenced to the electric chair, while making the autopsy of the corpse, and he makes a comment about the tingler-effect to him. Ollie asks for a lift to Dr. Warner, and introduces his deaf-mute wife Martha Higgins (Judith Evelyn), who manages a theater of their own. Dr. Warner returns home, where he lives with his unfaithful and evil wife Isabel Stevens Chapin (Patricia Cutts) and her sweet sister Lucy Stevens (Pamela Lincoln). Dr. Warner, upset with the situation with his wife, threatens and uses her as a subject of his experiment. When Martha dies of fear, Dr. Warner makes her autopsy and finds a creature that lives inside every human being, feeds with fear and is controlled by the scream. Once Martha was not able to scream, the tingler was not rendered harmless and became enormous. When the living being escapes, Dr. Warner and Ollie chase it in a crowded movie theater.

"The Tingler" is very hilarious and cheesy B-movie, but with a great potential of cult-movie. I can imagine the behavior of the real audiences with the instructions of the character of Vincent Price ordering in the dark to scream in the movie theaters to save their lives, while he is looking for the tingler on the screen, and a device installed underneath their seats is vibrating in the scene. The flawed screenplay is silly but also very, very funny indeed. There are two great moments along the story: the ahead-of-time acid trip of Dr. Warren Chapin (in 1959); and the red colored bathtub full of blood, the unique colored scene along the whole black and white film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Força Diabólica" ("Evil Force")

Spine tingling terror. Just scream.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 4 June 2000]

Directed and hyped by William Castle. Proof he is a master. Vincent Price is a pathologist that discovers that, when in a state of extreme fear, an organism grows along a person's spine enlarging up to the neck. The only thing that will stop the growth is the sound of screaming.

Along with Price are Darryl Hickman and Pamela Lincoln. This is a real gimmicky film, but still effective. Well acted by Price, one of his very best. Still creepy after all these years.

Very silly but fun

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 11 April 2008]

Pathologist Warren Chapin (Vincent Price) also does studies on how fear affects people. According to his studies fear manifests itself as a creature on a person's spine--but when they scream it disappears. A mute woman dies of fear and Warren removes the creature (called "The Tingler")...and things get out of control.

VERY silly William Castle movie but it is fun...in a dumb sort of way. It's in b&w but there's a color sequence in the middle which is very effective. Also, at one point, the Tingler gets loose in a theatre. The screen goes black and Price advises everybody to scream for their lives! I was lucky enough to see this twice in revival theatres and the audience cheerfully obliged by screaming at the top of their lungs! Also this is the first movie to show a person freaking out on LSD. It has its dull spots and the movie is more than a little stupid but it's hard to not enjoy this. Also Price gives his usual good performance and some viewers might find it amusing that TV's Dobbie Gillis (Darryl Hickman) plays his assistant! I give it a 7.

Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic! But SCREAM! Scream for your lives!

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 30 October 2008]

There is a real pleasure in watching old Vincent Price movies. There is little in the way of special effects, so you have to rely on the skills of the actor. he is and was magnificent.

The premise is just too ridiculous to comprehend - we have a tingler in our spine that reacts to fear. Screaming will neutralize it. It's a neat gimmick, and director William Castle took advantage of post war audiences to capitalize on it.

The "creature" looked like a runner centipede that was two feet long. It was so unreal that it was funny, but it made for a great movie, and a spine-tingling ending.

You can never go wrong with an old Price movie.

Plus you probably get to see the first LSD trip on film.

B Movie Heaven!

[Gafke · 9/10 · 16 April 2004]

"The Tingler" is the name that Vincent Price's likable scientist character gives to the creature that apparently is responsible for the sense of spine-tingling fear we all experience at some point in our lives. If we scream, The Tingler is rendered harmless. If we do not, The Tingler will get us!

This is classic William Castle gimmick stuff. When this black and white masterpiece of schlock was originally shown in theaters, devices would be rigged up underneath theater seats which would "tingle" during a certain scene. The film would then seemingly stop, and the audience would be encouraged to scream! Scream for their LIVES! Of course, the audience was happy to oblige and the Tingler would be defeated. Man, how I regret having missed those days of cheesy ballyhoo.

This film has some really nifty stuff in it. Highlights include Vincent Price's "acid" trip (reportedly the first acid trip ever seen on the silver screen), and a cool hallucinatory color sequence with a deaf mute woman menaced by a bathtub full of blood, among other things. The plot is clever and actually pretty well thought out for a B flick, and Vincent is superb, as he always is. This is an absolutely hysterical film that should not be missed. I can't say enough good things about it - it simply has to be seen to be appreciated. It's campy, seedy, bloody good fun!

Never Got the Full Effect

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 7 December 2016]

In our dumpy old movie theater, we saw the film well after its release date. Unfortunately, they couldn't afford to put all the goofy technology under the seats. They would have gotten compromised by all the gum anyway. This film is a fantastic ride as the producers try to convince us that we all have tingler in us, and the only way to drive it out is to scream, scream like crazy. The plot of the movie is secondary to the marketing. The tingler is a creature that looks like a helgrammite and it makes its way into our spines. There are two issues. One has to do with the research into the "tingler effect" and the other is using this thing to commit the murder of a shrewish wife. No one thought it was Shakespeare, but it certainly is a novel idea. And, of course, Vincent Price is the consummate horror actor.

Efficient thriller provides a few implausible tingles...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 10 August 2007]

VINCENT PRICE theorizes that a real fright causes a "tingler"--a living organism--to grow within the spinal area. He's eager to prove his theory to fellow scientist, DARRYL HICKMAN--and we know it's only a matter of time before he has to seek some live victims to prove his theory.

That's the plot, in a nutshell, and it does provide Price with another one of his mad doctor roles that he seemed to specialize in, especially throughout the fifties. He gives his usual smooth, polished performance as the doctor, but he fails to overcome all the implausibilities of a silly script.

It generates only a few genuine moments of horror as it weaves its way toward the experiment phase of the plot, eventually involving a mute woman (JUDITH EVELYN) who, when frightened, cannot scream. Judith Evelyn plays the poor woman in ham fashion, belying the fact that she was a distinguished Broadway actress. Her whole performance seems contrived and unbelievable.

Story seems more and more artificial as it unfolds, never quite supplying the "tingles" suggested by the title.

Price's fans will probably find it more than satisfying, but it does become less and less credible as it moves toward the climax.

More fun than it has any right to be!

[horrorfilmx · 8/10 · 16 January 2007]

I was very young when this movie was originally released and my first encounter was when I switched on the TV (no remotes in those days, so I was right in front of the set) and a woman's face suddenly appeared, screaming right at me! It scared the living hell out of me --- and that was only a *commercial* for THE TINGLER! It was years before I saw the actual film and while it wasn't as scary as I imagined (nothing could have been) it had, as William Castle's films frequently do, an unsettling feeling of dread about it. Of course it's also absolutely ridiculous. The whole premise is insane, and the plot twists keep getting more and more loony, but that only adds to the fun! The titular creature itself is a mixed bag, crudely done (even for its day) but somehow effectively disgusting. The acting is uniformly good and the dialogue pretty intelligent. The only weak point for me was Judith Evelyn as the deaf mute wife, who overacted like hell but never seemed genuinely terrified by any of the bizarre goings on. The DVD contains an excellent short called SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES including (among others) co-star Darryl Hickman, now in his seventies, looking incredibly fit and happy and seemingly unable to talk about making THE TINGLER without constantly cracking up. Who can blame him????

A hidden treasure

[JoeB131 · 6/10 · 29 November 2008]

This fun little film includes one of William Castles great gimmicks to put people in theaters when so many were just opting to stay home and watch television. While he was too low on the food chain to have Cinemascope or Color or any of those other fancy doo-dads, he was clever enough to come up with cheap gimmicks to keep it interesting.

In this case, it was electric joy buzzers in the seats of the cinema, cleverly worked into the plot of the movie. Or maybe not clever.

The plot is that Vincent Price is a scientist examining the nature of fear, and he postulates that a force he calls "The Tingler" affixes itself to the spine of a terrified person. He also postulates, in the best of pseudo-science, that a scream will chase away or immobilize the creature. He is able to recover a specimen from a deaf-mute woman who has been scared to death by a conniving husband (in a strange sequence that implies Vinnie's guilt, and includes some limited color in an otherwise black and white film.)

Of course, the live Tingler gets loose in the theater, at which time, they would set off the joy-buzzers in everyone's seats. What a card that Bill Castle was.

Vincent Price carries this movie above it's usual silliness.

"A scream at the right time may save your life!"

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 29 November 2015]

Well it started with a good premise and with Vincent Price in the lead role, this had the makings of a real horror classic but sadly it degenerated into a dopey picture in the second half. That creepy-crawlie that looked like a cross between an over-sized caterpillar and a lobster was just the cheesiest concept; I wouldn't be surprised if the film makers stuffed a kid's slinky inside to get it to move around the way it did.

But you know what really blew my mind? Dr. Warren Chapin boned up on the science of fear causing tremendous tension in the body by reading a tract titled "Fright Effects Induced by Lysergic Acid LSD25"! What?!?! Vincent Price experimenting with LSD!!!! And then, in order to experience first hand what the power of the tingler would be all about, he actually injected himself to induce the kind of paranoia and fear that would result from it!

However the writing for the rest of the story seemed to be all over the place. Testing out his hypothesis regarding what would happen if a mute couldn't scream from fear, Chapin similarly injects Martha Higgins (Judith Evelyn) with the LSD causing hallucinations and a rigidity in her back that produces the aforementioned tingler creature. But what's with husband Ollie (Philip Coolidge) going Nightmare on Elm Street on her? Same thing with Chapin's wife Isabel (Patricia Cutts) - one minute he's shooting her with blanks to scare the bejeezus out of her and later on she's all cool about it.

But hey, neat special effect with the bathtub full of red blood in a black and white movie, as all the while I kept an eye on that skeleton Chapin kept in his lab. If I had to bet, I'd say it was the same one used in another Vincent Price flick made the same year - "House on Haunted Hill".

At one showing in 1959 The Tingler provided extra shocks!

[pendrill · 1 March 2002]

Here is a true story that classifies as "Tingler Trivia." At a major studio-named Cinema palace in San Mateo, California, I saw an original exhibition of "The Tingler" back in 1959 with the theatre-Manager's nephew, a high school chum. His uncle related the distribution set-up for the film: army surplus vibration motors were electrically wired under every third seat in the first seven rows of this large theatre in the "orchestra" level, at considerable expense. At key points in the film the motors were clicked on, providing a "tingling" sensation to a viewer's rear end, at which point several plain-clothed ushers would scream out horribly! The implied intention was to cause a stampede in the auditorium, front to rear, toward the main lobby candy counters beyond the thrust-open theatre doors. While we were listening to the story, behind the Manager's back a curious-looking workman, looking very worried and clutching a small hat, was gesturing for the manager to turn around, which we mentioned. "Who's that?" we asked. "Oh, he's the retired electrician I found" was the reply. "Excuse me for a moment, boys." When the Manager returned, he seemed quite bemused, explaining "This idiot I hired to do the work just informed me, minutes before the film rolls, that he forgot to ground his connections. It seems the patrons in those seven rows are due for a REAL shock." Needless to say, my friend and I sat in row 11 and yes, seeing the film that way, in a packed theatre, was a real hoot! About 100 people, jolted and non, stormed the lobby at the given moments, several screaming or wondering out loud in pandemonium. When the film went "black screen" for a moment and the jolts shocked the audience, the scene was not to be believed and has, to this very day, never been forgotten. It was almost as humorous as a showing of "House on Haunted Hill" in the same theatre earlier in the year, but that is a story for another day.

Scream For Your Lives!

[gftbiloxi · 7/10 · 15 May 2005]

William Castle was renowned for his gimmicky films. For THE TINGLER he had "Percepto," and it was a lulu: randomly selected seats in the theatre were wired with a small motor, and at a peak moment in the film these motors came to life and literally gave your bottom a buzz! But unless you happen to have a really warped sense of humor plus some mechanical aptitude, you'll have to forgo the "Percepto" effect and settle for one of the most weirdo stories to come down the street.

A doctor (Vincent Price) is studying the effects of fear. In the process, he finds that fear causes a nasty, worm-like creature to grow inside the human body along the spine. Release your fear by screaming, and the creature is destroyed; if for some reason you cannot scream, however, the creature merely grows larger and larger and kills you by crushing your spine. What the good doctor really wants, of course, is to lay his hands on one of these critters--and when a man murders his deaf-mute wife by scaring her to death, Dr. Vince gets his chance. Eventually "The Tingler" escapes into a movie theatre, and the seat-buzzing begins!

Price and company give it their all, and the film is as enjoyable as only schlock horror can be. Fans of the genre will hoot over the murder, Vincent Price's LSD trip, the scenes where the tingler escapes into the theatre--not to mention at the monster itself, which looks like a cross between an overweight centipede and a lobster. And yes, you really can see the wires! The DVD edition also includes lots of fun extras, including a short documentary on the film. Castle fans will get a kick out of it, but all others are warned away!

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Cheesy but I love it

[grahamsj3 · 7/10 · 7 February 2005]

This is the kind of "horror" films I grew up with. There are two actors who can bring this kind of film to life - Vincent Price, who is in this film, and Christopher Lee, who, regrettably, isn't. However, this film is so cheesy that it's great. It seems that each of us has a creature living inside us, attached to our spines. When we experience fear, this creature, called a "Tingler", feeds on that fear and grows. Once it grows large enough, it'll kill it's host (that being you, of course). So how can you fight this insidious horror? Scream! Scream a lot. Scream loudly and often. Scream for your life! It's so "hokey" that it's a great film. The cast for this film is a very small one, and Price is the only "name" out of the whole bunch. The story is written fairly well, about average for it's day. Price does his usual great job in this, a fairly typical Price film. I gave it a 7 and I like it!

One of Castle's best B shockers

[bwaynef · 6/10 · 7 April 1999]

"The Tingler" is one of the best of the gimmicky horror thrillers churned out by William Castle for Columbia in the late 50s and early 60s. Vincent Price lends considerable class to the proceedings as a coroner convinced that there is a creature that grows in the spine (the Tingler of the title) when humans are unable to release their fear through screaming.

Price, 51 at the time, is a good guy for a change, saddled with an evil two-timing wife who attempts to kill him with the tingler he surgically removes from the corpse of a deaf mute. The dead woman's husband, an odd little man named Ollie, provides the most fun with his terror filled facial contortions at the film's climax, but there's a giggle or two to be had when Price, under the influence of narcotics, believes the walls are closing in on him. "The walls! The walls!" he cries before collapsing across the desk in his lab. I collapsed before he did--with laughter. "This man," I thought to myself, "is 51-years-old, and THIS is his career.

In addition to providing an unintentional guffaw or two, "The Tingler" works up some genuine chills, making it one of Castle's best B shockers.

Open Your Mind And Be Prepared To Be Shocked!

[james362001 · 6/10 · 8 February 2002]

Thanks to American Movie Classics cable network and my local library, I have been taking an interest in the William Castle films. Knowing nothing about The Tingler, I sat down at home with my pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and opened my mind to be entertained. Yes it is a 1950's film. A bit hokey, perhaps. Silly special effects we have seen before and figured out how its done. But I watched The Tingler on its own merit. The dramatic quality, the politeness and kindness of the characters and the evil of others. I do get tired of watching today's horror films that each scene and shot flashes by so quickly, you get a headache. So watching a good, easily-paced black & white film from the 1940's, 1950's or 1960's is relaxing to the eyes and entertaining for me. You don't have to think to hard, just enjoy. If you should happen to see The Tingler on American Movie Classics or get a good high-quality VHS Video or DVD of this film that contains the special color sequence of this black & white film, you are in for a treat. Not for the squeamish. Having seen House On Haunted Hill (1958), 13 Ghosts (1960), and now The Tingler (1959), I will be looking for more films written, produced, or directed by William Castle. (If you are a film buff, this film might help you to recall other films, such as, House On Haunted Hill (1958), The Manitou (1978) and Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan (1982).

"Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But SCREAM! Scream for your lives!"

[ackstasis · 8/10 · 19 September 2008]

William Castle, with the greatest respect, was a poor man's Alfred Hitchcock. He was not concerned with making art, but rather with keeping his audience as entertained as possible, and everything he does with his films is working towards this end. Every plot development, every artistic decision is very deliberately planned and executed – with no amount of subtlety, it must be said – to provide maximum thrills, laughs and screams from his patrons. Even among B-movie directors, Castle found a unique way of distinguishing himself, through the use of unnecessary theatre gimmicks, and his form of showmanship {clearly seen in his introduction to the picture, and his theatrical trailers, in which he can barely contain his jubilation at what the audience is about to experience} was unsurpassed even by the Master of Suspense himself. His enthusiasm is absolutely infectious. In fact, for the entire 80 minutes, you can almost see Castle's grinning face superimposed over the screen. He's absolutely loving it, and I'll be damned if I didn't love it, as well.

Considering the director's association with low-budget schlock, I had expected a film with unquestionably shoddy production values. Instead, 'The Tingler (1959)' is impeccably shot by Wilfred M. Cline and generally well-written (Dr. Chapin referencing both his wife and a stray cat: "Have you two met? In the same alley, perhaps?"). Horror icon Vincent Price is the film's charismatic star, but excellent supporting performances are given by Judith Evelyn as a deaf and dumb cinema owner, Philip Coolidge as her anxious husband, and Patricia Cutts – sexy and acerbic – as Dr. Chapin's unfaithful wife. The story does occasionally descend into silliness, but Price nonetheless manages to deliver even the campiest of lines with unmatched class. The Tingler itself looks glaringly artificial, a rubber contraption that is pulled along the floor with wires, but its initial entrance is still something to behold. I leaned forward, my mouth agape in revulsion and disbelief, as the slimy, pulsating creature – seen only in silhouette – was extracted from its host's body, and deposited, wriggling gruesomely, into a pet cage.

Unlike countless awful 1950s sci-fi/horror films, 'The Tingler' isn't merely in the business of (ostensibly) scaring its audience; it aims to entertain them – to elicit screams, laughs and everything in between. Castle takes you aside with a mischievous wink, lets you in on the joke, and invites you to enjoy the film's effect on the lesser masses. Whether or not his film actually caused any cinema hysterics or fatal heart attacks is difficult to deduce {one of Castle's other tricks was to plant shills in the audience, who would scream on cue}, but there's no doubt that his picture genuinely involved the audience. Every single unsubtle technique utilised by the film – most memorably, the black-and-white suddenly punctuated by blood red, a little trick he learnt from Hitchcock's 'Spellbound (1945)' – is a nod to the participation of its viewers. This makes the film abstract, surreal, almost interactive; when Vincent Price implores the cinema audience to scream, we know he's talking to us, and when the Tingler's stark silhouette creeps slimily across our movie screen… well, don't forget to scream.

An Often Overlooked Vincent Price Classic That Should Be Seen

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 19 August 2008]

Vincent Price plays a scientist and doctor who by day helps patients and performs autopsies... but at night conducts experiments by injecting himself with lysergic acid (LSD) in search of the Tingler, a creature that runs up and tightens the spine in moments of fright. Where does it come from and can it be separated from its human host for further study? "The Tingler" works as a film on many levels. As a horror film on the base level, it's a decent story of a creature, of fear and of murder. The blood is minimal, there's no gore and the language is clean. No nudity. But it's what you expect from Vincent Price in the 1950s, and clearly one of his better performances. He will be remembered for such works as "Last Man on Earth", but this one ought not be overlooked.

On the upper level, it's also a story of marriage and adultery. I dare say this is the strength of the picture. The creature aspect is relatively small, at least until the end, but the marriage subplot runs strong, which seems bold for the time period. The word "divorce" is never uttered, and we are in a world where murder is an easier option than divorce. The banter between Price and his wife is biting and hard-hitting, at times maybe even edgy. Even with the horror aspects removed, this film could have been carried by the basis of their relationship.

And on the lower level, we are treated to some gimmicks -- not surprising from a William Castle film (see separate review for the documentary "Spine Tingler"). Audiences at the time had shocks built in their seats to feel the tingle, and if you are lucky enough to catch it in theaters, you may feel the same (at a screening in Chicago at the Portage Theater, a nurse walked the aisles with a joy buzzer). There's the scene where things go from monochrome to color. And there's the Tingler itself, which is so poorly constructed that we see its just a piece of rubber on a string -- beware should it break the fourth wall! While sillier than many Vincent Price films -- even sillier than most William Castle films -- this one is not to be overlooked, as it often is. If you get a chance to see a screening of it, I highly recommend this, especially if you get a horror-loving audience. If you must resort to DVD, I would encourage this as well. The film is certainly worth owning, and with many years passed by, it's likely to be fairly affordable.

Priceless

[daniewhite-1 · 5/10 · 7 March 2020]

Vincent Price finds a nice level of commitment to his role in this comedic b-movie horror from 1959. Ably supported by Patricia Cutts and Judith Evelyn playing the two older ladies in a cast comprised of basically three matrimonial pairs who get into their freakishly exaggerated parts quite memorably.

Quirky and cheeky dark comedy is turned into a horror film novelty about fear itself! Direction and cinematography push the film along as it occasionally threatens to dissolve into an inferior rehash of 'The House on Haunted Hill' by the same team.

However the acting helps to carry over the improbable and inexplicable and give the overall style conjured up in the endeavour to entertain plenty of beans.

Occasional highlights are scattered throughout the film and I recommend this to all fans of Price and to anyone who appreciates a film that can extract a lot of bang from only a few bucks and a clear intent to be irreverent, carnival and clownish in it's treatment of human fear in the form of a b-movie horror! I give 5/10 for all that cheeky chirpy charade.

Highlight of My Day !

[gotoyomama · 10/10 · 25 May 2007]

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.

Not bad for 1959.

[sundancekid26 · 6/10 · 22 December 2006]

The Tingler is a film that was primarily used as a gimmick to fight the emergence of television popularity in the 50's. Released in 1959, it was produced and directed by the infamous William Castle. It was one of the last films Castle would make with Vincent Price; it also stars Judith Evelyn, Daryl Hickman and Patricia Cutts. It is the story about a pathologist Dr. Warren Chapin (Price) who discovers that when a person is genuinely scared, a parasite named the 'Tingler' will begin to grow on the person's spine and eventually strangle them from the inside.Dr.Warren's partner, whose wife is a mute and thus cannot scream, uses this discovery to frighten his wife to death. In an autopsy, Dr. Chapin removes the Tingler from the wife's spine causing the creature to escape. The rest of the film is about their pursuit of the tingler. William Castle has been no stranger to gimmicktry in his films;he's been using techniques to scare theatre going audiences since the early 50's. The Tingler is no different. William Castle used parts from World War 2 airplanes to devise a gimmick called "Percepto". These little devices cost Castle $250,000 to manufacture-almost the entire budget of The Tingler! Percepto would wait until specific scenes in the movie and then shock the unsuspecting seat occupant into a frenzy. Only a few seats were equipped with percepto however. In conjunction with percepto, Castle also hired audience members to faint and then be taken out by nurses. These were just two techniques devised to get a maximum scare from the audience. They were only used in larger theatres however. The last technique in The Tingler worth mentioning would be the infamous colour scene. The entire movie was shown to audiences in black and white except for one scene. In this particular scene everything is still black and white except for a bathtub full of blood with an arm reaching out to kill a woman! Their aren't very many redeeming features for a movie such as this. It's my least favourite Vincent Price film which I've seen. His acting is very average in the picture and many of the supporting actors don't contribute much at all. Again, I's hard to discuss anything else about The Tingler since everything is so average! The camera-work,lighting and set design; everything is just so monochrome and plain. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you try and keep an open mind and remember that this is 1959, you'll enjoy the movie a lot better. Just an odd bit of trivia: this could very well be the first film to contain the drug LSD. Apparently screenwriter Robb White had tried the drug at a university and decided to toss it into the script. Overall, The Tingler isn't horrible. It is definitely one of the flat out weirdest films I've ever seen which earns it some points. It's not a movie that you can watch a million times over; but if your looking for a summer afternoon kind of movie, The Tingler could be it.

A classic of schlock from the one & only William Castle

[dfloro · 5/10 · 24 October 2020]

Perhaps only that master of ballyhoo, and inventor of in-theater participatory hijinx, William Castle, could've produced (and directed) a movie such as this one, based as it is on the notion of a horror flick being described as "spine tingling." First, imagine the cigar-chomping Castle contemplating the premise: what if an actual creature inhabited a human host, "tingling" his/her spine, "feeding" off his/her mounting terror, until the host literally died of fright? That's good, he (Castle) thinks, especially if I can get the great Vincent Price in the lead (again). But we still need a gimmick, don't we? Enter a thing Castle named "Percepto," a term he invented to describe what he would do in each theater auditorium playing "The Tingler": install vibrators (not the type you're thinking of! Get your mind outta the gutter and back into ... well, the other gutter) under some seats to "tingle" members of the audience (a feeling that people would know much later due to mobile phone "butt dialing") at the exact appropriate moment, when on-screen Vincent would implore the theater audience within the plot of the movie to "not panic, but scream, SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!" So I hope that provides a rough idea of what comprised 1959's "Tingler" experience. As for my rating, I was torn between giving it a 10 for those who enjoy this kinda thing, or a zero for those who do not. So I just split those extremes: 5/10