utgard14 William Castle classic about a pathologist (Vincent Price) studying the effects of fear on the human body who arrives at the conclusion that a creature exists in all of us that feeds on fear. He calls this parasite the Tingler. Price wants to capture a living Tingler to prove his theory, but it's virtually impossible since people scream when terrified and those screams kill Tinglers. Well, a theater owner with a deaf mute wife he's eager to dispose of might provide the answer to Price's dilemma.Complete and utter nonsense but I love it! Price is awesome, as usual. This is the movie where Vincent Price takes LSD, kids. That has to be seen to be believed. Backing him up is a nice cast. Philip Coolidge, Darryl Hickman, and Pamela Lincoln are all good. Patricia Cutts is great as Price's bitchy tramp wife. Judith Evelyn gets to silently ham it up as the deaf mute. This is William Castle's masterpiece. It has a very original story, a great horror star, and, of course, a patented Castle gimmick (Percepto!). While it does have tremendous camp value, it actually is effective as a thriller. I especially liked the creative use of color in one pivotal scene. It's just a fun movie. Do yourself a favor and watch it asap!

Dalbert Pringle Fave movie-quote - "Scream! Scream for your lives!... The Tingler is loose in the theater!" After all the great stuff I've heard over the years about The Tingler and, apparently, it being William Castle's triumph of B-Movie horror, I have to admit that I was left feeling completely cheated and totally let down this time by "The Master of Gimmicks".With what seemed like an endless soap opera of tiresome bickering between Dr. Chapin and his slutty wife, Isabel, it took this film a good 1/2 hour before its story even started to come alive.And, even at that point, it wasn't for another 20 minutes before things really started to cook. And then, it was another 10 minutes before the "Tingler" actually made its much-anticipated screen-appearance.With there now being only 20 minutes left in the story, it wasn't until the very last 10 minutes that the "Tingler" (in its feeble manner) finally breaks loose and terrorizes the screaming patrons in the rickety, old movie theater.Besides the fact that the Tingler's appearance (which was similar to that of an over-sized centipede) was strictly a laughing matter, it was also quite obvious to see that it was just a piece of rubber.I got my biggest chuckles as this creature hobbled around on the floor in the theater, while seeming to keep its movements in time with the rinky-tinky piano music that was being played to accompany the feature film, which was a silly, melodramatic silent picture.It didn't help matters much that I think actor Vincent Price, who played the lead character, really sucked. His lisping effeminacy made him completely unconvincing as a man who had landed himself such a hot & wealthy wife as Isabel.I think that The Tingler's story had a lot of potential, but, in the long run, it didn't even come anywhere near to living up to its possibilities or its reputation.Yep. "The King of Gimmicks", William Castle, really bombed with this one.

bkoganbing I have to tell you, though many consider The Tingler to be one of Vincent Price's greatest horror films and certainly the idea is original enough, I find the cruelty in this film just a bit much. But I know I'm a minority opinion.Vincent Price plays a pathologist whose usual patients are the dead as he performs autopsies on executed victims. He has a theory that fear is a result of a creature maybe no bigger than microscopic size can develop within all of us and the act of screaming kills same. But how to prove his hypothesis.Sad to say a perfect subject is found in Judith Evelyn, wife of neighbor Philip Coolidge who runs a movie theater specializing in silent film nostalgia. Evelyn is a deaf mute and without vocal cords, she cannot utter a sound if she could.The Tingler does in fact grow within her. I have to say that Judith Evelyn's performance was something outstanding, how she registered such incredible fear with facial expressions.But the film I find is something gruesome, as gruesome as The Tingler that Price and Coolidge find.

lathe-of-heaven I very much enjoy old-fashioned Horror films; even the REALLY old, OLD Classics such as 'THE MUMMY' (1932) 'THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN' (1935) and even 'THE OLD DARK HOUSE' (1932) were great! And many of the Horror films of the 1940's such as 'THE WOLFMAN', etc. and the later Corman / Price Poe films are quite good, not to mention the excellent HAMMER films. But... honestly, the direction, writing, and ESPECIALLY acting in this one was quite honestly almost painful to watch. The acting was so bad that it quite literally took me out of the film. ALL 3 of the women in the film are such TERRIBLE actresses that I am surprised that any of them got hired at all. And the one playing the deaf wife was just about one of THE most truly AWFUL actresses that I have ever seen. So overplayed and overdone. I honestly think that the movie could have been pretty good if they had just written it better. Price has always leaned heavily toward the hammy side, but the dialog that he was given in this film was truly pushing the limits.Old Horror films are great; and this one SORT OF has an interesting premise (and of course, as usual, some great Castle gimmick) but unless you really like VERY corny Horror films, maybe just for the 'charm' of the time period or perhaps the nostalgic value, this one, sadly, does NOT seem to hold up very well at all.