The Tingler

Year: 1959
Director: William Castle
Roku Channel: classic movie vault (no commercials!)

We learn early on that the main character of this film, Dr. Warren Chapin is conducting experiments about fear. He believes that the tingling sensation you feel up and down your spine is caused by a real live parasite that he names the tingler. The tingler has immense strength and can even shatter a person's spine if you don't "disarm" it by screaming. He conducts many autopsies and has seen it on multiple occasions.

 His first real glimpse of the tingler comes after taking xrays of his wife after he scares her into fainting. Since the tingler is incapacitated by screaming, he knows that in order to get a specimen of the tingler he would have to find someone who cannot scream. Luckily, he has recently met such a woman. A deaf mute named Martha who is the wife of his newly formed acquaintance, Ollie Higgins.

Dr. Chapin secretly injects Martha with a medicine that induces nightmares and essentially leaves her to die. When she does, Ollie brings her to Dr. Chapin's home where he removed the worm like  tingler. Later when speaking to his lab assistant, Dr. Chapin realizes he cannot publish papers and gain fame from the tingler. The tingler cannot be killed and must be returned to Martha's body in order to get rid of it.

Will Dr. Chapin's plan to destroy the tingler  actually work or is there much more to this story than meets the eye?

This movie was entertaining enough (and who can turn down seeing a movie with Vincent Price), but the thing that really intrigued me is William Castle's use of gimmicks in the theater. Apparently some of the seat in the theater would "tingle"! At the outset of the movie you are encouraged to scream if you feel the tingler. What an incredible interactive experience that I truly wish I could have been around for!