THE TINGLER (1959)

THE TINGLER (1959)

Tagline: Do you have the guts to sit in this chair?

(Horror, Mystery, Random Vat of Acid) [PG]

Note: This movie was not given a rating by the MPAA. It likely would have drawn a [PG] rating.

The tingler exists in every human being, we now know. Look at that tingler, Dave. It's an ugly and dangerous thing-ugly because it's the creation of man's fear; dangerous because... because a frightened man is dangerous.

In this one, a doctor named Warren Chapin conducts autopsies and men that have been executed on death row. He believes that there is a creature he calls “The Tingler” that lives inside everyone that actually causes fear, and by screaming in terror we keep that creature at bay. He decides to test his theory on a woman named Martha Higgins who can’t scream. Chapin’s goal is to have the creature grow and manifest itself using an acid compound. Once fear arrives in its full form…will anyone survive THE TINGLER?

First off, Vincent Price is freakishly sadistic in this one at one point even trying out his theories on his own wife. There is an interesting subplot in this storyline where Dr. Chapin thinks his wife is cheating on him and it introduces the interesting idea that jealousy is absent if the core of an accusation is a real event. It kind of hints that jealousy by itself, like the overpowering feeling of jealousy, is where the danger comes in (false accusations, paranoia, etc.). Basically, if your significant other is actually cheating, jealousy isn’t required. At that point, you are just dealing with facts and what to do with those facts. 

Regarding the pace, this thing moves very slowly for the first 50 minutes or so. It then gets going after Dr. Warren takes some acid (which most online sources agree is LSD, but I don’t think LSD is referred to in the movie itself) which is used to induce fear. In the beginning of the movie, we are told that screaming can save our lives, and as the story unfolds we kind of get the idea of why.

Acting wise Vincent Price is outstanding. This might be the best and creepiest role I have seen him in thus far. Today we have scream queens, but if there was a scream “king” it would be Vincent Price (FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM, BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH, MADHOUSE, etc.). Patricia Cutts plays Isabel Stevens Chapin and does a pretty solid job as much as I disliked the character she played. Patricia was in over 40 movie and television projects but is probably most famous for this movie. I also liked Pamela Lincoln as Lucy Stevens (Isabel Stevens Chapin’s sister). She is probably most famous for TOOTSIE and continued acting after this till 1984. Darryl Hickman is decent as David Morris and is mostly known for the TV show “The Nanny”.

Regarding the score, this film is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some scenes where the score is spot on and others where I just wondered what the heck they were trying to do. Overall the biggest issue with this movie for me was the ending. It kind of feels like they had an idea and actually did a decent job of expounding on it, but there are a couple of sub-plots here that bog this thing down and it appears they had no idea how to really wrap this one up. It feels like it ends abruptly with no real solution, consequences, or any of that. 

It’s kind of like being told to take the wheel of a burning semi-truck you have no idea how to drive facing oncoming traffic. All those concepts make for a crazy situation, but nothing really feels like it’s going to be okay or even really has any glue holding it together. Not every movie needs a neat little box on top, but this thing needed something we didn’t get. 

For me, this is a 3 out of 7. Probably worth a watch for the gimmicks, but without the theater experience this is a rough one.

  

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