Films of William Castle

John Alexander

William Castle had the unique ability to come up with the most unusual cheesy gimmicks for his films of the 60s. Castle made quite a few other western or army movies and some film noir, but most remember his sideshow productions of the 1960s the best. As unusual as they may appear on the screen today, they were a tremendous hit at the time in the 60s.

Just a few of these gimmick related items he included in productions such as:

House on Haunted Hill - where theatres were wired up so that a spooky moment in the film as a skeleton emerges from acid, so does the phoney skeleton emerge from a box at the front of the theatre and suspended on a wire, it floated over the audience. Teens of the day loved to throw whatever they had like popcorn at the emeging bones and a short time after the introduction of what Castle called "emergo" there were some theatres no longer using the effect for fear of patrons being injured by the mayhem and flying debris.

The Tingler - with Vincint Price used a gimmick that Castle said would allow the audience to take part in the picture for the first time ever. The parasite that the Doctor discovers growing on a persons spine actually gets loose in the theatre at certain points in the film and when the lights go out, the audience is warned and preped and reminded to stay calm and that whatever they do, don't be afraid to scream if they experience anything unusual. Read more about the gimmick that William Castle did not warn the audience about that produced a few surprises.

 13 Ghosts (1960) featured special glasses so the audience could spot the ghosts in certain sequences. Rather cheesy effects, the audiences of the day loved these productions. Not frightning or scary by any means by todays standards.

Then in 1962 there was a rather well made production of Mr. Sardonicous.
The gimmick is explained on that page more thoroughly, but basically it was what Castle called the "punishment Poll" and you can read more about it on the Mr. Sardonicous page.