Vincent Price: "Many people die in fear. I wonder how many die of fear."

With this picture, you enter the twisted and enjoyably cheesy world of horror impresario William Castle- by direct invitation, as he personally kicks things off with a message warning you about the "Fourth wall"-breaking gimmick that he employed on this one. Unfortunately, you won't get the effect sitting at home, but you can still enjoy this flashback to the fab Fifties, when dedicated men in lab coats investigated all sorts of interesting things, women in cocktail dresses schemed against the eggheads, and you could get LSD at the local drug store (with a prescription, of course).

Vincent Price plays a man researching the effect of fear, who discovers that the emotion manifests itself as a potentially deadly physical presence dubbed "The Tingler," which can be suppressed by screaming. You won't find any of this in Gray's Anatomy, but the delightfully hammy Price sells it, even when he's struggling with the rather rubbery titular critter. This is the sort of picture where key plot points involve a deaf-mute with a blood phobia and the cinema's first LSD trip, taken by Price- and folks, it doesn't get much wackier than that. The disc includes an amusing documentary on the flick and on Castle, who was a real character.

George C. Scott: "What I need is a place I can lock myself in and play the piano all night."

Careful what you wish for, George! After a family tragedy, Scott's musical composer character needs a change of scene, winding up in a rather picturesque old mansion which has been uninhabited for some time. You can see where this is heading- soon the place is exhibiting all of the classic "Movie haunted house" phenomena, tied to a tragic incident that took place decades before.

There's nothing particularly fresh about the plot of this picture, but what makes it worthwhile is Peter Medak's direction and Scott's character. Confronted by a scenario that would inspire most people to immediately vacate the premises, Scott bravely plunges into an investigation of what happened in the house, a scenario that has painful echoes of his own situation. Along the way he holds a good, old-fashioned seance, rubs some powerful people the wrong way, and makes friends with local historian Trish Van Devere (his real-life wife at the time).

Through it all, Scott's performance gives us a man who is vulnerable, but who has the mental and physical strength to see things through to the bitter- not to mention weird- end. The disc is a no-fills affair, but worth checking out if you're in the mood for this sort of thing.

Fox, 1976, 111 mins.- Special Edition DVD

Lee Remick: "What could be wrongwith our child, Robert? We're the beautiful people, aren't we?"

Way before the recent batch of Millennial silliness we had this, the original Antichrist romp. And a fine romp it is, full of mysterious goings-on, nutty priests, crazed nannies, unfriendly dogs, grisly deaths, and a little kid who's really eeeeevil. Gregory Peck lends his A-movie actor's credibility to a decidedly B-movie plot, as his character discovers that his adopted son is no ordinary boy.

The early scenes of Peck and wife Lee Remick's idyllic life with the tot make the unpleasantness that follows all the more striking. The apprehensive but determined Peck tries to get to the truth, and as the people around him start dropping like flies, he realizes that he is a pawn on a rather large chessboard. His final move is shocking, but justified by the story. The same cannot necessarily be said of some of the other things in the picture, but its exploitative nature adds to the fun.

The schenanigans are effectively handled by director Richard Donner, who makes the most of what for the time was a small budget. The Special Edition disc contains some interesting documentary material, which includes Donner talking about the picture and composer Jerry Goldsmith discussing his Oscar-winning score, as well as audio commentary.

© Melt Magazine 2001