10 Best Horror Movies Set In A Cinema

7. The Tingler

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Columbia Pictures

The oldest movie to be featured on this list, The Tingler is a 1959 effort from cult favourite director William Castle.

Castle was famed for releasing his movies with plenty of whistles and bells accompanying them. And in the case of The Tingler, those whistles and bells meant that watching audiences had a vibrating device installed in their seats - with said device twitching to mirror the on-screen action.

Starring the legendary Vincent Price, the crux of The Tingler's plot revolves around a parasitic creature that sticks to a host's spine and feeds off fear. The more you get scared, the greater chance you have of this parasite killing you. But to get rid of this unwelcome presence, all one has to do is scream as loud as possible.

Opposite Price is Philip Coolidge as Ollie Higgins, the owner of a theater that specialises in silent films - and it's in Higgins' small cinema that so much of The Tingler takes place.

Having taken advantage of this parasite to kill his deaf-mute wife, Higgins is the ultimate villain of the piece, and his fate is one similar to his dead bride. In a move that only the dulcet, delightful tones of Vincent Price could get away with, The Tingler closes as Price's Chaplin gleefully warns the audience not to doubt the existence of the film's titular parasite.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.