At Random for October 30, 2009
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As another Halloween arrives, I’ve been thinking about what makes a good horror story, thanks to the arrival of eight William Castle films on DVD.
When I was born in 1964, Castle’s career as a big-screen horror director was coming to a close. That was the year Castle premiered “Strait-Jacket,” which was conceived as his turn toward respectability after churning out a slew of B-movie chillers that were little more than publicity stunts.
With Joan Crawford on board as an alleged ax-murderess, “Strait-Jacket” was supposed to be gimmick-free, but the perennial showman Castle changed his mind, handing out cardboard axes to theater patrons as souvenirs.
It was vintage Castle.
For “The Tingler,” a 1959 spookfest starring Vincent Price, Castle inserted tiny motors in the seats of some theatergoers that would simulate the tingling sensation of fright. A year later, Castle handed viewers of “13 Ghosts” a special pair of glasses that would make otherwise invisible specters appear on screen. For 1961’s “Homicidal,” Castle placed a “Coward’s Corner” in theater lobbies for those too afraid to see the film, and there was also a “nurse” present at theaters to monitor blood pressures of the terror-impaired.
Billed as the master of ballyhoo, Castle used publicity to create mass hysteria in his audiences and gin up the goose-bump quotient. But some four decades later, when viewed on television in the calmer confines of a living room, most of his films come off as quaint period pieces – so harmless, in fact, that our 8-year-old son consumes them as casually as bon bons.
Our boy is partial to “13 Ghosts,” which we came across on cable TV last year. “The William Castle Film Collection,” which crossed my desk the other day, includes “13 Ghosts” and seven other Castle films in a DVD collection that retails for $80.95.
My favorite Castle flick is “The Tingler,” in which fright king Vincent Price plays a scientist who discovers a primal creature at the base of every human spine that’s activated by terror. Maybe the tiny monster was terrifying in 1959, but to modern eyes, The Tingler looks like nothing so much as the family special at Red Lobster.
Because special effects often date pretty badly, horror stories that rely exclusively on rubber gadgets lose their punch over the years. The most durable horror stories use good writing, great performances and clever cinematography, which never go out of style.
That came to mind the other night while watching “Poltergeist,” Steven Spielberg’s 1982 movie about a house tormented by evil spirits.
The special effects were groundbreaking in their day, but what shocks me, all these years later, is a simple scene in which Jo Beth Williams turns to find all of her kitchen chairs stacked on the table.
Stuff like that will tingle spines a hundred Halloweens from now.
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