Hooptober 9 from Outer Space
#9: 8 decades (2)
Plex

I like Vincent Price, but I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I love the gimmicks William Castle included with his films -- for this one, certain seats in the theaters were wired to vibrate whenever the titular creature was on camera. Why don't today's theaters try goofy stuff like that? I'd love to go to a movie marathon of William Castle films with their gimmicks intact.

Martha's "hallucination/nightmare" is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking. The red blood dripping out of the faucets was not edited in post -- Castle had the set recreated in grey and black and filmed that bit in color, then spliced it in with the rest of the film's black and white scene.

That scene was genuinely creepy and one that I'll be revisiting. If I ever make a Halloween mix tape that'll be on there. I knew this movie would be schlocky fun but didn't expect something as genuinely unnerving and beautiful as that.

This brings up a question: If Ollie staged the nightmare to kill his wife, does that mean Dr. Chapin only gave her something to help her sleep? Up until the big reveal, I was disturbed by Chapin because I thought he 'd given her the acid that would make her die from fright just to study her. But if Ollie was the one wearing the mask and slamming the doors, then maybe Chapin had just given her something to help her sleep? Or did Chapin cause her death but luck out when Ollie unknowingly helped?

Since the spoiler tag is on, I might as well say I found the very ending a little flat. Chapin's wife runs off, and that's it? Chapin just leaves to call the police, and Ollie's just standing there with a gun, unwilling to stop him? Chapin spent so much time searching for the tingler, and when he discovered it, he doesn't want anyone else to know about it? So it was all for nothing and now he can't mooch off his wife's money.

Questions aside, it was a lot of fun. I love the theater scenes where the screen goes dark and Price asks viewers to "Scream for your lives!" God that must have been such a hoot to experience in theaters in 1959.