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The Tingler, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Tingler
Movie Count: 12
TV Ep Count: 3
Other Count: 0
Time Started: 1:30pm
Plot:
Vincent Price stars as an obsessed doctor who discovers that fear manifests itself as a parasitic creature, which grows on the spinal cords of terrified people. If they scream, the Tingler can be destroyed. If they don't, it will sever the spinal column and kill them. He successfully isolates and removes the Tingler from a deaf mute (Judith Evelyn) who has been scared to death by her devious husband. Once captured, the Tingler escapes and runs amok in a crowded movie theater. Terror is loose, but can it be stopped?

The Tingler is legendary horror director William Castle's magnum opus. After the success of House On Haunted Hill, Castle devised a new gimmick called "Percepto" for The Tingler. Participating theaters would wire seats so that random moviegoers would get a tangible electric shock during climactic moments in the film. Another novelty used to maximum effect is the short color sequence depicting blood pouring from a faucet and filling a bathtub. Castle went on to direct more cult classics like Homicidal and 13 Ghosts and later produced the mainstream hit Rosemary's Baby.

My Thoughts:
I found this movie to be a lot of fun. It is not what I would call one of the best classic horrors I have seen. But it is definitely one I can see myself watching again. The Tingler itself looked like someone forgot to flush the toilet... but it definitely served it's purpose. I liked how William Castle came on the screen before the movie to talk to you. Much like he did in the movie 13 Ghosts I can see his gimmicks really added something to the movie going experience. Almost makes me sad I was not around to see this stuff originally air in the theater.



(From My Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2008 on October 3rd, 2008)

Rituals, a review by Jimmy

Title: Rituals (1977)

Genre: Survival drama
Director: Peter Carter
Rating: R
Length: 1h40
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Hal Holbrook
Lawrence Dane
Robin Gammell
Ken James
Gary Reineke

Plot:
Adventure-seeker Mitzi (Lawrence Dane, SCANNERS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME) invites fellow Doctor Harry (Award winning Hal Halbrook, INTO THE WILD, CAPRICORN ONE) and three other physician friends to go on their annual camping trip in middle of the unexplored Canadian mountains. The five of them thought that they were alone in the muddle of nowhere on their ritual camping trip, but this time someone was watching them. A crazed psychopath wants to play a psychological game of survival with the five campers and it soon becomes a horrifying game of kill or be killed.

This film like many canadian's films made in the seventies is not known at all, since they were made as tax write-of no effort were made to did a profit with them. So except in our country most people never saw them in their real form and most of them were only local success. To be honest this is almost criminal since the movie in our country at this time were as good as those made in the USA. But enough ranting....

This one is often compare to Deliverance, but to be honest I don't understand why since the only common thing between those two is that it happen in the wood (great location by the way, I don't know if Batchawana Bay always look like that 35 years later but what an awesome looking natural place) and the protagonists are target by an enemy. This is not Deliverance... We don't see the follower untill the end and they don't fight him because he never made his precence known. In fact what we have here is a survival story of how five friends deal with the difficulties with no one to help them, stranded in an hostile location (seriously by experience I can tell you that mountain, forest and river aren't friendly places if you don't know them), no idea of what will happen and when, how it will affect their friendship and the heartbreaking decision they must choose.

Hal Holbrook in this film give the performance of his career, we aren't used to see him in leading role and he is sure able to carry a strong film like that on his shoulder. The four other principal actors are well known if you watch frequently canadian cinema (they were all big stars in the seventies in our country) and they do a good job too with their character. Lawrence Dane being the best, since he almost outshine Hal Holbrook on the screen.

The film is shot in order, so none of the usual continuity errors is present. Also the actors did all their stunt themselves and some of them are really dangerous like when they are in the river.

A film that I recommand strongly. I know most of the films I review here aren't that great for anyone except me, but I'm sure this one would please Jon, Achim, Pete, KC, Kathy and certainly more people. To be honest this is certainly the more crowd pleasing film I've ever reviewed on our website.

It is a little hard to find because Amazon doesn't carry it. I've seen it on Axel Music, Diabolik DVD, Deep Discount DVD and some other webstore.  

Rating :

(From The little known movie review depot on April 23rd, 2011)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Over its seven-year run, The Mary Tyler Moore Show won twenty-nine Emmy Awards, more than any other comedy in television history. Now get ready to run back the dial to 1970 and rejoin the gang from WJM - the lowest-rated (but most hilarious) evening news show in Minneapolis. Relive all the laughter with Mary, Lou, Murray, Ted, Rhoda and Phyllis as the first season of this classic TV show arrives on DVD!

Love is All Around
New to Minneapolis and rebounding from a broken engagement, Mary takes a job in the WJM-TV newsroom.

My Thoughts:
Now we get to  a classic sitcom. And one with lots of laughs. The show's cast works together so well. I love the chemistry between Mary and Lou. And I can't help but to laugh at how Murray goes after Ted. This episode is a great introduction to the show. I laughed out loud more then once. I especially enjoyed the interview Lou gave to Mary. How she answered all the questions out of order.

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on March 25th, 2010)