Monday, October 6, 2014

The Tingler (1959)

How do you follow-up a fantastically constructive weekend, a great day of teaching your first art class, watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time, and still having one of the best night's sleep of your life (see also super duper happy exhausted)?

But with The Tingler of course! 


Get your mind out of the gutter folks, this is a 1959 William Castle and Vincent Price classic.

WAIT - cut, cut, I need to interject something here. Remember when I mentioned, like two posts ago, how I'm having some Watching Too Much Walking Dead I'm Becoming Paranoid Moments. During last night's art class, it was getting so warm in the teachin' room that I had to open up the front door. Because I was teaching an art class in an art store, and because this is art store is on a major walk way, people naturally thought that the store was open. When the first of the unsuspecting want-to-be customers began wandering in (and by wander picture zombie on in), I quickly told these poor folks that the store was closed - please get out - and then immediately turned to my husband and said, "Walkers!" This happened all night, during class. My students were rock stars about my strange behavior. AND JUST NOW. On My Patio! As I'm typing this! Some dude suddenly decided to zombie-out on our patio wall with a bunch of groceries in his hands. My Husband, Mike, and I stared to him for a moment [does he need water? did he start the Seahwak party too soon? What the hell is going on here, man? ZOMBIE?!]. Strange dude paid no attention to us even though he was leaning against our wall!! He's moved on now - it was strange. Party on man, or, whatever you're doing...

I might need an intervention, people. Seriously. That man might have been suffering from something, like being completely exhausted from walking up a steep hill and needing a rest, and I immediately thought ZOMBIE.

OKAY

Back to The Tingler

So apparently this is a crazy, awesome, cult classic. And they totally support LSD use in this movie. Yup. LSD is apparently prescribed to rid yourself of THE TINGLER. Oh, the '50s. You don't need horror movies to make this time period scary for me. 

So, we're super lazy tonight and cooking up a frozen pizza. Paring it with some New Belgium beers. Let's get this crazy show on the road and I'll tell you all about it soon!


UPDATE

Um. I have a few brain thoughts on this one.

First and foremost - domestic abuse is not funny. That said, here is what Vincent Price's character said in the film: "... this silly pistol can make a hole in your head the size of [ho-hums for a moment] a medium grapefruit"

Folks, this statement was absolutely hysterical. There was so many levels of I Don't Know What This Means that I was beside myself with laughter. Both my Husband, Mike, and I kept rewinding the video just to watch this minuscule scene.

AND YET

This entire movie is actually built upon domestic abuse. I suppose you could see it as funny now because it's not "Too Soon, Man, Too Soon", this film is old enough to be funny. And yet, I have a hard time finding this one a cozy black and white classic to snuggle up to.

This movies make "jokes" about  how OK it is to Off your spouse. Oh. The 1950s....

This film is hilarious, silly, and  fun for most. Just don't look too into it as I did. Don't look into it as deep and disturbing as I did, is what I'm saying. The little "Tingler" in the spine was the least scariest item in this movie for me. For me it was simply being a wife in the 1950's. F*** That.

Don't be married during the '50s, that's what I'm taking away from the film. That and Scream, I guess - because screaming saves your life in this film. And that could open a whole new can of worms which I won't go into at the moment...

This IS a silly and fun film, but I've seen better films if you're in the mood for silly. This one just upset me more than most.

I wish I could have liked this one more, but I got hung up on social issues.

Recommended pairing: Martinis in the living room and something made out of Jello. Perhaps a little crying. If you could knock over some ashtrays on stands, that would be awesome.



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