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Part of the A Nightmare on Franklin Street 2026 series**********************************************************
Note: This film will be shown in the Taylor Screening Room.
1h 22m / Not Rated / Horror, Sci-Fi
The Tingler is about a parasite, present apparently in all humans, which curls up around the spinal cord when the host experiences fear. The only way to make it relax (and prevent paralysis and death) is to relieve extreme fear by screaming. It also prominently features LSD? In 1959? Before it was even illegal? And there’s an interesting thematic throughline about the struggling cinema business in the postwar period.
Believe it or not, none of those fascinating facts are why anybody remembers The Tingler. That’s actually a gimmick called Percepto!, which is best understood as either a marketing trick or very early immersive cinema, depending on how charitable you’re feeling. Director William Castle was widely known for his promotional gimmicks, like a red/blue tinted viewer to see “hidden” ghosts for 13 Ghosts, or a fake skeleton with red lights in its eyes attached to a pulley rig and yanked above the audience for House on Haunted Hill. Percepto! was one of his best. A few seats in each theater where The Tingler was playing would be fitted with buzzers (actually war-surplus airplane wing de-icers) which would go off at certain scenes. There were fake nurses and gurneys planted in the lobbies at some screenings. The film (as you’ll see) starts with a fourth-wall-breaking announcement from Castle himself, saying that certain members of the audience (i.e. the ones with the buzzers under their seats) may be more sensitive to the “physical reactions” of the actors on the screen. The plot also encouraged the audience to scream, of course, which for a horror movie like this was its own kind of marketing.
Before the screening, Charlie Suor— writer, cultural studies scholar, and Tampa’s own crypt keeper —will provide a brief introduction to the film.
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A Nightmare on Franklin Street series is presented by Bank of America. View the full series at https://tampatheatre.org/nightmare
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Event venue
Tampa Theatre, 707 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602-4400, United States
Tickets
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