William Castle Archives

Macabre (1958)

Rating: ★★

Jul 21, 2013Psycho-Thriller

The first of William Castle's films set around outrageous promotional stunts - here he took an insurance policy out against audience members dying of fright. The film entirely belies its promise to scare an audience to death

Director: William Castle

Actors: William Prince, Jacqueline Scott, Jim Backus, Philip Tonge, …

Category: Horror

21 July 20131 August 2026 by Roog

The Tingler (1959)

Rating: ★★★★

May 10, 2009Capturing the Spirit of Fear

The finest moment from gimmick master William Castle with Vincent Price as a coroner searching for a parasite that feeds on fear. Full of Castle's luridly sensationalistic effects and containing the first portrayal of an LSD trip on screen.

Director: William Castle

Actors: Vincent Price, Pamela Lincoln, Darryl Hickman

Category: Horror

10 May 20097 April 2026 by Roog

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Rating: ★★★

Nov 18, 2000Haunted House

One of the key films from William Castle, the P.T. Barnum of the horror genre. Castle always approached horror like a carnival barker. Castle does not have much style but the luridness of his shocks proves entertaining

Director: William Castle

Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Elisha Cook Jr, Richard Long, …

Category: Horror

18 November 20007 April 2026 by Roog

13 Ghosts (1960)

Rating: ★★

Jul 8, 2001Haunted House

One of the films from gimmick master William Castle, a more routine ghost story that eventually opts for a mundane ending and was sold with the gimmick of Ghost Viewer glasses. Later remade as Thir13en Ghosts

Director: William Castle

Actors: Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, …

Category: Horror

8 July 20017 April 2026 by Roog

Homicidal (1961)

Rating: ★★

Jul 30, 2002Psycho-Thriller

William Castle gained fame for his horror films made with a series of promotional gimmicks. With the success of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Castle made a blatant copy here, the first of his psycho-thrillers

Director: William Castle

Actors: Glenn Corbett, Jean Arless, Patricia Breslin

Category: Horror

30 July 200219 March 2026 by Roog

Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

Rating: ★★★

Jan 11, 2012Man With a Frozen Grin

Another of the films from gimmick master William Castle - a classic work of Grand Guignol in its story of a man with a permanently frozen Joker-like grin, which Castle fills with memorable shock effects

Director: William Castle

Actors: Guy Rolfe, Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton, Oscar Homolka, …

Category: Horror

11 January 20127 April 2026 by Roog

The Old Dark House (1963)

Rating: ★

Jun 27, 2017Old Dark House Comedy

The oddest collaborations of its era – between Hammer Films and William Castle renowned for his sensationalist gimmicks, who conduct a remake of James Whale's droll horror comedy. Alas, Castle only turns out a broad farce

Director: William Castle

Actors: Tom Poston, Robert Morley, Janette Scott, Fenella Fielding, …

Category: Horror

27 June 20179 April 2026 by Roog

Strait-Jacket (1964)

Rating: ★★★

Apr 6, 2004Psycho-Thriller

William Castle psycho-thriller made to exploit the successes of both PsychoWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? with an axe-wielding Joan Crawford letting all stops go

Director: William Castle

Actors: Joan Crawford, George Kennedy, Diane Baker, Leif Erickson, …

Category: Horror

6 April 200417 June 2021 by Roog

I Saw What You Did (1965)

Rating: ★★

Jun 4, 2015Prank Phonecall Psycho-Thriller

Gimmick master William Castle turns to making a psycho-thriller about two teenage girls making prank calls and uttering the title phrase – only to inadvertently call a man who has just killed his wife

Director: William Castle

Actors: Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Leif Erickson, Patricia Breslin, …

Category: Horror

4 June 201525 May 2026 by Roog

The Night Walker (1965)

Rating: ★★

Aug 9, 2003Dream Lover/Psycho-Thriller

William Castle psycho-thriller (from a Robert Bloch script) that creates an incredibly haunted mood between dream and reality only to fall apart in an absurdly contrived ending

Director: William Castle

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Lloyd Bochner, Hayden Rorke

Category: Horror

9 August 200321 June 2021 by Roog

The Spirit is Willing (1967)

Rating: ★★

Sep 5, 2004Ghost Comedy

Here gimmick master William Castle turns his attention away from the usual into making a light fantasy comedy about a family who buy a house inhabited by ghosts

Director: William Castle

Actors: Sid Caesar, Vera Miles, Barry Gordon, John McGiver, …

Category: Fantasy

5 September 20047 April 2026 by Roog

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Rating: ★★★★★

Apr 1, 2003Satanic Impregnation

Classic film and one of Roman Polanski’s finest works, the comically paranoid story of a housewife who increasingly comes to believe that the child she is pregnant with was fathered by The Devil

Director: Roman Polanski

Actors: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, …

Category: Horror

1 April 200328 February 2026 by Roog

Project X (1968)

Rating: ★★

Nov 30, 2000Future Mental Probing/Reality Simulations

Gimmick master William Castle makes an SF films about scientists engaged in simulations and mental probing to obtain secrets from a man's mind

Director: William Castle

Actors: Christopher George, Monte Markham, Henry Jones, Harold Gould, …

Category: Science Fiction

30 November 200014 February 2025 by Roog

Shanks (1974)

Rating: ★★

Oct 13, 2021Puppeteer Resurrects the Dead

The last film of gimmick master William Castle, a head-scratching oddity where mime artist Marcel Marceau plays a puppeteer who gains the ability to bring people back to life and control them like puppets

Director: William Castle

Actors: Marcel Marceau, Cindy Eilbacher, Larry Bishop, Don Calfa, …

Category: Horror

13 October 202113 October 2021 by Roog

Bug! (1975)

Rating: ★★★

Apr 11, 1999Intelligent Firestarting Insects

William Castle production about the discovery of a species of insects that can start fires. Easily dismissable as a schlock film but it has an intelligence and eerie insect photography that make it more than that

Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Actors: Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, Alan Fudge, Patty McCormack

Category: Horror, Science Fiction

11 April 199911 September 2025 by Roog