Hollywood Gothique

Date: October 31 at 8pm
Location: The Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
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Description: The Cinefamily presents a screening of the campy William Castle horror-thriller, starring Vincent Price as a mad scientist who theorizes that a crustacean-like creature lives at the base of the human spine, growing in response to fear – and the only way to shrink it back down to size is to scream! Supposedly, tonight’s screening will recreate the old “Percepto” gimmick from the film’s original 1959 release, in which the theatre seats are rigged to vibrate, as the Tingler is crawling beneath your seat.

From the website:

Our month-long Halloween celebration concludes with the spine-tingling horror of The Tingler, William Castle’s weirdo masterpiece of gimmickry about a lobster-shaped monster that feeds on terror within the human body! Aside from being the first film to use LSD as a plot device, the original theatrical run was presented in “Percepto,” whereby theater patrons were administered buzzer shocks in their seats, to simulate the monster’s attack. The result, of course, was giddy insanity, as star Vincent Price’s voice urges patrons to “scream for your lives!” Best of all, The Tingler features a major subplot based on the Silent Movie Theatre itself and its original owners, the Hamptons. Feel a tingle up your spine as you watch these scenes set in the very location where you are sitting — and maybe a tingle on your tuchas when we shock you Castle-style with real wired seats! Experience The Tingler in “Percepto”!
Dir. William Castle, 1959, 35mm, 82 min.