7/24/2013, 10:17 pm
Warning:
You must be over 65 or a fan of classic horror films (preferably both) to appreciate the following review.
The Tingler was originally released in 1958. It has subsequently been re-released with a new cast and contemporary plot.
THE PLOT:
Political propagandist and Dr. of Spin, Warren Chapin (Chris Matthews), discovers that the tingling in his leg during a speech by President Obama is due to the growth of a creature that every human being seems to have called a "Tingler". The parasite lives by attaching itself to the inside a human thigh where it curls up, feeds, and grows stronger when its host is exposed to Marxist propaganda. Under the right conditions, and given time to fully mature, the Tingler eventually crushes the person's femur cutting off blood flow to their groin. The host can weaken the creature and stop its curling behavior by laughing.
Lecture hall owner Oliver Higgins (Anthony Weiner), who books progressive speakers exclusively, is an acquaintance of Dr. Chapin. Higgins's wife Martha (May Putout), who is beautiful but has no sense of humor, suffers a broken leg after weird, apparently supernatural events occur in her room. Later that night, during some “exploratory political surgery”, Dr. Chapin removes the Tingler from her thigh. The centipede-like creature eventually breaks free from the container in which Chapin had placed it and wanders into the lecture hall that the beautiful but humorless woman was cleaning before suffering the leg fracture. Chapin wishes not to disrupt the ongoing propaganda speeches knowing it would start a panic. The Tingler latches onto a female patron's ankle, tickling her and causing her to laugh hysterically till it releases its grip. Chapin controls the situation by shutting off the lights and telling everyone in the hall to laugh. He turns the lights back on when the Tingler has left the room and the speakers resume. Chapin and Higgins go to the men's room where they find the Tingler and recapture it.
After they've contained the Tingler and returned to Higgins' rooms, it is revealed that Higgins purposely caused his wife's leg fracture by telling her a series of risque jokes knowing that she could not laugh because she was humorless. Guessing the only way to neutralize the Tingler was to reinsert it in Martha's thigh, Spin Dr. Chapin proceeds to do so. After he leaves, Higgins, who has admitted his guilt to Chapin, is left alone in the room with the unconscious Martha. As if by supernatural forces, the door slams shut and the window closes, echoing what happened just before Martha's leg was broken. The Tingler causes the still anesthetized body of Martha to rise from the bed and make grotesque faces at her husband who's so freaked out he's unable to laugh. The screen fades to black. There is the sound of someone (presumably Higgins) falling to the floor and screaming with a broken leg. From the darkened screen Chapin's voice says to the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, just a word of warning. If any of you are not convinced that you have a Tingler of your own, the next time you are excited by a Marxist speech... don't laugh," and the film ends.
