The Abominable Showman: Top Five Gimmicks of William Castle
To me, director William Castle will always be the patron saint of horror movie entertainment. Fellows like Alfred Hitchcock and Dario Argento may have given us more “artistic” fright films, but William Castle gave us a circus. He was a crusader against mundane film-viewing and a champion of ghoulish amusements. Castle turned theater seats into joy buzzers, hired nurses in case some poor patron “died of fright”, and made A-level spectacles out of B-movie shockers. Without a doubt, Castle was horror’s greatest showman. Movie marketing is far more sophisticated now than it was in Castle’s day, but no one has been able to top the delicious lunacy of Castle’s brash, corn-on-the-macabre approach. If the horror film has a Willy Wonka, his name is William Castle.
In celebration of Castle’s brilliant ballyhoo, here are five of Castle’s most gloriously ludicrous gimmicks. Now, the man did far more than these, but the ones listed here are his most infamous gimmicks. When we think of the madness of William Castle, these are the gore-gags that come to mind.
WARNING: The rest of this article contains vivid descriptions of startling horror! If you have a heart condition, we strongly recommend you exit out of this page and read something far less distressing. You have been warned…
Gimmick: Emergo!
Film: House on Haunted Hill
3D? Ha! Any hack can make a 3D film! It takes a true visionary to come up with Emergo! With Emergo, the horrors leaped off of the film and into the theater! It was fantastic! It was sensational! It was a Halloween decoration on a wire!
In the final moments of House on Haunted Hill, a skeleton emerges from an acid pit to terrorize a character on-screen. During this scene, theaters would unleash a skeleton prop to zip over the heads of filmgoers. Once word got out about this, kids would start lobbing sodas and candy at the skeletal figure. I suppose they had a bone to pick with it…
Gimmick: Percepto!
Film: The Tingler
In what may be The Starry Night of William Castle’s career, theater seats were rigged to buzz when the titular monster scuttles about in the in-film theater. To produce the “tingling” effect, military surplus airplane wing de-icers (consisting of vibrating motors) and a crew travelled from theatre to theatre. The de-icers would be attached to the underside of seats, thus creating “The Tingler”. If makeshift electric chairs weren’t enough for you, a plant was hidden amongst the unsuspecting audience, ready to scream hysterics at the sight of the creature.
Gimmick: Fright Break!/Coward’s Corner!
Film: Homicidal
It’s been reported that Alfred Hitchcock was inspired by the success of House on Haunted Hill to make Psycho, one of the most popular horror films of all time. Ever the gentleman, Castle returned the favor by completely ripping off Psycho in Homicidal. While the film is derivative, it’s also an excellent chiller-diller with a twist that’s both familiar and effective at the same time. Right before the big reveal, viewers were afforded a “Fright Break”: 45 seconds in which to leave if the film was “too scary” for the viewer. If the audience member left, they would be given a full refund. However, before the audience member got their refund, they had to sit in the “Coward’s Corner” (a yellow cardboard booth) for the rest of the film… while a recording declared, “Watch the chicken! Watch him shiver in Coward’s Corner!” On top of that, the coward had to hold up a sign that read, "I am a bona fide coward.“
Gimmick: Illusion-O!
Film: 13 Ghosts
Each patron received a handheld ghost viewer/remover. During certain scenes, a person could see the ghosts by looking through the red cellophane. If the person was a complete namby-pamby, they could hide them away by looking through the blue lense. How did it work? It didn’t.
From most accounts, it appears that the ghosts were equally visible with or without the viewer. Still, the audience member was left with a nifty little souvenir.
Gimmick: The Punishment Poll!
Film: Mr. Sardonicus
For our final gimmick, we turn to Mr. Sardonicus, Castle’s stab at Gothic fiction. Centering around a sinister baron with an unusually toothy grin, audiences could vote on the fate of Baron Sardonicus. Each filmgoer was given a card with a glow-in-the-dark thumb they could hold up or down to decide if Mr. Sardonicus should be cured or punished. Castle would appear in the film and "count” the number votes. Rumor has it that the “mercy” ending was never shown because no one ever voted for it. But, seeing that the reel doesn’t change during the poll and ending, it’s safe to say that there was only ever ONE ending filmed.
