Member-only story
The King of Schlock Horror Movies
William Castle’s gimmick-laden films were delightfully scary
Imagine going to a motion picture and seeing a skeleton fly right out from the screen into the movie theatre. Or a creepy, crawly thing that you actually feel when your theatre seat vibrates. Or using a special “viewer” to make ghosts in a film appear and disappear.
Movies with these gimmicks, and a slew of others, were the work of director William Castle, whose memoir was dedicated to “The thousands of kids whom I have scared the daylights out of…” Castle was the undisputed king of schlock horror movies — low budget B-movies that, despite being roundly ridiculed by critics, were very popular, delighting kids and adults alike in the 1950s and 1960s.
William Castle knew exactly what would thrill audiences, as he unapologetically told an interviewer in 1960: “I’ve modeled my career on [P.T.] Barnum. Exploitation’s the big thing in the picture business today. …Gimmicks, surprise, shock — that’s what draws the crowds.”
When it came to gimmicks, Castle had a director’s chair full of them — and I can personally attest that they worked, since I was a loyal fan of his movies when I was a kid.
