Movie Review: The Tingler (1959)
Synopsis: A pathologist becomes obsessed with fear and how the emotion can cause people to die. After conducting a series of experiments, he discovers a parasitic creature that grows when people are scared and can only be stopped when someone screams. He captures the creature in an effort to study it closer but, in doing so, puts people in danger.
Who's in it? The movie stars Vincent Price, Patricia Cutts, Judith Evelyn, Daryl Hickman and Philip Coolidge.
Review: The Tingler was on my "to-watch" list for a few months before I finally got around to watching it with my daughter several years ago and was pleasantly surprised by it. Since it had been so long, I decided to re-watch it and it still proved to be an unexpected treat.
The film takes a little while to get started, with the writers building up the suspense up until the point he finally finds and captures "the Tingler." Unlike way too many other movies though, it does prove to be worth the wait because once the creature is discovered, the movie takes a pretty creepy turn as the creature escapes and starts to stalk people.
One thing that surprised me about this film was the decision to show the monster. Since special effects were limited in the 1950s, I figured we would only see glimpses of it, like when he first pulled the creature out of a corpse behind a curtain. However, the creature was a big part of the second half of the film and even though it was clear it wasn't real, especially on a high-definition TV, it was still enough to keep me on the edge of my seat.
Another thing that impressed me was Judith Evelyn's performance as the deaf and mute Mrs. Higgins (something I remember my daughter getting a kick out of when we first saw it because she had a teacher with the same name). Since the movie established the creature could only be stopped by someone releasing their fear by screaming, I knew she would have some sort of major role in it. Evelyn did an excellent job selling the character, something that took quite a bit of skill considering she had to rely heavily on body language.
The part with Mrs. Higgins being frightened to death was also very interesting, both because I wasn't completely sure if what she was experiencing was real or a hallucination. I also loved how the black and white film colorized the blood, adding to the scene. It wasn't much, but it was impactful.
Final Opinion: Since I didn't know much about this movie when we first started watching it, I admittedly had some doubts about it. However, the film turned out to be much better than expected and is a classic horror film I would recommend as a result.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other 1950s monster movies:
Movie Review: Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)
Movie Review: The Neanderthal Man (1953)
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