Stranded at the Drive-in: JDs, Sleaze & AIP
Horror movies in the 1950s were dominated by the 'B'
picture. Stephen King attributes the budget B-movie
company, American International Pictures with single
handedly saving the horror genre. In 1956 James H
Nicholson & Samuel Z Arkoff decided that there was
money to be made in supplying the bottom end of the
cinema market with two-for-the-price-of-one movies.
The B-picture was thought to be dead, the two-picture
moviegoing experience usurped by television. However,
Arkoff and Nicholson had a very specific audience in
mind - one that enjoyed NOT sitting in the living room
surrounded by close family members. And they knew
what teenagers wanted.
With titles like The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini (show
me a teenager who doesn't want to see THAT!!), and a
willingness to experiment and move on, AIP produced a
range of horror B-movies which sewed up the drive-in
market. Perhaps the most famous is I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, directed squarely at
the teen drive-in audience squirming on the seats of their cars.
The 1950s saw a number of technical innovations in the cinema; CinemaScope,
Cinerama, Stereophonic sound, 3-D and even Smell-O-Vision (!), all designed to lure the
audience away from their TV sets. Whilst big-budget, full-technicolour Hollywood epics
offered a real 'big screen' alternative, lower budget movies needed extra gimmicks to pull
in the punters. One ex-music hall impresario, William Castle, understood what it took to
get the audience actively involved in the horror experience, and, with his production
company Castle Pictures, launched a series of gimmicks to draw the crowds. The devices
added to the fun of the horror movie experience, audiences screamed as much with
laughter as anything else. Castle also toured the country exhibiting his movies, fully
understanding that he could sell them by hyping them into events.
The Tingler (1959)
Grossing over $2 million off a $400,000 budget, The Tingler was another success for
Castle, and is an object lesson in marketing hype. The story is, in the main, misogynistic
melodrama, and the solitary monster is just over a foot long. However, Castle's
showmanship and Vincent Price's performance bring it to another level, and it is
considered a classic of its kind. A remake, from one of the Saw writers, is slated for 2009.
In the second of two movies Price made with Castle that year, he plays Dr. Warren
Chapin, a gentleman-scientist fascinated by the concept of fear. While autopsying the
bodies of executed prisoners he has observed that the vertebrae crack at the moment of
execution, as though under some immense pressure which has nothing to do with the
electrocution. He believes that there is some kind of fear-generated force which occupies
a space at the base of the human spine, and becomes obsessed with proving its physical
existence. He dubs that force 'the Tingler'.
Dr Chapin is a mad scientist in the classic sense of the word. Apart from his work in the
prison morgue, he has a home laboratory (paid for by his alcoholic, unfaithful wife,
Isabel) where he and his young apprentice, David, conduct experiments on fear in living
things. Chapin needs human subjects, however, the cats David kidnaps from alleys aren't
cutting it any more. He conducts a cruel experiment on Isabel, deliberately terrifying her
by threatening her and shooting her with a blank bullet. He X-rays her while she's
unconscious and discovers a suspicious mass at the base of her spine— proof he is on the
right track.
Chapin then experiments on himself. He declares that he is too logical and sensible to feel
fear under normal circumstances, so, in an extremely bizarre sequence for 1959, he doses
himself with LSD (it was still legal to do so at the time) and records his reaction to the
subsequent hallucinations. Chapin thrashes round in his lab, fearing the walls are closing
in on him, but, unfortunately, gives in to an almighty scream before the fear reaches its
peak.
Thwarted, Price vows to find a test subject who will allow the Tingler to reach its fullest
physical manifestation without dissipating its energy with a scream. His eyes light on the
wife of Ollie, a rather odd individual who runs the local silent movie theatre, and who
likes hanging out with Dr Chapin at the autopsy table. Mrs Higgins is a deaf mute,
physically unable to scream, who loses consciousness at the climax of fear, when it all
becomes too much for her. Dr Chapin pays her a visit, discovers she is feeling unwell and
gives her a shot that looks suspiciously similar to the LSD he dosed himself with earlier.
When she comes round she is threatened by slamming doors, prowling ghouls, and, when
she flees to the bathroom for safety, a tub full of lurid red blood — unnerving, in the
middle of a black and white film.