B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping William Castle and movie theater gimmicks into the ol’ VCR. 

I am absolutely a sucker for gimmicks. 

I always take the free mini posters at theaters for movies I like. 

I am fortunate enough to have several of the AMC and Cinemark popcorn buckets they’ve released over the past few years. 

I was also fortunate enough to attend Dismember the Alamo last year, where one of the mystery movies was William Castle’s 13 Ghosts, complete with Illusion-O, where you could make ghosts “appear” and “disappear” on the screen. 

However, Illusion-O is only the tip of the William Castle iceberg. 

Most of William Castle’s films had some sort of gimmick and/or interactive element to make his movies all the more enjoyable and “terrifying.” 

So, friends, I want to delve into some of William Castle’s gags and gimmicks, because after experiencing one for myself last year, I’m so jealous that I never got to experience the rest for myself. 

Video source: Oscars

If you aren’t familiar with William Castle, he directed classics like 13 Ghosts (1960), The Tingler, and one of my favorite horror movies of all time, House on Haunted Hill (1959). 

Along with directing some of the most iconic and inspirational horror films of all time, William Castle would incorporate gimmicks with these films. 

For example, like I mentioned earlier, 13 Ghosts included something he called “Illusion-O.” Illusion-O consisted of a little viewer with two different rectangles: one red and one blue. 

Video source: Classic Film & TV Cafe

Viewers would then look through one color to “see” the ghosts and the other color to make the ghosts disappear. The screen also indicated when to look through the viewer. The best way I can describe this one is like 3D but without the dimensional element. 

Other gimmicks included: 

• Adding vibrating parts underneath randomly selected theater seats in The Tingler, aka “Percepto”  
• A skeleton flew through the audience via wire during the skeleton jumpscare in House on Haunted Hill 
• An intermission in Homicidal that gave theater patrons the opportunity to flee and get a refund that he called a “fright break”

Video source: Ennisburger

Almost every single one of Castle’s films has some sort of gimmick, be it in the advertising or the theater experience itself. 

And, I think it’s clear that Castle really set a precedent for future gimmicks. In fact, I would be so bold to say that the marketing of The Blair Witch Project spawned from his marketing strategies. 

Additionally, the crowd voting element of Mr. Sardonicus is extremely similar to the interactive elements we’ve seen on specials like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

The list goes on and on. 

William Castle was ahead of his time, but we definitely owe a lot of horror marketing to his advertising and in-theater gimmicks. 

Don Draper, eat your heart out.