The Tingler!

My Dear Princess & Dear Fellows,

I am feeling dreadful. I started spewing at 4pm yesterday and didn't stop until about 11pm.

I feared another bout of norovirus, but it seems to have abated too quickly. Also, it wasn't AS violent. I remember the stomach-cramps being more painful last time and also I haven't yet had the urge to sh*t up all 4 walls of a toilet cubicle.

Me and Er Indoors are perplexed as to the cause. My most likely suspect is that I've had some sort of extreme reaction to a bug-bite. I have one on my arm the size of a saucer. I'm feeling much better today, but still weak with no appetite so decided to stay home from work.

And, as if the universe knew that I needed something to cheer me up, this dvd arrived in the post. It is the story of movie director William Castle. His films are great fun. He is mainly known for his showmanship. His first film "Macabre" featured a genuine $1000 life assurance policy for anyone who actually died from fright during the movie. Nurses were employed and blood pressure checked on the way into the theatre.

John Waters, interviewed for this documentary, says he showed up just see who would die. And was VERY disappointed when no-one did.

Subsequent films featured "Emergo" (in which a plastic ghost "emerged" from the screen and floated over the heads of the audience) and "Percepto" (in which joy-buzzers had been screwed to random seats in the audience to make people leap up in terror during the movie).

Those gimmicks were deployed for the films "House on Haunted Hill" and "The Tingler" respectively. Both movies star Vincent Price and you know how I feel about dear Vincent.

Probably my favourite gimmick was used in his film "Homicidal". I remember my mum telling me this film terrified her even worse than "Psycho" (which it blatantly copies). For this film, he employed a special "Fright Break" during which audience members of a nervous disposition could leave if they were getting too scared, and ask for their money back.

The studio was alarmed. "Giving people their money back???"

But Castle assured them no-one would take him up on it. Mainly because - to get their money back - patrons had to walk via some yellow footprints to a corral called "Coward's Corner" where they could be mocked by the rest of the audience on their way out.

I BLOODY LOVE THAT.

Right now, I am watching his film "Mr. Sardonicus". This film featured the "Punishment Poll". The audience was allowed to vote on the ending, determining whether the main character would be killed or spared, and then the projectionist would show one of two alternate endings.

Of course, knowing audiences as he did, Castle only shot the "killed" ending. Because who the heck wants to see the "spared" one?

I think it's a shame showmanship like this doesn't exist today. I guess Marvel do a good job with their marketing, and their extra little YouTube films. But it's not the same somehow. 

I guess if you want a film that has the level of audience participation that a William Castle film did, you could go to a screening of "The Room"*. But still, I watched this documentary today and was SERIOUSLY ENVIOUS for all those seventy-somethings who got to see his films at the pictures, with  buzzers under their seats.

S.

* Oh hai Mark.