Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story is a documentary (directed by Jeffrey Schwarz) about b-movie horror director William Castle, someone who I was really not familiar with. Sometimes, even with the most interesting subject, documentaries such as these can manage to come across as dull. Happily then, despite me not really knowing his films, I found this to be a real feel-good doc, something that put a smile on my face more than once.
In terms of layout this doesn't do anything too special. It charts Castle's life from childhood to death, looking at detail at the key films from his career, with talking head segments featuring no end of people talking both about what he was like as a person, as well as talking about the impact his legacy has had on the film industry. You get the impression that he was genuinely liked by those around him, the man, a great showman who delighted in entertaining his audiences, and someone who wasn't content to let his films do the talking for him. The worst thing said about him are some jokey comments about how tight fisted he was when it come to spending money. This was used as a boon however, with him said to be able to create films that looked far more expensive than the low budget might suggest.
The big gimmick around him was the things he did to make the cinema going experience more fun and immersive. This can be seen in Macabre, where he gave ticket buyers legitimate life insurance certificates should they prove to have been scared to death while watching it, to more outlandish devices such as 'Emergo' that had a inflatable skeleton zooming across the heads of the audience during House on Haunted Hill, and 'Percepto' that combined seats rigged to vibrate with fourth wall breaking scenes in the film The Tingler, in which the titular monster escapes into the theatre! Then there was 13 Ghosts that provided the audience with special glasses that 'allowed' them to see ghosts during the film. These were all endlessly entertaining to hear about, from both people who experienced it at the time, as well as those working behind the scenes. With his career failing towards the end of his life, the final segment did take a dip into more morose moments, with Rosemary's Baby (that he produced and had originally hoped to be able to direct instead of Roman Polanski) being where the documentary took more of a dark turn. Things do soon become light again with a look at a (then) modern day showing of his films, showing the happy reaction they still get.
Outside of his films, there was an interesting part that looked at Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with it said that Castle's success inspired that master to turn to horror, and in turn Castle being inspired by him, with it said that Castle was like a b-movie version of him.
The talking heads included old favourites such as horror directors John Landis and Joe Dante, but also included a bunch of his family and friends, with his daughter getting one of the biggest appearances throughout, even appearing in a fun after credits scene. It was clear that she did admire her father a lot. While this was not designed to show Castle in a bad light, there was some explanation for why he felt the need to be such a showman, and the self doubt that made him continue ever forward, never able to rest on his laurels.
Despite having only seen one of his films, I really enjoyed Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story. It was feel good, full of fun clips both of Castle and his films, had some decent talking head segments, and left me wanting to check out more of his films. This was released on EST/VOD/SVOD Digital platforms on 28th November 2023, and came to AVOD on 1st January of this year.
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