Abstract
The present article considers the underlying philosophical logic of William Castle's horror film The Tingler, demonstrating how the film mediates on the nature of horror. It notes the similarities with existential phenomenological theories of horror, particularly the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, who posited horror as an emotional response to phenomena apprehended in defiance of the rationalistic scaffolding used to make sense of things. Likewise, when the underlying logic of the film is considered, The Tingler presents the nature of horror to be an extreme emotive result of a subjective dislocation and perceptual alienation from the objective world. This is represented via the campy B-movie image of a rubber monster, as well as the film's preoccupation with hallucination. Additionally, the famous 'Percepto' gimmick puts the film's philosophy into affective practice. Considering The Tingler in this way presents a way of seeing American horror cinema as linked with existential ideas, presenting even 'low', disreputable exploitation horror as unique, alternative contemporary mediations on themes taken for granted in 'high' cultural media. and the workings of the human body . . . The terror of the tingler relates to our own understanding of the ancient commonality of the human body, its failings, ruptures, and weaknesses' (Brottman 1997, 7) . But their philosophical preoccupations often go overlooked, especially when considered against contemporary cultural and intellectual contexts. Given the recognition of the influence of the French film Les Diaboliques (The Fiends, Henri-Georges Clouzot 1955 ) on Castle's work, this is a considerable gap in Castle scholarship. Les Diaboliques had a series of links with contemporary existential phenomenological philosophy, associated with major thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who both enjoyed a much-discussed presence in post-war American culture, especially youth culture (Hayward 2005) . Castle was open about the influence of Les Diaboliques on his subsequent horror films. The first French film to be shown in drive-ins, Les Diaboliques was associated with both art and popular youth audiences; it was in many ways a commercial art film (Schwartz 2007, 130) . Les Diaboliques was a major success with audiences, prompting exploitation producers like William Castle to attempt to replicate its blend of popular horror, surreal aesthetics, and philosophical sophistication. Given these contexts, it seems appropriate to read Castle's films as mediating philosophical ideas, in this case, the assumptions and preoccupations of existential phenomenological philosophy. Moreover, The Tingler's emphasis on fear and horror calls into question its philosophy of horror. Through textual analysis and a consideration of cultural and intellectual contexts that are mediated by the text, the present article will discuss the existential themes of The Tingler, focusing on how it participates within existential debates about horror and perception, proposing that The Tingler develops a popular alternative existentialism. Film texts mediate (sometimes conflicting) cultural trends: they produce and reproduce the world for audiences. Reality passes through the text as an active process as opposed to being passively reflected. The text mediates things existent within the world, shaping and changing their possible meanings for audiences. So, rather than merely reflecting the fully formed existential ideas of the period, in focusing on horror as a product of perception and in trying to replicate the themes of Les Diaboliques, The Tingler mediates existential ideas. Such ideas are being produced and reproduced in the text and intertexts, as well as in relation to socio-historical and reception contexts, especially through the strange, surreal language of 'bad' horror. Part of what made The Tingler an alternative product was its association with low-budget exploitation cinema, which was at this point almost exclusively targeted at youth audiences and those with niche tastes. Though not as far removed from the mainstream as many cult viewers like to contend, The Tingler's genre and industrial contexts produced an inherent 'campiness' and low-budget strangeness that signalled its divergence from mainstream taste. Audiences had diversified in the wake of the rise of a baby boomer generation who were less interested in stars and narrative coherence, gravitating towards products that resonated with their own anxieties and sense of being, films with which they could identify as part of a countercultural diet. Gimmickry and 'badness' are emphasised in cult discourses concerning William Castle (see Waters 2003) . The 'exceptionality' of Castle's gimmicks is frequently overplayed in cult discourses which ignore a wider history of exploitation film distribution and ballyhoo, as is the 'badness' of The Tingler, which has led to a cult celebration that overstates the uniqueness of the film. 2 The rising significance of imported foreign films (which due to their foreignness were immediately collapsed into a wider art cinema) prompted producers on the margins to emphasise the surreal imagery and overt symbolism in order to have dual associations with art and trash. The strangeness and absurdity of The Tingler, which has led to it being called 'bad', can be seen as integral to its meaningful logic; that is, it is through such elements that the film mediates the central philosophical preoccupations of the day where the assumptions of contemporary French existential phenomenology occupied a prominent place as fashionable within American youth culture and intellectual discourse (see Fulton 1999; Cotkin 2005; Bakewell 2016 ). This analysis potentially offers a new way of seeing American low culture's relationship with so-called 'high culture', considering American horror cinema as thematically linked with broader contemporary philosophical ideas and presenting even 'low', disreputable exploitation horror as alternative contemporary mediations on themes that are taken for granted in high cultural media. The following sections will consider the intellectual contexts of The Tingler, before closely analysing the underlying philosophical logic of the text, looking specifically at the tingler monster, narrative emphasis on hallucination and gaslighting, and the Percepto gimmick.
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