To humiliate those who took up the offer, Castle instituted “Coward’s Corner,” a yellow booth where deserters were forced to sign a card that certified them as bona fide cowards. His films are immortalized by Waters not on the merits of their cinematic brilliance, but rather for Castle’s ingenious promotions that made them box- office hits.įor Homicidal, Castle stopped the film two minutes before the end for a “Fright Break.” He invited anyone too scared to watch the end of the movie to leave the theater and get their money back. Castle, the only person in the book to receive such respect.) Among Castle’s credits are horror classics such as House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Tingler (1959), and Homicidal (1961). (It must be noted that Waters refers to him as Mr. Castle is the original low- budget, exploitation film auteur, and Waters’ lavish praise for the master of schlock is written with a rapture that only love could inspire. He sees beauty in filth and exalts the strange and the sleazy to high art.Īny man who claims Liberace and William Castle as his personal heroes has a decidedly different perspective on the world. In Crackpot he not only shoots down the sacred cows of the middle class he rips open the flesh and feeds on the carcass. Waters is a one-man wrecking crew out to disrupt and destroy the accepted norms of our culture.
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