10 Movies That Used Insane Gimmicks To Get Attention

Here's another one from William Castle that took his love for gimmicks even further. This classic B-movie is about a parasite called the Tingler that latches onto people and feeds on their fear. Specifically for this film, Castle introduced a technology called Percepto, where electronic buzzers were placed under certain seats in the theatre to scare the hell out of everyone. 

Towards the end, the Tingler's silhouette is shown as if its crawling across the projector in the movie theatre itself. The only way to defeat the Tingler is to scream, and so the main character breaks the fourth wall and yells "Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But scream! Scream for your lives! The Tingler is loose in this theatre!" At this point, the buzzers would be activated, shocking members of the audience as the Tingler was supposedly moving around the auditorium. As if that wasn't enough, Castle actually hired actors for certain theatres to "faint" and be dragged out on a gurney by a fake nurse. 

The whole movie seems to have been designed entirely around this clever gimmick, inventing a monster you defeat by screaming just to get audiences to interact with the film. The Tingler was another financial success for Castle largely due to the free publicity Percepto provided, and luckily the movie is good enough that it holds up even without all the buzzing and fainting.