The William Castle Film Collection

Once a journeyman director in the B-movie basement of Columbia Pictures, William Castle recreated himself as a drive-in Hitchcock with a P.T. Barnum sense of ballyhoo and self-hype. It was a cagey makeover that he nurtured carefully with goofy gimmicks and personal appearances promoting and introducing his films—just as Hitchcock did on TV. This set collects eight newly remastered films, including three in their DVD debuts: Zotz! (1962), a whimsical fantasy about a magic coin; The Old Dark House (1963), a comic remake of the 1932 horror-drama about eccentrics killing one another off for an inheritance; and 13 Frightened Girls (1963), a light thriller about a diplomat's daughter turned teenage Mata Hari. These are minor efforts of a cult director—pleasing enough but hardly among his best. Better efforts included here are The Tingler (1959), starring Vincent Price and a goofy rubber puppet; Homicidal (1961), a shameless Psycho knock-off with an inspired twist; the gothic Mr. Sardonicus (1961), a Jekyll-and-Hyde thriller by way of Eyes Without a Face; and Straight-Jacket (1964), starring Joan Crawford in demented diva mode. The juvenile ghost story 13 Ghosts (1960) completes the collection. None of these are horror classics by any measure, but Castle's ingenuity and ambition did make for entertaining movies, and viewers will find a fine cross-section here. Compiling two films each on four discs (with featurettes, alternate footage, and trailers—an essential part of the Castle pitch), the set also includes a fifth disc with the affectionate 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, offering an excellent survey of the director's career. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)