Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
“People want to be scared.” – William Castle
This winner of the Special Jury Prize for Pure Documentary Entertainment chronicles the life and career of the great William Castle. Part filmmaker, part showman, Castle became a brand name in movie horror in the 50s and 60s by delighting movie-going audiences with a combination of B-movie thrills and outrageous gimmicks.
Born 1914, orphaned at 11 years of age, Castle loved applause and attention, had brazen, shameless, and successful chutzpah and an incredible drive to succeed. He literally worked his way from nothing into the inner workings of the film industry with friends and mentors like Bela Legosi and Orson Wells. After becoming an experienced B-movie director in Hollywood he decided to branch out on his own, mortgaged his home, and began making his own movies. Driven by a fear of failure and desperation to succeed he came up with gimmicks to entice viewers to the screenings. Fake controversies, nurses on sight in case you fainted, life insurance policies in case you died of fright, buzzing seats, flying skeletons, special glasses that let you see the luminescent ghosts lurking in the theatre, he did them all. And they worked!
Audiences were delighted and classics like “House on Haunted Hill,” “13 Ghosts,” and the infamous “Tingler” (the best film ever according to John Waters) were born. Still driven to prove himself to his peers, he was also the person who discovered and brought to the screen both “The Lady from Shanghai” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” though in both cases his dreams for directing them were not to be instead being replaced by the studios with Orson Wells and Roman Polanski. Though he may never have achieved the critical acclaim he desired, he did achieve the success and secured himself a solid place in film history. He was beloved by audiences, colleagues, family, and directors from John Landis to Roger Corman to John Waters who all pay tribute to him in this fascinating look into the life of one of America’s last great showman. If you love film and especially if you love horror, this is definitely a must see.
Lucy Cruell