Image from IMDB, official movie poster
Not currently available on Netflix Canada (06/08/18)
A pathologist, Dr. Warren Chapin, wants to discover everything there is to know about fear, he is limited in his study though, since a thorough scientific investigation would imply scaring people to near death, where to find people willing to go through such a thing! After an autopsy of an inmate, the good doctor meets one of his relatives, Ollie Higgins, who discuses the topic, they soon become friends and spend some time together. Mr. Higgins wife, who is mute and deaf, soon dies and Mr. Higgins brings her body to the doctor's office, hoping he can intervene. The doctor is unable to revive her, but offers to do an autopsy in order to find the cause of death, Ollie agrees. The doctor soon discovers that the wife died of extreme fear and soon discover this fear is not just a feeling, but a parasites that lives in our spine and grows in relation to our fear. The greater our fear, the greater the creature. Dr. Chapin calls it "The Tingler" and removes it from Mrs. Higgins. He soon regrets this as there is no way to kill it and is capable of killing. The doctor soon realises that not only is he in danger from the creature, but his wife as well, who attempts to use the creature to kill her husband. It is discovered that the only two ways to prevent the creature from killing are screaming and returning it to the corpse of Mrs. Higgins. When attempting to do the second, Dr. Chapin realises that Ollie Higgins was the one to kill his wife and is now attempting to flee. The creature escapes while the doctor attempts to prevent Mr. Higgins from escaping, they trap the creature and manage to return it to the corpse of Mrs. Higgins. The doctor leaves before he can see that Mrs. Higgins is revived and goes after her husband.
This movie is a classic horror movie which bases its screams on building tension and suspense rather than gore. The issue is that the current viewing audience is so desensitized to horror movies, that this one comes off as such a bore. Don't get me wrong, I probably would have been scared if I grew up during the time this movie came out. Plus, when the movie came out, there were practical effects that were used in the movie theater that probably helped to make the movie a lot scarier than it was. In particular, certain chairs were wired to send electric current to the person sitting in it. Others were paid actors who pretended to faint and be treated by "nurses". So it definitely a very atmospheric movie that definitely gave the audience of the time more bang for their buck.
I often wondered why this movie hasn't been rebooted, but with what I mentioned above, it would be difficult to remake it. Who knows though, with the right actors, script and enough audience participation, they might be able to pull it off. This movie is worth watching just to see how things were done, I did appreciate the practical effects, the tingler is obviously an actual monster being pulled around by strings. It is also interesting to see the relations the husbands have to their wives, and how the young assistant views his relation to the good doctor.
I give this movie 2 1/2 "I'll call it The Tingler" out of 9 "scream for your lives"
(All views in this article are my own and the rating is as valuable as unicorn farts).