I'm no Alison DuBois (Medium), but I've received a message from a famous Castle, and I'm not talking about the hunky mystery writer Castle played by Nathan Fillion.I'm talking about William Castle, the B-movie shockmeister who treated fans to such fare as The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill. "Yes, I am fully aware that I died in 1977," Castle says. "But you didn't think a little thing like rigor mortis would prevent me from attending the upcoming William Castle's Shockers retrospective in LA did you? Of course you didn't."
William Castle's Shockers, presented by the very undead folks from Cinefamily at Hollywood's iconic Silent Movie Theatre, is running Saturday nights in October. There's a double feature Halloween night, Sunday, October 31, 2010. The Silent Movie Theatre is located at 611 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90048; phone: (323) 655-2520.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter Terry there," Castle advises. "We've been having a little trouble connecting these past few years. She always loved my story about coming up with the idea for The Tingler while standing in line outside ... The Silent Movie Theatre! Terry's got a few tricks of her own up her pretty sleeves. It's in the genes. Maybe I'll see you there too."
Castle continues, "You know, I made over forty B movies following a formula for box office success: low-budget chillers geared to the burgeoning boomers. The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, Thirteen Ghosts, Macabre, Strait-Jacket (scripted by Psycho's Robert Bloch), and Homicidal – which TIME magazine liked better than Psycho."
"But they called me a master of ballyhoo who shamelessly promoted his pictures with gimmicks like The Coward's Corner and Percepto seat buzzers," Castle says. "Gimmicks! What utter nonsense."
Castle notes that getting ready for Halloween was always one of his favorite things when he was alive.
"Still is," Castle says. "This year I decided to write a horror novel ... with a little help from 30 writer friends. I wrote Chapter One of Scare It Forward and posted it on October 1. Every day this month, one of my friends will post a new, sequential chapter. The final chapter, 31, will be posted on Halloween night. I guarantee it will scare a corpse out of his own grave. If you dare, you can read each day's installment of Scare It Forward.
To read the latest messages from, leave a message for,William Castle, or buy his recently re-released autobiography, Step Right Up! I’m Gonna Scare the Pants Off America, check out:
- http://www.williamcastle.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001154126369
- Twitter: @billcastle
- William Castle's Shockers program info
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