THE TINGLER (1959) Blu-ray
Director: William Castle
Scream Factory/Shout! Factory

Master showman William Castle casts horror legend Vincent Price in their second and final gimmicky chiller together — THE TINGLER — making its domestic Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory arm.

Vincent Price (THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM) plays Dr. Warren Chapin, a busy pathologist experimenting on the effects of fear with his young assistant (Darryl Hickman, SHARKY’S MACHINE) who happens to be dating Warren’s young and sweet sister in law (Pamela Lincoln, ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO). Warren decides to use his floozy, adulteress wife (Patricia Cutts, BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA) in his experiments, causing her to faint and then taking an x-ray of her back. What is discovered is something he deems “the tingler,” a lobster-tail like parasite which manifests itself on the spinal cords of terrified people. The only way to stop the tingler is to scream, and theoretically, in its spinal habitat, it should return to miniscule size. An ideal opportunity to remove a living, full grown tingler arrives when new friend Ollie (Philip Coolidge, NORTH BY NORTHWEST) brings his ailing wife Martha (Judith Evelyn, REAR WINDOW) to Warren’s home. Too late for her life to be saved, Martha – a deaf mute – apparently died of fear without the ability to scream, thus her tingler is removed, opening up a Pandora’s Box of horrors when it’s let loose in a movie theater specializing in silent pictures.

Vincent Price (still a few years before becoming a bonafide horror movie icon) had just starred in Castle’s hit THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL the previous year, so bringing him back for THE TINGLER was a natural, giving us one of the most unforgettable (if very campy) monster movies of the 1950s. Screenwriter Robb White (who scripted a number of Castle horror films, including MACABRE and 13 GHOSTS) came up with a very original idea, incorporating a small and simple but unsettling creature, and the film also features a number of attention-grabbing gimmicks within. Price holds the film together well (though it’s full of fine supporting players) mixing his usual appealing professionalism with his more hammy acting facets. This is fully on display when his character has to inject himself with hallucinatory drugs to induce fear, so seeing Price pretending to take acid is, well, a real trip. This is believed to be the first time anyone was ever seen using LSD in a motion picture.

Probably Castle’s most famous production in terms of ballyhoo, THE TINGLER’s central gimmick is “Percepto” which included the wiring of select theater seats to give patrons a slight buzz during the scene where the tingler is set loose in a silent movie house (at this point, the screen goes black for a second time, and Price announces that the audience must scream if they don’t want to die). Along with Castle’s on-screen introduction and some initial, irritating shots of very loud screaming and floating heads, the film’s other unforgettable sequence of sheer exploitation is when Martha is scared to death in her own home, with such imagery as a knife-wielding ghoul rising from a bed and a hairy, animal-like arm swinging a hatchet. The black and white film then reveals vibrant red blood pouring from the faucet, as well as a bath drawn of blood, with an arm reaching out from the mucky crimson stuff.

First released on DVD all the way back in 1999, Sony reissued THE TINGLER ten years later as part of the massive “The William Castle Collection”. It first surfaced on Blu-ray from German company Anolis, and it’s also due out in October of 2018 from the UK’s Powerhouse Films (as part of a four-film Castle BD set), with Scream Factory also licensing the film from Sony for this release. Presented here in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p HD, the resulting transfer looks very impressive, especially when compared with the previous standard def offerings. Detail is strong throughout (having far more depth than any previous home video version) and black levels are deep and consistent, with a nice compliment of grays, and contrasts are also steady. The transfer is very clean and the proper grain levels help retain the healthy filmic appearance, so THE TINGLER looks fantastic! Likewise, the English mono DTS Master Audio track is extremely clean with no detectable flaws, and optional English subtitles are also included.

Included is a new audio commentary with author/historian and Vincent Price champion Steve Haberman, who relays all the background info on this screamfest, including trivia on composer Von Dexter, the relationship with White and Castle going back to their teaming on MACABRE, the meeting leading to Price and Castle teaming up cinematically, the cast, Castle’s various publicity stunts (including the elaborate campaign for THE TINGLER) and even discussion on TOL' ABLE DAVID, the 1921 “film within a film” which is playing during the silent movie house scenes.

The 15-minute featurette “Scream For Your Lives: William Castle and The Tingler” dates back to the original 1999 TINGLER DVD release, but still holds up just as well almost 20 years later. This includes interviews with star Darryl Hickman (who shares some truly funny anecdotes about Castle, and incidentally came on the film to work alongside his then-fiancée Pamela Lincoln), film historian David J. Skal, Vincent Price biographer Lucy Chase Williams and Bob Burns, who helped with the film’s promotional campaign, for which we are treated to some great archive footage and rare stills. “I Survived The Tingler” (4:10) is an interview with actress Pamela Lincoln who starts off by saying she was not a fan of horror films but that director Castle was very considerate to her. She goes on to talk about her screaming scenes (describing the tingler as a “stiff lobster”) and talks about Price’s interaction with the thing and how he did his best to make his scenes as realistic as possible. “Unleashing ‘Percepto” (2:58) is an interview with publicist Barry Lorie, who briefly mentions his job working in the Columbia Pictures publicity department, getting assigned to THE TINGLER and unveiling the box of “tinglers” to rig the theater seats with. “William Castle’s Drive-In ‘Scream!’ Scene” (:50) is an audio version of the on-screen warning about the tingler, telling patrons at drive-in theaters to flash their headlights to scare it away (with narration of course by Castle himself). The “Original ‘Scream’ Sequence” (:45) is a livelier version of the break when Price asks the audience to scream for their lives, with much louder audience responses and more panicky banter. “The Original 1959 Theatre Lobby Recording” (2:39) is actually a novelty song about the title menace featuring narration by Price and originally released as a 78 RPM record. Rounding out the extras is the original theatrical trailer (1080p HD, 2:23) with Castle’s introducing the antics on screen and an impressive gallery of poster art, stills and production photos. (George R. Reis)

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